I love this little bit from Dave of ShootTokyo:

Cameras are part of my lifestyle so I want something that I think is a cool camera.  Either I like the way it looks, sounds, the story behind it, whatever.  It doesn’t have to be the best, the fastest camera, with the most features.  It needs to be something that I want to carry around.   Something that I am so interested in, that has a neat story to it or something that I am proud to own that it is always with me and inspiring me to take photos.

I also like his thoughts on showing up with a dSLR at a business dinner (in this same post).