Camera

I am not going to talk about medium format or technical cameras, which are arguably the very best solutions but extra-expensive. I am going to stick to 35mm style DSLRs. But many of the points I make apply regardless of the type of camera system you are considering.

I would always say buy the best you can afford. I can't help you decide what you can afford. So what is best? Well, cameras are tools, to do jobs with. In your case the job under consideration is landscape photography and this job has very few major requirements. What are the main issues associiated with capturing high quality landscape images? The biggest and most important challenge is dynamic range. Bright clouds and other highlights need to be rich with detail whilst the dark shadows also need to have detail retained in them.

Then resolution is important, fine textures such as; sand, soil, distant grasses and other flora and foliage, require high pixel count sensors.

Then we need weather/dust resistance.

We also need good colour reproduction.

Ideally mirror lock-up or such to minimise vibration, to help maximise sharpness.

We need a remote trigger, such as a cable release, to avoid camera shake.

We need to capture RAW files, for the best image quality and most flexibility in the edit stage.

We need a robust camera body.

We do not need 10 frames per second RAW file capture and processing. We do not need ultra high flash sync shutter speeds.

You asked about cameras so I have not yet discussed lenses above but now we should discuss these critical and expensive tools. Again you need the best you can get. They should be tack sharp, handle flare brilliantly, offer a depth of field scale, and be weather/dust resistant. Professional prime lenses will be best but a set of 4-8 of these will be costly, very costly. Pro zooms will be expensive too but a full range of focal lengths will be less costly than all those primes. So, it depends on if you know what focal lengths you like to work with most of the time or if you frequently use a wide variety of focal engths and it will depend on your budget, as always. Ideally you should have a couple of tilt/shift lenses but they can be very expensive.

Then you will need a solid tripod, ideally with spirit levels, or you could use a spirit level in your hot-shoe.

Then a case, ideally a ruck-sack style, to carry all your expensive kit in weather-proof and padded safety.

You may not be able to afford all that brand new, on day one. Buy good used kit and your budget will go further. But buy from a reputable dealer, for the option to return products that are not satisfactorey and for a reliable/honest description of the products pre-purchase.

Most modern cameras have the brightest viewfinders the manufacturers can provide, not the best for manual focus, because they know almost everyone will be using autofocus lenses. In landcape work manual focus is likely the way t work, with prime lenses at least. However with primes there should be a depth of field scale. If you are to use visual manual focussing then I gather Nikon has a rangefinder system, please check in to this as I am a Canon man and know little about Nikons. Range finding is better than regular modern focusing screens. Any way a depth of field button may be useful but with digital and high res screens on the camera these are not vital.

Don't forget, dynamic range is by far the most important issue regarding your body. The Nikon 810 captures the highest DR approaching 15 stops, which is a lot but the more the merrier, you just can't have too much. It aslo comes with a huge pixel count for very high resoluton images. The Canon 5Ds and 5Dsr have even higher resolution but more limited dynamic range. So if you were looking at these cameras, the Nikon would be best and they are available used, whereas the Canon 5Ds and sr are too new. So look for a used Nikon 810, which will be cheaper and offer 4 times the dynamic range, approximately, 2 stops more or there abouts. If these are too expensive I'll leave you to do your research but at least you have my shopping list for features and fuctionality. Dtynamic range then pixel count. Do not think about the opposite order.

While the camera is important I would strongly suggest spending the majority of your money on lenses. Most of the bodies coming out today are very capable of taking amazing photographs, but with bad glass on the camera you will never reach the full potential of what ever camera you choose. Also, the lenses you purchase will be with you a lot longer than the camera body. If you are interested in landscape photography I would look into investing in a nice wide angle lens. The Sigma ART series is a good place to start. (Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 DC HMS ART)
Also I would read this by Elia Locardi; https://fstoppers.com/elia-locardi-favorite-lenses-for-landscape-photogr...