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Originally Posted by Peter Ward
While sublime due its lack of noise, the Sony is just 2.8Mp.....
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Actually, the Sony chips in the QHY22 & QHY23 cameras have 6.1 & 9.2 Mpixels respectively.
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The KAF8300 has 3x more acreage..
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The Sony chips have an active area of 12.8mm x 10.1mm
The 8300 has an active area of 17.96mm x 13.52mm (Which is not 3x the acreage)
With the ota that Griz is using,
This translates to 1.83 x 1.38 degrees (Kaf 8300)
Versus 1.34 x 1.03 degrees for the Sony chips.
Whilst significant, it isn't a huge difference.
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when running at -35C is hardly a dog...plus some versions let you add an AO....or 30% higher signal on a good night 
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The 8300 is an excellent camera for all the reasons you have stated Peter, and for all four LRGB channels it will be the equal of the Sony ex-view chipped cameras in most respects and actually be better (though not significantly) wrt the field of view. However, when it comes to narrowband imaging, signal to noise is everything and in that respect there is no better chip technology on the market, irrespective of price than the Sony ex-view CCD's.... period.
fwiw) The icx-694 is now being taken seriously by the professional scientific community. If memory serves me correctly, Mt Stromlo are an early adopter of the Kingfisher V camera. It has extraordinary specs, >1.5e readout noise and 1e- of thermal noise every 10 days or so. That is an order of magnitude better than the finest CCD's from E2V et, al (which would cost you the equivalent of a red sports car).... Astounding that it can be offered commercially for US$6k.