Hi Daedalus
I'm really surprised no one trashed me to death!

as I was sure my comment would be at least questionable and somewhat polemic...
That's maybe because Leica forum is made of gentlemen, but if I said it on the Nikon forums, that would be another story...
Well, my previous comment was not actually elitist in its true form.
Allow me to explain it better, so maybe I'm not seen as an a$$
I come from fashion photography background.
In my particular niche, it's usually very true that every cent you put on production value, you increase the final quality of the images exponentially.
I normally have a very, very polemic opinion that many high end fashion photographers are not that great as they seem to be.
In fact, when you reach such a high level, it becomes easier to produce stunning world class shots, as these photographers are aided by the very best talents in industry, all the time.
For example: you do not need to direct the model's pose like Uncle Bob would have while shooting his niece.
High profile models will readily pose, even if you do not say a word. And besides that, there's another person there just to direct the model, if it's ever needeed.
And as production value increases, you have elephants, tigers, Ferraris, and the most stunning models and locations to work with.
So every cent you throw into production, will make it the easiest job to bring back home some stunning captures.
I've rarely ever had any assignment that remotely resembles to this level of production, but the closer you get to this level, the easier is your job as a photographer.
And that's exactly the kind of environment where we'll be seeing cameras like the S2.
The DMF marvels only (well, mostly) inhabit such high end productions. And as a consequence, we will never see a bad shot produced with a Leica S2, or a Phase One IQ180.
These are high end, ultra expensive tools, and pretty much out of reach of Uncle Bob.
We'll get to see Chase Jarvis using it, but not Uncle Bob.
And that's part of the DMF mythology: we only get to see stunning work done with this class of cameras.
Now take my POV, and extrapolate to all other types of photography.
The landscape DMF shooter will be on some exotic location around the World, like Greenland, not shooting his neighborhood park.
The nature DMF shooter will be on assignment for National Geographic, also on exotic trips.
All these situations, all this "production value" helps bringing home the most stunning portfolio.
Are there high end shooters with 35mm cameras, taking the same exotic trips? Sure there are, I'm not saying otherwise.
I'm just saying that DMF photography is almost exclusively performed on a higher level, high profile assignments, and that helps with the MF mythology.
To illustrate my POV, here's a wonderful video featuring Joey Lawrence and a Phase One camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M6Txh-maKM
His extremely talented, and can allow himself to bring crew and flashes into the jungle!
But the results speaks for themselves, no matter how you slice it.
I don't wanna sound elitist.
It's great that we have the D800 for the masses, so we can all have this level of image quality too!
But as long as MF gear is expensive, it will only be seen in action in awe inspiring shots, and that's part of the beauty of it.
Well, maybe it all sounds a little arrogant... But it's just 2 cents.
--
Marcio Napoli
http://www.marcionapoli.com