1a: cheap discontinued Nikon/Canon DSLR like D5200 with a ānormalā lens (e.g., 35mm f/1.8 DX). Or an Olympus EM-10 with a couple of primes like the Olympus 25mm f/1.8 and the 45mm f/1.8. Also an old Fuji X-Pro1 or XT1 with a second-hand 35mm f/2 could be on the list. Also, I have (or had in the past) first-hand experience with all of these kits and they are all very good and entirely satisfying; I would probably prefer the m43 kit because it is light and has excellent image stabilization.
1b: A used D810 with 20mm f/1.8G, 35 f/1.8G, and 70-200 f/4. Perhaps the body itself now is not really āaverageā budget but give it another year or two and it will be. My preference for the light and cheaper fixed-focal length Nikon āGā lenses (as opposed to the monsters from Sigma) reduces the overall budget. As an alternative, something similar to my current setup: Fuji XT2 with maybe the entire series of f2 lenses (23, 35 and 50; I currently have only the 35mm f/2 in addition to the 18mm f/2).
1c: Maybe the most recent Leica M-body (M10 I think?) with a 28 and a 50mm lens? Just to scratch a itchā¦ but if I had unlimited budget the Leica would be on top of an existing Fuji and Nikon D850 kit where Iād add lenses I will never buy like the Nikon 581/.4 and Fuji 56/1.2.
2a: mechanical feeling (why I like my Fuji now with all the knobs, I hate touchscreens and menus), operational speed (the Fuji still lags a little bit in this aspect; when I go back to my old D600 it feels so much faster to turn on, take a shot, focus etc). I would love to get a gps chip inside all cameras just because Iām a nerd but donāt really need it. Oh and a bigger, better AF-ON button on my Fuji XT2 (I have had to stick a piece of Sugru on top of the little flat button on the back of the camera to make it better).
2b: all the wasted space on the cameras for āpicture modesā and other crap (one of the reason why I love my Fuji, the physical dials and knobs are all dedicated to setting aperture, iso, shutter speed; but youāre also free to customize the other buttons to do that sort of things if you like).
3 I donāt really have a strong opinion especially regarding FLOSS-friendliness, unfortunately that doesnāt seem to register in the manufacturersā plans. Otherwise we would have seen Fuji sharing their secret sauce for RAW processing a while ago instead of relying on clever reverse-engineering by Adobe and all our fantastically clever developers that work on Darktable, Rawtherapee etc. Anyway, Fuji does seem to be better for overall customer happiness with respect to Nikon for example, with their constant firmware updates that genuinely improve their cameras inmany ways.
4a After a few years of trying different brands and lenses I have cut down to the essentials so now Iām happy with a single camera and 2-3 lenses max, one wide angle (28mm-eq focal length), normal (50mm) and short tele (~90mm). In my current kit I have the first two and then a telezoom (55-200 Fuji) so Iād like to add a good fast prime to that (since Iām cheap I will probably go for an used 60mm f2.4 which is much lighter and portable than the other offerings from Fuji like the 56, 80 or the 90mm). Iām happy with the overall performances and maybe I will get a 3rd or 4th iteration of the XT2 body only if itās fast (operation-wise) as a DSLR and with an EVF which has to be drastically better to convince me to spend more money on gear. Having said that, the rumors about an upcoming full-frame Nikon mirrorless are interesting to me; if Nikon delivers a compact body with the same kind of controls and dials that I love inthe Fuji, plus a full frame sensor, the possibility to use old Nikon lenses with no adaptors and perhaps a small basic line of prime lenses (f2.8 to keep them small), then I would be tempted.
4b no big changes here, Iād still be a Nikon/Fuji guy.
5 I like to find photographs, I donāt go and build scenes or pose people. My daughter (6 yrs old) has learned this and she ignores me completely when I take photo so thereās very few photos of her smiling cheeses at the camera. I like mostly to document whatās around me trying to make interesting photos of my banal surroundings. Once upon a time I liked to say that I was mostly doing street photography but now I feel this is outdated and donāt really represent me or the kind of photography I do.
