Another site reader had a very interesting point in reaction to something I wrote, and I think it's worth presenting it and my answer to it here rather than keeping the dialog private. First, an excerpt from his email:
"I have a hard time imagining Van Gogh or Monet getting all excited about some new paint brush that was on the market. I have it on good authority, though, that they did get excited when a new set of paints, based on advances in chemistry, became available. The excitement, however, was directed at what they could now paint and not at the paint itself."
This gets to the very root of some of the things I've been writing, but without quite being as direct as I probably should be. When I write about an inconsistency or problem with a tool (camera, lens, software package, etc.) it's because it is in some way getting in the way of me spending time thinking about what I can photograph and how I can get that photograph to express what I want it to. I'm pretty sure that if Monet's brushes got limp too fast, he'd complain about them on his blog, too.
By constantly writing about flaws in the tools, I do potentially distract from the ultimate goal: to create a great photo. This actually comes up a bit in the E-P1 and GF1 reviews. The E-P1 has autofocus that inhibited getting a picture I wanted in Africa. The GF1 has slightly less desirable image quality (with a strong emphasis on the slightly). Which is the bigger flaw in terms of my being able to achieve the best possible photo? Well, the autofocus I can do something about (use manual focus, use depth of field, learn to better anticipate the Oly's focus speed, etc.). The image quality, however, is brewed into the sensor and digital aspects of the camera in ways that I can't change (though I can sometimes compensate for some problems, like the oversharpening of the GF1, by using a different setting and doing more post processing work).
Still, I think the reader's point needs to be remembered: don't lose sight of end goal, creating pictures, by getting too distracted with the small failures of the tools. I've produced great pictures with any number of cameras, some of which had some strong liabilities. Nevertheless, I think it's very important to understand those liabilities before you get into that once-in-a-lifetime photographic situation, lest you get caught out by them.