There is no equal to caressing something you love, animate or inanimate.
Got it, unicorn. And I agree with you. My daughter still has my old Canon F-1. I only recently sold my beloved Olympus OM-1 that to me was the only camera I ever really admired and trusted.
There are some wonderful SLR digitals out there now. Notably the Nikon 6 MP and the Canon 8 MP. On our trip to Antarctica in Feb, one person had a 35mm Nikon SLR and a matching Nikon Digital SLR, which used the same lenses. This was a labor of love, because "she" carried all this gear into the Zodiac rubber boats and spent hours setting things up on a tripod. She had roughly the same number of pix shared between the two systems, but admitted when we were homeward bound that it was more fun to download pictures instantly to her IBM laptop than contemplate all the processing tra la la once whe got home. Enjoy!
I sold the Lumix 12X digital I bought especially for the trip yesterday for a store credit. The Lumix was a good compromise. Big and clumky and sure like my old Canon F-1, yet no chemicals. I'll be back to see them late summer to see what is new, hoping to find my "dream" camera. The domain is changing fast.