It's not fashionable to mention it here on this forum, but there's a lot of merit to shooting with prosumer point and shoot digicams. My first and only digital camera was / is a Canon G2 that's very similar to the Oly 4040/5050 that the pj in the article mentions with the same strengths and weaknesses. I find that for landscape photography, it's hard to beat. Gobs of depth, amazingly sharp lens, delay isn't a factor in this use and the ability to shoot lots of things. I did find that I got better at anticipating shots and started turning on the camera to get ready about 5 seconds sooner, and this got built into my workflow. But I got frustrated by 'decisive moment' type of shots that I missed, and the manual focus was a cruel joke.
The G2 has a real optical viewfinder that zooms with the lens and shows 80% of the shot which I ended up using like a rangefinder most of the time. It would be a nearly perfect camera in its class if had just had a 120% viewfinder, manual focus capability on the ring (with an LED focus indicator) and less delay.
Still can't do Delta3200 in a digicam though. Maybe if you're really lusting after an Epson RD-1 spend $300 on a used Canon G2/G3 or an Olympus 5050/5060.
You might be surprised at its utility in certain apps.
