I will soon hang my shingle and am in the process of accumulating photographic gear. So far I am 100% MF with RB 67 gear (bodies, backs, some nice APO lenses and a 150 mm soft focus etc.). The next step is scary though: I will need an entry level digital back. 16 MP or 21 MP would suffice.
Am rather disappointed that Mamiya is not selling an adapter to connect its digital back ($ 7 grand is my price range) to the RB. And I confess that I am totally ignorant about the digital backs out there.
Reliability and sheer quality would be my top priority as no larger than 16 x 20" prints would be made anyhow.

Please make some suggestions what to buy.

One more thing, for ofast work, I would use a DSLR. So it would not be a show stopper it it took maybe 15 seconds to take one shot with MF gear.

Thank you in advance for your recommendations! If it is better to buy a used Hasselblad H or whatever, please say so. I used to work with their 500s and 2000s.

Besides sheer image quality, a big gun would help me set myself apart in a market where most photographers use DSLRs

Actually, they do. http://www.mamiya.com/news-events-press-re...ro-spro-sd.html

Cheers,
Kumar

You might want to rethink your premise. Clients, for the most part, don't know or care what you use. You'll stand apart by creating great work that's unique. All the pixels in the world won't help you with that. Besides, it's a 72 dpi world out there on the web so no one can tell what you're shooting when they see your web site.

I'd ditch the RB system. I shot with one for years (film) and was thinking about buying the digital adapter for it. The RZ is a much better system and is really cheap these days. There's all kinds of used stuff out there. A body is a couple of hundred bucks at www.keh.com. I've got an RZ adapter for my back but I don't use it much. I like the Hassie H set up. It's the best option for my style of shooting. It's not cheap though.

I wouldn't bother with the Mamiya ZD. It's 12 bits, slow and, from the reports here, has issues. I'd say you're better off with getting a real MFD back off of ebay. You'll have to be patient, but there's some good deals out there. The new stuff is getting cheaper by the day so that's going to downward pressure on the used market's prices.

If you're scrimping and saving to get into the business, there's probably lots of other ways to invest your money that will be more productive. Mediocre images produced on high resolution backed by inadequate marketing will get you nowhere except broke. Focus on your craft and your marketing first. The expensive gear can follow when you have the clients ready to pay for it. My obstreperous two cents...

John