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Canon, Nikon, Sony. If these brands weren’t enough to choose a camera from, the camera world now has some really great players alongside these well-established brands—Fujifilm, Leica, and Hasselblad, to name a few.
Now the question arises: what questions should one search for, and what are the things one should be looking at? Honestly, I went through this, and I also pulled my hair trying to figure out where I should be putting my money. So, if you’re in this utmost confused state, come along with me—I’ll show you how I swam through the oceans of articles and videos.
Here’s my process to find a camera for myself. (Don’t worry, it’s not very technical—it’s in normal layman’s language.) Without delay, let’s jump in.
The Process
Finding the first question, which is: where am I in my photography journey, and what am I expecting from my photos? (Of course, this can’t include the creative elements of photos.)
One might think that the answer to this comes intuitively. For some people, this might be true, but personally, for me, it wasn’t the case. It took me a good number of days to figure it out. So, how did I find the answer? Well, the answer is observation.
Observation of what? Your own photos, the photos you are naturally drawn to, the photographers you follow online or maybe offline. Carve your answer from this observation. Does your observation tell you that you are inclined more towards photography, videography, cinematography, or all-in-one? All are forms of visual storytelling, but focusing on one will decide your armor set—that’s your photography gear.
Playing around with this question for 1–2 weeks, I realized that even in this age of shorts and reels, the storyteller inside me still craves photography more than videos.
Next question: What in photos? Well, I think this is the answer for all photographers out there—nature photography, wildlife photography. This time, I emphasized more on the genre and listened to my calling: I love landscape photography and documenting art, culture, and heritage. This made things a lot easier for me, and without second-guessing, I went all in for landscape and documentary photography.
The Next Step
If you can answer the first step, only then do the other steps make sense. I realized that you can’t choose a camera based on technical specifications alone. That’s because technology has advanced so phenomenally that if you walk into any camera shop and pick a random camera, you’ll still end up with a good high-tech device.
So, what should be the right next question?
Again, I turned back to the questions I asked myself:
Which brands am I more inclined to?
What is the range of lenses they offer?
At what price do they offer them?
What tech are they offering at that price point?
And finally, at what price are competitors offering the same features?
These questions sound so basic, yet they’re extremely insightful in helping make a decision.
The way I feel about this is that when we first discovered photography as an art, it didn’t begin with technical specs or price points. It all started with an aspiration—One day, I want to own that camera! That force is so strong that, year after year, it keeps us going, pushing us to improve, respect, and learn this craft. However, as we grow, we get entangled in the noise around us, shatter our inner voice, and start looking at spec sheets and comparison videos—whereas, most of the time, we know the answer deep down.
Let me share my answers to the above questions:
Which brands am I more inclined to?
Canon, Sony
What is the range of lenses they offer?Both offer a versatile range. I mostly look at:
Wide-angle (for landscape)
Super-telephoto (for bird photography)
At what price do they offer them?
Non-premium range (S Series, G Series): Similar price
Premium range (L Series, G Master): Similar price
What tech are they offering at the price point?
There’s a lot to compare here, but I broke it down into the things that matter to me:
User Experience: Canon (10/10), Sony (7/10)
Focus System: Canon (8/10), Sony (9/10) (For landscape photography, focus system doesn’t make much difference.)
OIS (Optical Image Stabilization): Canon—just started, Sony—using it for a long time
Stacked Sensor: Canon—just started, Sony—using it for a long time
At what price are competitors offering the same features?
Nikon: Quite economical compared to both
Hasselblad: Extremely expensive
Fujifilm: Extremely expensive
The Research
Just from the above two steps, you can probably guess which camera I might have picked. That’s the power of the first two questions—they address the core values of human decision-making: clarity and love.
Once I answered those, I moved on to the technical details within my selected brands (Canon, Sony). This was a bit of a challenge because, after moving to mirrorless—and with Sony being a market leader in this segment—there were so many options that it became overwhelming.
To break this deadlock, I revisited my questions and compared only the things that matter to me, not to the camera. Based on that, I narrowed it down to two Sony cameras and four Canon cameras.
Still not easy to pick one, but at least easier than choosing from hundreds of cameras across all brands.
At this point, these were my shortlisted cameras:
Sony A7 IV
Sony A7R V
Canon EOS R5
Canon EOS R5 C
Canon EOS R5 Mark II
Canon EOS R6 Mark II
Canon EOS R6 Mark III (upcoming in March 2025)
The Conclusion
At this stage, I was confident that all these cameras would serve my purpose—landscape and documentary photography. But I had to pick one that would serve me for the coming years (at least 4–5 years).
To answer this, I strongly emphasized the key points I didn’t want to compromise on and started doing a neck-to-neck comparison of these selected models. Yes, it helped! I was able to make a sound decision, and the winner emerged.
I chose Canon.
I’m happy with my choice. A part of me felt relieved. I took a deep breath and placed an order for my camera.
Which Canon model did I pick and why? I’ll answer that in the next one.
The Underline
I firmly believe that if I had chosen Sony, it would have produced a similar output in terms of photos. And one thing is certain—whatever technology we buy today will become obsolete and less effective in five years.
So what matters to me more is:
Am I happy with my decision?
Is this the camera I dreamt of in my childhood?
Is this the one I saw myself holding in my hands?
For me, this journey is still evolving, and that’s what matters the most. My love for the craft matters, and the gear is simply a means to express that love.
Yes, it may sound biased to some, but it doesn’t matter—every artist has their own unique journey and expression.
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