I lost my Canon EOS M50 II. Basically my whole camera gear just spin off from a 3km tall mountain in Austria because I forgot to close my bag. I know…
After a month of mourning, I started to look again to the market, but It’s hard to swallow. Prices are manually kept high. Affiliate links everywhere. Old gear is not cheaper. An average smartphone can record 4k video with in-body stabilization, but if you want it in a camera then the body will cost you a fortune. Lenses are not compatible with every body, technology exists for good lenses but they keep producing trash. And I have to buy the trash because of my price range.
Moreover, firmwares are proprietary. Smartphone sync apps are limited and proprietary (As a developer it’s quite annoying, that they don’t even let me fix their issues.) The raw format is only very rarely DNG but mostly proprietary.
I could list the injustices in the world we live in all they long.
But, I miss the image quality, and I need another one. What do you think, which brand is the least like above? What do you suggest for traveling?
(The photo has been made with my phone shortly after losing my camera, sitting there sadly, but somehow the land is so quite and calming.)
I can only recommend what I’ve owned, so this is primarily a “here’s what I’ve used before and how I’ve used them”.
I started with the Fuji XT2 and absolutely loved it. It was compact enough so I was always encouraged to take it around with me wherever I went. Fuji’s out-of-the-box color profiles are awesome too especially if you don’t do any post-processing.
The physical dials feel great and really make the camera - it felt like it was made by photographers. The Fuji lenses are optically some of the best around, but can be a little pricey. The upside is that Sigma and Tamron make lenses for the X mount now (they weren’t available back then), so you have a lot more options these days! The autofocus was generally pretty slow, but the newer XT3, 4 and 5 have substantially improved on that if you’re concerned about it.
I eventually switched to a Sony A7III because I needed better quality portraits and headshots with a full frame sensor, and I’ve also come to love Sony’s mirrorless system so far. Sony’s FE prime lenses are really good value for what you get, and are really compact for what they are.
Sigma and Tamron also make excellent glass for E mount at a much more affordable price than Sony’s GM lenses (some at nearly equivalent quality).
My current daily driver is a Sony A7CII (but the A7C is also really good if you want something more affordable). The reason I picked this up over the A7III was because I found myself not wanting to carry it around as much. I love street photography and the A7III’s screen didn’t articulate in a way that allowed me to shoot in the incognito way I did with the Fuji XT2.
So far, I’ve been really surprised at how good the A7CII is, especially for how compact it is. I’ve also started using it for my portraits and headshots and haven’t missed the A7III at all.
It’s quite an investment for any camera system (cameras and lenses), so make sure you spend time looking at the range of lenses that you want/need, and if possible rent them for a little bit to get a feel for them.
Fuji will be the more affordable option purely because of the smaller sensor size and the lenses that go along with it, but if you’re interested in full frame quality (especially for better low light shots), then I’d recommend looking at Sony.
Good luck with your hunt and I hope you find something that fits you perfectly!