Here goes. A year and a bit ago, I was in the market for a camera. I was looking for a simple p&s that wasn't a p.o.s., maybe a Sony or something, around the £150 mark. I found a review site (
Trusted Reviews - The Latest Technology News and Reviews) and they had a review of the Olympus E-PL1, the bottom-end m4/3 model, and gave it much praise and 9/10. Olympus was a name that I remembered from the days of the Trip 35 and I could get it for £275. I figured twice what I was looking to pay for something a whole lot nicer than what I was contemplating was a pretty good deal so I bought it. For four months, I only used in iAuto mode and was extremely pleased with the results. But when I wanted to go beyond iAuto, the limitations of the controls made themselves manifest: simple things, like changing aperture in aperture priority mode, required multiple button pushes and was very error prone.
So, now I was in the market for something with better controls. What I wanted: high-res screen, at least one control dial for changing settings, an auto-assist lamp and a reasonable selection of glass that I could aspire to. The camera I wanted to buy was the Olympus E-P3 (I like Olympus cameras but not Panasonic ones) but I wasn't ready to lay down £650 on a camera (how times change! And quickly!).
Back to research. I seriously considered a Samsung NX, but I found that I could get a Pentax K-r, which ticked all my boxes, for £349. I was a little wary: I didn't want something that was enormous or that I wouldn't be able to figure out how to use. Nevertheless, Pentax was a name that I associated with photography (unlike Samsung), so I forked out for one. Good purchase. It was surprisingly easy to use. And although it felt like a brick in my hand at first, I grew used to it.
Are we ever satisfied with what we've got? Possibly not. I found myself wanting a K-5. Better controls, better build, almost twice the cost! A couple of things about the K-r irked me: the wealth of scene modes that I never used on the mode dial, features that were unavailable unless I repurposed the green button and the delete button that also popped up the flash (note to Pentax: stop multipurposing the delete button: it's bloody annoying to do something else when you want to delete a photograph) so when I came into a bit of money, I splurged.
So now I am a pleased owner of a K-5.
I still find myself thinking about other brands. If I thought that the Olympus E-series had a real future, I'd be quite tempted because I reckon I'd have a complete setup with only three lenses. I briefly contemplated a Sony A-77 with their 16-50. But only briefly. Before I bought the K-5, I might have jumped ship to a Nikon D300. Never been tempted by a Canon.