Every single one of them are good. Every single camera these days is very good and has gotten to a point where they’re all capable of taking great photos. But there is a lot more that goes into making a camera. Believe it or not, they’re all mostly the same in some ways. And it’s easy for someone to sit there and think that one camera is very similar to another until you pick them up and use them. With this in mind, cameras need to diversity.

They Can All Achieve Fast and Accurate Autofocus, But They’re Not the Same

Years ago, some cameras just wouldn’t be able to autofocus. They would be as slow as molasses. The performance would be bad for both contrast and phase-detection. But that’s all changed. They can all autofocus. Will they always be able to autofocus quickly? No. Can they all keep a moving subject perfectly in focus? No. Do they all have animal and bird face detection? No way. And you can surely bet that they all don’t have vehicle detection. However, they can all autofocus and take a portrait of a subject in good lighting. The performance will really vary in low lighting. More importantly, the speed will really vary depending on the brand used.

But again, if you just want them to take a picture, they can all do it pretty well. Even Sigma, much maligned by many reviewers, can make a camera that can do the very basics.

They’re all more or less copying one another. When one brand does face detection, so too does another. Some brand will try to do animal detection, and then another brand will too. Because they’re constantly copying each other, the products become the same.

Most are Weather Resistant, and That’s Very Important

Most cameras have weather resistance these days. And we’re happy about that. It’s not important just for going out into the rain, but also for overall sensor protection. Plus, your cameras will keep working in tip top shape for longer if they’re built better. The way I like to think about this is like what my mother did to the poor Camry we had growing up. She’d use it to haul hundreds of pounds of stuff from Home Depot. The entire suspension system would be screwed up. Of course, there are cars designed to do that kind of stuff. A 1997 Camry couldn’t do it in 2011. Similarly, your Nikon z50 isn’t going to resist what a Nikon Z7 II will. The Sony a7c won’t stand up to everything the Sony a1 can either.

At this point though, more and more weather resistant cameras need to be hitting the market.

There are also folks that say that weather resistant cameras don’t necessarily need weather resistance. But it’s a big issue for anyone that actually uses their cameras, warranties, insurance, etc.

All Ergonomics Follow More or Less Two Design Variants

All cameras follow one of three designs:

The SLR: like most cameras with a raised viewfinder.

The rangefinder: in my opionion, this is the best.

The box: Hasselblad and Sigma more or less do that.

So with that in mind, there are subtleties that make one camera look and feel different from another. Sometimes it’s a small thing like thumb grips. Other times it can be the exterior materials. But when they’re all copying one another or changing things slightly, it’s easy for everything to be the same.

They’re All Using More or Less the Same Sensors

All sensors come from maybe three companies: Canon, Sony, or Tower Jazz. So they’re all getting the same image quality until they start doing this own tweaks via the processor and more. This is a big problem. At the root of it all, most cameras on the market have the same Sony sensors in them. What’s the point of discussing image quality if they’ve got the same starting point? The processor and the tweaks companies make can surely have something to do with it. But again, they’re all more or less similar.