jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I prefer a DSLR, and I am satisfied with the D750. You suggest a "smaller frame size," so I would consider that to be DX - crop sensor. In that case, it would be the D7200 or D500, probably the D7200.

As for buying updates, I think the D750 cured me of that.

Festus Loc: North Dakota

It wouldn't be a Canon!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Some of my best shots were the unexpected. So I carry around a 40# bag of lenses and reflectors and tripods. NO WAY!! While I do have big boy stuff for me the ideal is a pocket super zoom; with me 24/7 tho a bit lumpy in bed. For casual planned shooting... like the zoo can use my bridge camera. The $150 Canon SX50 bridge factory dump. Tho the sensor is small, the results are amazing. If for some reason I needed a big file there are amazing resolution magnifiers...

"If you are thinking about printing your images on large paper, you do not have to be limited by the number of megapixels on your sensor. "
https://photographylife.com/how-to-enlarge-photographs-for-printing/

Margate-Scott

The perfect camera is my old Nikon F

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

Usually the new technology is brought to market at the high end of the camera line; don't want it? Can't use it? Don't need it? ....Don't buy it ... just don't ask the dreamers to stop dreaming.

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

It's the new model that was just released after buying the perfect camera

ajcotterell

The perfect camera is the one you use to take your best photograph. Dorothea Lange used a Folmer-Graflex Super D 4x5 single-lens reflex camera with sheets of black and white film to make some of the most moving, meaningful photos of the people during the American South and West during the Great Depression. Walker Evans used an 8 x 10 view camera on a tripod to shoot other black and white documentation of the same period for the FSA. His photos were used to illustrate the book, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men." The best camera is the one you are able to afford. I used a 1961 Nikon F in Vietnam to shoot some images of Marines in combat that were used--and are still used, though more infrequently--to document that tragic time in our history. Joe Rosenthal used a 4 x 5 Speed Graphic to document the flag raising on Iwo Jima. Eugene Atget used an old Leica to photograph Paris in the 20s and 30s to document a way of life. Alfred Eisenstadt documented the world for LIFE magazine in unmatched images of the times and of life. Old, clunky, clumsy cameras can capture wonderful images that speak to us across decades.

Today, our new cameras do wonderful things, help make images interesting and able to record a passing moment--but that's all any camera does; record a fleeting moment in time 1/200th of a second of time that is special, somehow; meaningful and maybe memorable.

IMHO, it's great to keep up with the times, but whether you use a camera to photograph babies or battles, birds, bees, or fashion, it's YOUR eye, YOUR knowledge of technology of that machine in your hands, YOUR connection to and compassion with the subject or object or landscape that makes the photograph meaningful and memorable.

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

Amen to that. We played the perfect camera game a week ago.

asiafish Loc: Bakersfield, CA

For the most important thing after image quality is that it is fun to use. At this stage in my life I'm something of a curmudgeon when it comes to cameras. I like manual focus, REAL manual focus, not that focus-by-wire nonsense. I like a big and bright viewfinder (rules out most crop DSLRs) and I like very robust construction not because I'm rough on my gear (I baby it actually), but because I just like the feel of fine machinery.

I shoot exclusively Leica M series right now, though I have some Canon lenses and will get another body (5D3 or 5D4). I wish Nikon had gone further with the Df and really built it like an F3, but at least Leica still builds them to at least look and feel like the used to be.

cthahn

What a waste of time and space.

Ranjan Loc: Currently Cyber-Nation!

Mine has a name: Fujifilm X-E2s

Jack47 Loc: Ontario

The perfect camera is the one you have on you when the opportunity arises.

RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

For me the best camera is my first DSLR I bought which is my Canon 7D I still have it and use it all the time, It might not have all the new technology but so what it works just fine, maybe someday I may get the 7D mkll. For now I'll just keep on taking photos with this wonderful 7D version 1 camera.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If you ever studied Plato (ancient Greek philosopher), you are probably familiar with his concept of FORMS. In that abstract world, a form is a concept, an idea, a universal abstract representation of perfection. Everything in our "reality world" is just an approximation of, or a representative example of, that "perfect form" in the abstract.

I've always thought that perfection is never attainable, because whatever we do is always out-doable by someone at some point.

So... for me, there is no perfect camera. There is only the camera I choose now, the one I'll use for my next exposure. In my case, that could be a Lumix GH4 or an iPhone 7 Plus, since they are both next to me as I type this. I may pick up one or the other, depending on my intended end use of the photo or video. The iPhone is quick and direct. The GH4 provides better options. I could even combine the two, since they communicate via WiFi. I can expose with the GH4, send the file to the iPhone, and email it.

Such is the thought process of many... Since there is no perfect machine, we choose to find the appropriate choice for our needs and circumstances, if not our aspirational hopes, dreams, desires, and personal image.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I have a Nikon FTn. I loved WHAT IT COULD DO. But it drove me crazy.

Here are the things that are not perfect about it, that I despised every time I used it.

• The film back must be REMOVED to change film. You must set it aside or put it in a pocket to change film. That introduces dust...
• The removable film back necessitates removing the camera from a tripod or slide duplicator to change film. Ugh! Re-calibration is a pain.
• The shutter release button is in a very awkward position that forces you to bend your index finger into a strange position.
• The shutter release button itself is too small, requiring use of a soft-release extension button.
• There is no standard cable release socket, requiring an adaptive screw-in collar to add one.
• The removable viewfinder is neither dust-sealed nor water-sealed.
• It is an SLR, which means there is that damned finder black-out at the point of exposure.
• 1/60 second flash sync is too slow, leading to ambient light ghosting.
• FTn finder meter uses a mercury battery that is no longer available. Substitutes aren't really...
• There is a redundant device on the camera bottom used to set ASA, but why? Except as a reminder, it does NOTHING.
• The PC terminal does not have a screw-in locking collar.
• There is no accessory shoe, so you have to have a special one that fits over the rewind knob.
• Lenses mount in a movement that is backwards from the other camera systems on the market.

I could go on... but you get the idea.

The good news was, Nikon got the image quality right, and the F cameras were built like tanks. I ran thousands of rolls through mine, over a few decades.