I think John makes some very valid points. Not sure that "emotion" and "ergos" are being confused here. Sometimes the feel of
something is enough to inspire, or perhaps just enough to become a turn-off. Industrial designers make a career out of this and I'm sure they would call what they do an art form.
Why do high-level craftspeople prefer certain tools? Could a great chef cook you an amazing meal with a butter knife and a $10 aluminum fry pan from Wal Mart on a camping stove? Probably, but my guess is that chef would prefer some good Whustof knives and All Clad cookware along with a high-BTU gas range. A golfer like Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson could play with the cheapest set of clubs from Target and still shoot half my score. And yet, they prefer well made, balanced clubs. Ask an artist about brushes and canvases and I'm sure you will hear a similar story. Tools are just tools and won't make someone better, but they can eliminate roadblocks along the way and help a great craftsperson or artist create great work.
Bringing this back to cameras, for me, the S2 feels like a camera that I want to pick up and use. Even after using it regularly and handling one almost daily for a year now, I never really want to put it down once I'm holding it. It just feels good and right in my hands. I've had other cameras that felt this way too, like my Nikon F4s and, yes, the R9/DMR. Other cameras seemed to lack inspiration for me, like many of the Canon mid-range DSLRs and almost all of the m4/3 and entry-level DSLRs. I just can't personally stand plastic cameras that are too small for my hands. They could take the best quality images.... but I still wouldn't use them.
I remember about six years ago, everyone loved the Canon 5D. Not me. I hated (and I mean hated :thumbdown
the sound of the mirror/shutter and the corresponding body vibration. I used it on one trip and that was it. Nothing wrong with the image quality (other than some hit and miss Canon L glass) or with the reliability of the camera, I just didn't like the way it felt to shoot and the way it made me feel while shooting (and I don't mean ergos). At the same time, I found I really enjoyed shooting the Nikon D2x. It sounded better and felt better. The files looked like garbage above ISO 400. But, it was a camera that I enjoyed using and thus, went out and used (at ISO 400 and below, of course
).
Now, we are at a technological point in camera development whereby all the serious players are within such a tight grouping relative to image quality, that we can look at all the
other factors without sacrificing the final result. If I can shoot an S2, which produces the same IQ as an H4D40 or P40+, but enjoy shooting it more and gain some added technological advantages (battery life, weather sealing, daylight-viewable hi-res LCD, DSLR size, etc), why shouldn't I?
Yes, Marc had some issues with the S2 he tried, but from my own perspective as a long-time S2 shooter (many thousands of frames) and dealing with a large number of S2 owners directly, the vast majority have been enjoying their S2s problem-free. No product is without fault. Apple makes some really nice stuff, yet every time I venture into my local Apple Store, I see a line of people waiting to get stuff fixed at the Genius Bar. In my own experience, my first two 27" iMacs were defective and had to be exchanged. The first had a display that went from yellow to blue from top to bottom. The second had a DOA wi-fi card. The third one worked fine, and still works fine 9 months later. I could have thrown in the towel and gotten a Dell, which I've never had problems with, but I persevered and have a computer that I enjoy using. In fact, it works very well with the S2 files that I feed it.
David
