Great discussion - I think I have a different angle on all of this.
The reason I have a K5 AND an M9 is nothing really to do with IQ or compromises.
The point is I like shooting with both of them, but it's quite a different experience composing and shooting with a rangefinder and with an SLR. With the SLR one is looking through a tube at a view of the world, whether using a fixed focal length or with a zoom. A rangefinder gives one a fixed view, it's like taking pictures by framing with one's fingers.
As far as ART is concerned, I'm afraid I don't really associate it much with either the gear or the experience of shooting or the Image quality. When (if
)I take a good picture it's because of me, and not because of the tools.
Really good pictures (IMHO of course) very rarely hinge on any kind of image quality criteria, it's about being there, seeing it and having the skill to record it - as far as I can see pretty much any modern camera can do that.
For me at least, photography consists of FOUR unrelated occupations:
1. GAS and IQ - I like the whole business of buying and selling the gear, evaluating it, discussing it here, pixel peeping - it's good fun.
As an aside, Jim's question about value for money is rather confused by the fact that apart from the camera bodies, leica lenses usually appreciate in value rather than the opposite - of course one has to have the resources, but my leica lenses are definitely considered as an investment rather than an acquisition .
2. THE SHOOTING EXPERIENCE - walking, thinking, looking at things, snapping away -
it is here, for me, that it's worth having an M9 and a K5.
3. ART - this is the frustrating part - getting home and realising that one has shot 20 bummers 150 perfectly okay shots . . . . and no good ones at all. If I'm really honest with myself, I don't think I've taken more than 10 artistically interesting pictures in 10 years, and the best and most liked one (and most sold) was taken with an E1 in a dark kitchen - it has bad camera shake and is out of focus and drastically under-exposed.
4. SHARING - oh yes - this bit I do like; showing a couple their wedding book for the first time; having a child's friend use one of one's pictures as their photo on facebook; - seeing a picture as someone's desktop on their computer; getting emails from people who have enjoyed the website; seeing again a good image on somebody's wall.
I remember looking at a spectacularly good website of landscape black and white shots taken with a 2.5 mp Kodak compact. I really don't think that one can connect kit acquisition with art, I really don't!
all the best