Lizard1977:

Geektastic: Don't ignore the better mirrorless offerings from the likes of Olympus and Sony.

Which ones would you recommend?

mudguard: Can someone clarify something about the RX100.
It seems there a few different versions.
2012 RX 100 and now there are 2015 RX100 1-4. On Canon's website, the 2 has NFC and WiFi. It's this feature on the older RX100 and the newer RX100-1?
It's not a deal breaker but convenient.

joker97: The reason for Canon and Nikon is their lenses are freely available.

Sony is probably superior if you don't mind having 15 min battery life, but their lenses will cost you a house deposit over time.

Pentax ... Hmm ... No idea about lenses availability or cost.

Technofreak: I have a Canon AE1 Program SLR film camera (25 plus years old)  my wife has a Sony a57 mirrorless , which is like a DSLR, plus she has a Canon IXUS compact.

They're both great cameras and they're really nice to use with plenty features. However their size and the need to have a bag to carry the camera and accessories around means we don't take them with us very often. So we don't use them as much as our phones or compacts.

I think a compact camera is the way to go with most people.  I had a Canon Powershot A520 which got stolen and I haven't replaced.  It did a pretty good job.

If I was to buy another camera I'd be thinking seriously about the likes of the Sony RX100 mentioned earlier.

Your choice comes down to what you want to use it for.

If you want to have the option of good quality close up (bee in the flower) and long range photos (distant scenery) you will most likely need a range of lenses, hence a DSLR is a better choice.

If you want family snapshots a compact is better as you will likely have it handy, it will be quick to use (no faffing around changing lenses and setting it up) so yo'll be able to capture the moment.

If you have the need to take a lot of photos in low light you'll need a flash and one that has some grunt, most internal flash units are not much good for more than a couple of metres. You'll need to choose a camera that can trigger an external flash.

If you want to take video as well as stills the mirrorless DSLRs offer an advantage in that the camera will continue to focus while recording. As the subject moves about the camera will keep it in focus. The DSLR's with a mirror cannot focus properly once the shutter is opened for video recording.

Lizard1977:  I've just read reviews of the Sony Alpha A6000 and Olympus OM-D EM10 and they seem like nice cameras, but battery life is very low (~300) compared to the Nikon D5500 (800+).  A camera that is constantly needing charging (or requires multiple spare batteries) seems to me to be more annoying than a bulky camera.  

Geektastic: The AE1 P was my first proper camera. Had it ages and lugged it all over the world (including to the top of Mont Blanc, twice!). I miss it. If I ever see a mint one, I may get it just for nostalgia!

joker97: The size of the sensor determines the quality of the picture. Usually. A lot of those "bridge" camera mentioned have sensors the same size of an iphone. You are really buying another iPhone with a zoom. Really. Waste of time in my opinion.

I'm on a mobile so i can't link properly but Google camera sensor size