Handling Panasonic GX9 - not too sure

Ozonation wrote:

After reading up on it extensively and weighing the pros and cons of upgrading, I traded in my GX7 for a GX9. The GX7 was a great little camera but I wasn't using it much - it was a backup to my Olympus EM5Mk2, and I got the GX7 used as part of a package deal several years ago. However, I did find it felt great in hand.

To be honest, I'm having a surprisingly slow and hard time warming to the GX9's handling. It seems close enough to the GX7 that I figured I'd find it very comparable.

But my initial impressions are:

• The redesigned thumb notch/rest on the back seems to interfere with my ability to access and use the rear control dial quickly.

I know a common complaint on the GX85 is that the rear buttons are easy to press by accident and also that people buy additional thumb grips to help with griping the camera. Perhaps the thumb grip was redesigned to address this.

• When I move my thumb to turn the rear control dial, I sometimes end up turning the exposure compensation dial instead because it's quite prominent.

The GX7 didn't have an EC dial. If you don't use it in the GX9, I believe it's possible to disable it in the menu.

• The body seems less grippy in hand: I think the GX7's body hump was more prominent and less slippery.

I'm guessing perhaps most of the GX9 reviews were comparing to the GX8 that it was missed, but I know that when I researched my GX85 (which is quite similar to GX9), it was pretty clear the grip was significantly smaller than the GX7. There is at least now an optional grip for the GX9 (also compatible with GX85) to address this.

• I can't quite get the EVF just right. It seems like when the bottom part is in focus, the top part isn't quite.

This is a bit unusual. Most of the time the problem with the EVF is the edges are not sharp, not top/bottom. Is it perhaps related to the tilting (is EVF slightly tilted)? My GX85 does not have a tilt EVF, so I wouldn't be able to test.

I still have my older Olympus EM5Mk2, and I almost prefer it over the GX9... which surprised me.

Anybody else finding the GX9 harder to adapt to than expected? None of the online reviews mentioned any of the above, so I'm wondering if I'm missing something.