Machine polishers are really not fire spitting machine guns as everyone makes out.
Its all in the prep work as well. Get a good range of pads and polish and start with the softest pad and least aggressive polish. You'll be amazed what a difference they make to hand application, even AutoGlym super resin polish with a finishing pad is
. Only been using my DA for 6 months, bought it last year with the Megs microfibre system (comes with cutting compund and finishing compound with cutting discs and finishing discs)....and its like crack
Stepped up a bit with Hexlogic pads recently; yellow(agressive cut) green(medium cut) black(light cut/finishing) with Megs compound 105 &205.