BrandonWalsh

Ha, the "you fat fucker" Santa letter got me. Welcome to the club of wanting a thing you can't quite justify. You're not wrong about the review ecosystem. Once a £12k body lands on someone's doorstep for free, the incentive to stay on the nice list is baked in, and it's not even conscious most of the time. They just... find themselves emphasising the good bits. The handful who bought their own being a touch more balanced tracks with that exactly. That said, I'd go easy on the focus thing as evidence. Judging a camera's AF off files other people shot and dumped online is a mug's game. You've no idea what lens, what aperture, whether they nailed it or were shooting handheld at a gallery wall. Could be the body, could equally be the muppet. Hard to pin on the camera from the outside. The bit I'd actually push back on gently: the medium format "magic" doesn't really show up in downloaded web files or on a phone screen, and it barely shows on a like-for-like social crop. Where it turns up is big prints, deep tonal roll-off, cropping the hell out of a file and it still holding together. If none of that's your workflow, then yeah, an S1R II is going to look every bit as good to you and your eyes aren't lying. That's not the Hasselblad failing, it's just the gap being smaller than the marketing wants you to believe for most real use. Sigma 1.4s over the 1.8s is a very sane way to spend the money you were about to set fire to. Enjoy those, they're lovely glass.

I am definitely curious about this one. A 14 to 24mm f/2.8 is a really useful range if the size and weight stay reasonable. For me it will come down to the price and how it performs at 14mm, especially in the corners. Samyang has made some very good lenses, but I would still wait for a few proper reviews before ordering. If the price lands well below the usual alternatives and the autofocus is solid, I can see this becoming a very tempting travel and landscape lens.