Now we're talking...
I have an S3 which i have used for landscapes. Shoot RAW if you like ... do a little photoshop work and you can churn out some great stuff. It's quick and easy and the job's done.
Or you can shoot with a Linhof (drum roll please)... slow, clunky, heavy, inverted images, dark slides ... a lot of pain and then finally you take that photo ... wrrrrrrr 'Click' from those beautiful Schneider lenses.... wind on the film and do it again (or change the double dark).
I'm away on holidays at the moment and I've taken both my S3 and my Linhof Master Technika V. I use the best nikon glass on my S3 (17-35 2.8, 28-70 2.8, 80-200 2.8 AFS lenses) and the quality doesn't even come close to what i can get from my Linhof.
To those of us who can remember ... there is nothing more satisfying and simply breathtaking than looking at a perfectly exposed 120 tranny on a lightbox ... scrunching down over the loupe and checking out the minute detail in a landscape for example - digital just doesn't come close.
I'm not bragging and you're welcome to your opinions but I don't think i'm alone when I say that you/I can get more detail out of a $10 roll of transparency film than a $10 000 digital camera.
I've been in a position where I had to shoot an ad campaign for a client and shot it in both digital (raw) and 120 transparency. In both cases, 90 x 60cm prints were made ... the digital prints were nice but when compared side by side to the drum scanned images from film ... no way.
So to the original poster - buy whatever digital film camera you can afford or whichever feels better in your hands. If you're just starting out, don't worry about the technical details ... sharpness, noise, fps, etc etc ... all red herrings. Learn to take photographs ... sit in the same spot all day and observe the light change and don't worry too much about buttons, dials and flashing lights.
Your camera will give you perfectly acceptable results for the type of camera that it is but it's not in the big league. I don't know what type of quality a MF digital back will give you. I'd really love to try out a Leaf back or something like that but I haven't had the chance so I just have to read the propaganda and look at the sample photos... (sigh)
Anyway, tomorrow is meant to be stormy so i'll be at the beach with my Linhof and a bag of Velvia and Agfa APX25- trying to keep the whole lot dry while I get soaking wet ...
enjoy! (and everyone - get out there and take some photos)
dp
ps: the terms "Hassie" and "RB67" refer to two medium format cameras. Hassie is a Hasselblad which shoots 6x6cm square format images and RB67 is a Mamiya Revolving Back camera that shoots 6x7cm images.
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