While I'll agree that Canon's mirrorless line sucks right now, there's no way the Rebel series is "terrible." That's an insane proclamation.
Outdated sensors (up till the newest series where it's somewhat better), bad OVFs, no AF microadjust (same problem with the low end Nikons), and only the T6S has two control wheels...
If you want to recommend them for people to use as point and shoots to photograph their kids sure, then make a category for that and lump that and the Nikon D3XXX in there too!
The camera recommendations are fine. I'm not sure how long you've been coming here, but this thread has existed for a long ass time (
so much so its the second iteration) and we get questions about medium format all the way down to point and shoots. The idea being that different people want different things from their cameras. Someone should do their own research to ultimately decide on a camera but if they have questions someone here might have already used cameras they are looking at and can speak to them.
This thread is also hardware agnostic, I know the OP was including models from all brands from Pro gear, to MILC to point and shoot, whether or not you would shoot with one of them is irrelevant, as is your opinion on specific cameras(until someone asks for an opinion on said camera). The Canon Rebel series for instance, is just fine for casual people, that want to take photos of their kids, in fact that's exactly what several of my friends bought when they had kids. They're never going to do anything with the cameras except photograph their kids, so the rebel series works fine for them. Another friend of mine that shoots with a D800, bought his wife a Nikon J1 or whatever it is, and she loves it, its small enough to fit in her small purse just fine and takes good enough photos of her kids.
I've kept up with the old thread for a long time, see above for my thoughts on the Rebel line, put them in a "glorified parental point and shoot category." I do like the most recent Rebels though, a pretty good step forward for Canon.
And yeah the J1 is usable, just probably better off with an RX100/etc.
Again any of these tools can be useful, I just hold the position that the entry level Canikon offerings are bad and only sell at BestBuy and the like by the boatload due to good marketing/mindshare and the mostly BS idea that "oh my lenses etc will work if I ever go to a higher end Canon/Nikon", which mostly never pans out, add to that the fact that many owners of the entry levels never even invest in expensive glass so that justification is even less relevant!
Once Canon updates their higher end offerings with better sensors I'll be thrilled because otherwise they have great ergonomics, accessories, autofocus, fantastic lenses, support etc.
Nikon D5500 and above is very good too.
The Pentax K50/KS2 is the best
entry level DSLR there is, great value primes/ WR kit zooms, body is sealed and has two control wheels and good ergonomics, AF micro adjust, and a real pentaprism OVF, not to mention IBIS as an added perk. Of course it has shit video, so there's that, but I assume people should know if they want to take photos or take videos with their camera.
