The Bugatti comment is gold! I take your point. I have shot a bit of film, and should probably do more so since I've got a Canon 35mm body sitting in the cupboard, ready to match my 5D lenses!
Regarding the issue of distortion, some of the remarks in this thread are in direct contradiction to the things I read on various sites that led me down this path in the first place.
Here's a good example from this webpage -
http://reframe.gizmodo.com/why-mediu...n-r-1601938278
"But print size aside, it's often easy to detect medium format images even when viewing on the web. It has a certain something, a signature look that is often recognizable but hard to articulate. It comes from the lack of perspective distortion. This makes photos look more natural, closer to what your eye sees in the real world.
Let's say you're shooting on a 6x7 medium format camera with a 50mm lens. If you compare your images to a 35mm camera, also with a 50mm lens, you will notice the difference in field of view. Your medium format pictures will actually see what a 24mm lens on a 35mm camera would see. Simply put: the larger the film format, the wider angle your lenses become compared to 35mm.
The key point as a result of that difference is that even though the field of view is wider, the geometry, or "look," of the 50mm focal length remains. You don't get the exaggerated perspective that wide angle lenses usually produce on 35mm cameras. In that regard, medium format mimics how your eyes actually see the world, at least more so than the smaller 35mm size. The effect is even more apparent with large format 4x5, 5x8, or 8x10 film. You can shoot an extremely wide scene but it will have the "real-world" look of a lens with a longer focal length. The subject remains flat and not 'stretched' out."