Subjective camera preferences.....

jalywol wrote:

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

In my case, basically no. The only exception I can think of is from back in the film days when I made the mistake of buying a Konica AR T4 as a replacement for a stolen Konica AR NT3. I always used two bodies at the time, which was even more important then than it is today since it saved you the trouble of switching films in mid-roll if you wanted color rather than B&W or faster rather than slower. So I still had an NT3 left and would simply have bought a second one if it weren't for the fact that they were no longer available new. The T4 was the successor so I got that.

It was smaller and lighter than the NT3 but that just made it unbalanced with the lenses I had. It was also stripped of some important features that the NT3 had and I hated that. The T4 never saw much use and I ended up doing what I should have done in the first place: Found a used NT3. Finding used stuff was far more difficult than it is today but of course it was nevertheless possible.

But the T4 was a mistake due to my own laziness and/or lack of imagination. In all other cases, when I have spent a bit more time on pre-purchase decision-making, I have been able to adapt rather well and rather quickly to what I decided to get. My first digital ILC was the Pentax K100D, bought used in 2007, and if I had any difficulties getting used to that it was more because I was new to digital than anything else.

The transition to a used Panasonic G1 in 2011 went very smoothly. There was not a whole lot that had to be learned and the differences compared to the K100D were basically positive (or at least not the opposite).

When I switched to the E-M5 in 2012, it took me significantly longer to get familiar and comfortable with the camera. This was mainly because there were a lot of new features and options but to some extent also because I found the ergonomics less than perfect at the beginning. That all got better with time, although some complaints remained.

I am now at the end of my break-in period with the E-M1. It took significantly shorter time than with the E-M5, in part because the two cameras have a lot in common, in part because the differences almost always favor the E-M1. While the E-M5 is the more revolutionary camera and the E-M1 a more evolutionary upgrade, I am happy to say that based on my experiences this far, it comes pretty close to perfection not only for what it can do but also for how it allows me to do it.