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.)
When you say old gear is not cheaper... I take it you're looking for some pretty modern stuff? When I decided to get more involved in photography I picked up a Canon Ti4 used from ebay. It was about 6 years old at the time and I picked up a good one for around $250. The same thing with lenses, everything I have is from ebay and everything was relatively cheap (although I'd love to get one of those Sigma 600mm lenses, but oof!). Yeah my body is closer to 12 years old now but I still use it all the time and it's done well for me, plus the EF mounts are common as hell, and all of my lenses have image stabilization built in.
If you're having trouble getting trash photos, maybe check back with this group on what lenses match the shots you're trying to take? There's definitely some garbage lenses out there, and early-on I discovered Canon's own 300mm EF lens have two different models that look identical, but there's a huge difference in the quality between them (which is why the good one costs twice as much, even used).
One good thing about Canon is that you have Magick Lantern available. Most of us can't afford the functionality that this software provides for free! If you want to stick with Canon and get the best bang for your buck, check to see which bodies ML is compatible with to narrow down your selections. After that I would check the lens mounts to see what other mounts can be adapted to fit a body to give you the widest selection of lenses possible. This is usually a one-way street due to focal length so it might pay to choose a body with greater adaptability.