Apart from your obsession with exposure compensation while in manual
, what's Sony got that you feel is missing from MFT Alan?
Simon.
What Sony has is a nice implementation of auto ISO + exp comp and full time DoF preview in all modes. Other makers may do it better with minimum this and maximum that but the Sony is good enough and a quantum leap ahead of Panasonic, IMO.
I wouldn't say these are obsessions of mine as they're very practical and useful things for me that the competition has and MFT doesn't.
Let me give you a scenario... you're at an indoor / social event or outdoors in low light and in both scenarios the light can change quickly and you don't want to be the geek with the massive DSLR and 50mm f1.4 lens and you certainly don't want a speedlight firing off and ruining the ambiance and attracting attention so you take your MFT camera and 17mm f1.8, 25 or 45mm f1.8.
When you go to take a people shot or some other shot when you'd want some DoF in aperture priority as is your want the camera selects 1/60 as it always does in this light and this is entirely useless so to overcome the too low a shutter speed for a people shot with people acting naturally and not posing just for your gratification you switch to manual (shutter priority is useless as it'll select too wide an aperture) and dial in f4 and 1/150 (or whatever / there abouts) and then you check the exposure and ISO and decide the scene is too dark and so start pressing buttons and adjusting and chimping the ISO settings and the scene brightness and adjusting again and the moments gone and people are getting bored and/or anxious and/or angry with you and instead of unobtrusive shooting you're not getting the natural shot you wanted and you're back to being the geek with the camera slowing things up and messing everyone about or just being irritating.
With the Sony it's simpler and quicker. Switch to manual, set the aperture and shutter speed and forget them, let the ISO float and change the exp comp with the dedicated dial as and when required... So Quick and So Easy. And there's no button pressing or chimping the settings to check the scene brightness.
The DoF preview is less of an issue as I've been shooting for over 45 years now and I have a reasonable idea but IMO it's still an advantage to be able to see the WYSIWYG in the VF and the way Sony do it is there to be used or you can turn it off. I leave it turned on and I do find it a help.
And a PS.
In the low light and discrete shooting scenario you have to be careful with the selection of MFT body and lens as in this scenario you're right in the shutter shock range with no options but to use other gear as if you use affected gear and the mechanical shutter you run the risk of the shot being ruined by SS and if you switch to the electronic shutter you run the risk of banding.
MFT is such a nice system and IMO it's a shame that it can be a little hobbled by a lack of useful features and the dreadful scenario of some body and lens combinations being... lets be kind and say "problematic" in some shooting scenarios.