Well, if either of you have an alternative under $1,000 that can mount both Fuji X and Pentax 645 cameras, please let me know. I am certainly interested.
Well, if your budget is that tight (or like me, you can afford to spend more but are a frugalitarian who hates to spend money unless it's absolutely necessary), the low prices of the Swebo range of cameras obviously have considerable appeal, as I noted up front in my post.
If so, that's cool, because almost any camera having movements -- even one where the design is heavily compromised in several respects -- will be a better performer when movements are required than a camera that
doesn't have them! <He writes, ducking!>
But if not, there
are some very real workflow and performance benefits to be had from spending more money, which isn't always and automatically the case with camera gear.
And that's the angle I was hoping to explore here, because I'm not seeing the Swebo cameras as being anything but the lowest-cost options available, with all that that entails.
(To be clear, there
is a market niche for low-priced cameras and given their low prices, the Swebo cameras may even be a good value. I don't know one way or the other, except I'm fairly certain they would
not be a good fit for me, with my tastes and preferences.)
As for other alternatives available for less than $1,000, I'm not aware of any new, commercially made cameras that fall into this category. And even
used cameras from Swebo's competitors will likely cost you a bit more than that, except for scruffy, well-used samples.
It's definitely possible to come up with a better DIY camera for less than $1,000, though, depending on which lenses will be used and what skills and resources you have available to you. (As an aside, designing / fabricating a tech camera that will accommodate both a Fuji X and Pentax 645 body is not that difficult, but using both bodies with the same set of lenses will be quite a challenge in many respects.)
Sure, it is not perfect, but then what technical camera is? I am also grateful that a company is able to offer these kinds of cameras for those that don't have the type of budget for the more expensive competition.
Of course, no technical camera is perfect. (This is especially true of my DIY FrankenKameras, which meet
my needs quite well, as you would expect, but are far from being an all-around, optimal solution for every photographer!)
But the reality is that sometimes it's
not possible to get there from here, no matter how much we wish otherwise.
I have suspicions about where the Swebo cameras will fall along the price-to-performance continuum, at least from my point of view, but I try to keep an open mind, so was hoping others would share their thoughts so I might broaden my perspective. <shrug>