The Canon EF 40mm f2.8 pancake lens is optically very good, especially considering its price. It was highly rated by a number of reviewers. Canon stopped making it a few years ago.

Choosing a single lens for an “all-day shoot”, for me would depend on circumstances. For general walk-around or travel photography, a 40mm lens on a ff camera would be my most frequent selection. When anticipating mostly subjects where perspective is important (e.g., architecture or other similar subjects where access opportunities might be problems, sometimes I choose a 35mm shift lens. For motor sports, something longer, but relatively light (100 or 200mm).

Camera straps, (like rifle straps,) historically have two purposes. One is to carry the camera in some sort of convenient or comfortable manner. The other is to help support or brace the camera when needed in the absence of a tripod or other support structure. My impression is that the use of a camera strap as a support aid is becoming, or has already become , a lost art, with many having no idea about how to use it effectively. Either way, strap selection choices can depend on how, or for what, the user’s intention is.

It is situation dependent for me (light, subject, hand held or supported …). Essentially juggling ISO, aperture and shutter speed, selecting in that order for relatively stationary subjects. For ISO, I usually pre-set at the lowest, then adjust for the amount of light, if needed. I typically shoot in aperture mode — favoring the largest aperture within the lens’s sharpest range, adjusted for depth of field requirements appropriate for the subject. Shutter speed only becomes important for hand-held and subject motion issues.
It’s not as complicated as you might think. For most situations, it’s pretty automatic, not a studied process.

Two main reasons:
First is generally lighter, all else (focal length, f/ stop, etc) being comparable.
Second is image quality for when good enough isn’t.

I definitely appreciated being able to changing focusing screens (mostly using ground glass, sometimes with a grid for shift lenses). I missed that option with the change to DSLRs.

In general, sharpness (excluding motion related issues) is pretty much a lens / sensor (or film) issue. While some of the sharpest photographs ever, were taken by a form of mirrorless camera (i. e., a large format view camera), that doesn’t mean that such a camera is ideal for every situation, or even most situations today. While there are numerous reasons for preferring a modern mirrorless camera over a comparable DSLR;I don’t believe that sharpness, given comparable sensors and lenses, is one of them.

Answering the question really requires answering two different questions. How long will the storage medium last, and, for digital images, how long will the ability to decode what was stored exist, and at what cost. I suspect there is less certainty, and more risk involved in trying to answer the second.

Decades ago I learned that I could attend an event (in my case automobile or motorcycle races at Laguna Seca) to follow (keep track of) and enjoy the event, or to photograph it, but not both. Each activity entailed concentrating on different things, being at different places at different times, etc. Attempting to do both was a waste of time, producing both poor photographs and lack of appreciation of the racing. I found it more satisfying to do one or the other exclusively.

A thought: 40 or more years ago, optics was the major advantage of prime lenses. Today, opinions vary, but weight is often considered the biggest advantage, especially if AF is not required.

E.L.Shapiro’s comments about lighting are right on. Some older headstones have eroded to the point that they are difficult to decipher. Careful lighting can sometimes help enough to create a readable photograph.

Perhaps it is useful to recall that the “best brand” is an ephemeral concept. Yesterday’s is not today’s, and neither will likely be tomorrow’s (if you wait long enough for “tomorrow” to arrive). When was the last time cut film (film pack) cameras dominated pressrooms?

One relatively inexpensive solution you might consider is to get a used Olympus OM 35mm shift lens (or comparable from another manufacturer) and an adapter for your Sony camera. The cost would be about $500. Optically it is not as great as the Canon tilt-shift lens, but it is a lot simpler to use, and the shift feature is the primary one you would need. It’s not a perfect solution, but it would provide an opportunity to evaluate for yourself the benefits of the lens vs. post correction.

I agree with others that the most accurate description is essentially that a photograph is a picture created via a specific process (or one of several different processes) using a specific technology (or one of several different technologies). It is not something different than a picture, but is rather an example of one.

A recent SCOTUS decision (Warhol v. Goldsmith) ruled against Warhol, making it more difficult to argue that a doctored image is something new and isn’t copyright infringement. FYI