I'm curious how everyone chooses a camera.
I'm in the market for a new camera but it's just damn hard to decide what to buy since there are literally 100s of camera models on the market (including used) to choose from.
Obviously, marketing says I should buy the latest top of the line camera, but I don't believe it's necessary, which actually makes the choice harder.
There is literally a 10x price difference between the option that may give the necessary tools to take nice pictures.
Backstory:
I'm mostly shooting film, but I just don't have the time to process the film and even less to make actual darkroom prints, for this reason lately I tend to pick up my Canon 1000D for casual shooting.
I bought the 1000D because it was unbelievably cheap used, and I already have a nice collection of Canon lenses, but let's just say, it's not a very good camera, I'm mostly annoyed by the tiny viewfinder, and the abysmal AF which is a bad combination since it leads to a lot of out of focus pictures, and the smaller sensor is also a problem since my favorite lenses behave very differently on it, compared to when I'm shooting my Eos 1-n or Eos 33.
I used to have a Samsung Nx300 a few years ago, let's just say it didn't inspire me to go out and shoot with it and I missed the viewfinder, then I had a Sony a7R which I just hated for a multitude of reasons, but mostly for the worst shutter that shook the camera so much that it made the high res sensor worthless.
I returned to photography after many years of photographing nothing or nearly nothing (I had been an editor, a journalist, and a photo editor, both as a pro and a semi-pro).
I started afresh with Pentax as they made the cheapest digitals that looked like my old SLRs made in the '50s. Very logical setups, menus, and general handling, not too far from my old m42 gear.
But with time I learned what I really liked: Fast and accurate AF, lots of nice lenses to choose from, preferably not too expensive.
The number of pixels was not important for me, but around 20MP suited me well (I have one 10.4MP mirrorless, and the rest of the DSLRs and mirrorless cameras are still around 20-25MP!). With time I seem to prefer faster and faster lenses, like the lovely 135 Art, or the viceless 30 Art.
I like small (and light) cameras for macro and extreme distances, full-format cameras for portraits and views, and the rest is handled by various DX cameras (and DX compact).
The Canon R line seems fantastic, and so do the Nikon Z lenses and cameras, but if I should switch I'd be eyeing the Fuji line, or the Olympus E-M1X, a camera a professional photographer friend switched to after years with Canon, and although being very old (older than me!!!) he climbed Mount Everest just after switching to Olympus, while he now also uses a monochrome Leica as back-up and compliment.
After my years with Pentax, I sold almost everything off, and just kept the first DSLR, as it ran on AA batteries, sold two K-5s (the top model in those days) plus around 20 lenses and other stuff, and restarted with a Nikon 1 V1 and a D600, two cameras that complemented each other perfectly. With an FT1 adapter, I could use all the F Mount lenses I had on the Nikon 1 cameras (nowadays ZNikon C cameras do the same using an FTZ adapter to work well with almost all F Mount lenses there are. Never regretted that switch one second, but I eventually got myself a couple of DX bodies (took a few years, though). The Nikon 1 lenses proved to have a design flaw, so they eventually failed, most of them, but the ultrawide, the newer kit lens, and the fantastic 70-300 CX had an upgraded design, so no issues with those.
Alas, the lens debacle made Nikon bury the Nikon 1 line fast, and the fixed-lens Nikon DL line never got further than the glossy shows with lightly clad girls, booze, and fanfares.
After over ten years the Nikon 1 V1 isn't the world's fastest-focusing camera with exchangeable lenses, and the Z line is just an upgrade to FX format with newer, far better, lenses and IBIS.
If I would buy a new camera system today it would be a camera with IBIS (if I had the funds), either a Canon R, a Nikon Z body, or a Fuji, but a mix of small sensor and big sensor bodies is a blessing! Just saying!