Iāve dabbled in photography for about 15 years and Iāve tried all kinds of film and digital cameras - as of late I have settled on these two.
The Canon is a surprisingly heavy duty point and shoot digi-cam. So far itās the best balance of photo quality / features I could find in an early 2000s model. The batteries are rechargeable and still available to buy new, the flash recharges really fast and it has a full manual mode if you want to get more involved with settings etc. Only downside is these shoot compact flash which you will probably need to buy a dongle for. Iām sure you can find a model that shoots SD though!
The Nikon EM is about as basic as you can get with a manual focus SLR. The camera shoots aperture priority auto - meaning you canāt control the shutter speed, however there is a really easy to use built in light meter that beeps if you are at the risk of under or over exposing the image; this makes it really easy to consistently take good photos. Great starter film camera if thatās the route your going down.
With all this being said - the best camera is always whatever you can get your hands on! I have shot great photos on shit cameras and shit photos on great cameras. Ya never know what is going to work for you until you try it. Have fun.