There are quite a variety of bottles to choose from for the brewer/winemaker to use. I will list the basics first, then discuss some options. I will also discuss several ways of obtaining your bottles.
BEER:
The standard is the 12 oz. brown bottle. There are several shapes available. It is best to use only one style or at least have full cases of each style, as it is much more convenient at bottling time. A 5 gal. batch will require aprox. 54 bottles.
22 oz. bottles (bombers) are also frequently used. Bottling time is quicker since there are fewer bottles to sanatize, fill and cap. For a 5 gal. batch you will need aprox. 29 bottles.
Brown is the color of choice, as it provides the most protection from light. Clear and green glass can be used, but require more protection from light. If you want to enter your beers in competition, most require brown bottles.
WINE:
750 ml. bottles are the standard here. There are more styles here than with beer. The color can be green, yellow or clear. The shape and color of glass are related to the style of wine they contain (at least commercially). I prefer to use as much style appropriate glass as possible. The choice is yours. If you have to purchase your bottles, you will at least have matching bottles. A 5 gal. batch will require aprox. 25 bottles.
MEAD:
You can use all of the above. Traditionalists like to use wine bottles, which is probably best suited for the Mead. For convience, beer bottles are the better choice.
If you want to enter your meads in competition, beer bottles are the way to go. I say this because Meads are usually judged at homebrew competitions.
CIDER:
The choice here is yours also. For competitions, ciders are sometimes judged in homebrew competitions. There may be some cider only competitions, but I haven't done a search for that yet.
To build your bottle collection, the two options are to purchase them new, or collect empties and reuse them.
BEER BOTTLES:
Your local homebrew shop should have several sizes to choose from. My local shop RUUD-RICK'S Homebrew Supplies carries 12, 16 and 22 oz. bottles that are capable as well as 16 oz. swing top (Grolsch type) bottles.
You can save your own empties. Friends and family may save for you if you are going to share your brew with them. Bars, restaurants and recycling centers may let you have them for free, or for their deposit price where applicable. It wouldn't hurt to ask especially if you frequent the establishment.
Most of my bottle collection is the result of my own consumption. A few cases were purchased new when I ran out. A few other cases were picked up at a beer tasting event.
Other bottles you can use are champagne (style) bottles. I have about a case of the standard 750 ml. bottles and a few magnums 1.5 L. Like the 22 oz. beer bottles, these large format bottles will speed up the bottling process. It can also look impressive when you haul out one of those magnums full of a tasty homebrew.
You can also go with smaller bottles for special potent beer styles like barleywine. Of all the beer styles, this is the only category in which most homebrew competitions allow bottles smaller than 10 oz. These small bottles can be hard to locate in quanity. You may have to resort to drinking a lot of Anchor Old Foghorn or some of the Imports. This will be expensive, but a wonderful experience.
WINE BOTTLES:
The standard size for wine is 750 ml. Optional are the 1.5 L magnums and 375 ml. splits.
The advantage of purchasing wine bottles new is that they will all be the same size and come in the proper sized case. Your local shop should at least provide you the choice of green or yellow glass. If you are lucky, there will also be several styles to choose from. While it's not necessary, I like to put as much of my wine as possible into bottles that are traditional for the style of the wine.
Saving your empties and those from family and friends is the less expensive way to go. The drawback is that you may end up with a dozen bottle styles. That means you also have to collect several different sized cases to hold them.
The collection could be a little easier if you can get them from a bar or resteraunt. If you can get the bottles and cases from them this problem is solved. A recycling center may let you pick through their bottles (if they haven't crushed them yet). This would allow you to choose only the style(s) you want. I just take what I can get and hope to get case lots of each.
MEAD:
Choose from one of the above.
CIDER:
Chose from one of the above.