I'm interested in knowing what you use and looking for suggestions. Let me preface that I have been teaching basic photography for over 20 years and am very familiar with ISO, aperture and shutter speed. I primarily shoot in full manual. I'd like to buy used and am looking at some older Canon DSLR 1DX bodies along with a 100-600 mm lens. I have exclusively used Canons, but I am not averse to going to Nikon. I know I cannot afford a mirrorless camera nor a 2.8 lens. Any suggestions? What are you using? Thanks.

You don’t need a mirrorless imo. Good used canon DSLRs are readily available for sale along with the lenses.

Canons CS tops Nikon by a country mile if that matters to you.

Sigma makes nice glass.

I’ve only used prime 24,35, and 50s, can’t speak on good birding lenses

I have a Nikon D90 with a Tamron 18 to 270mm lens. With this lens I rarely have to change out lenses. It is good for fairly close in work and it will reach out a fair distance if needed.

Thanks for the info. I use a 70-200mm 2.8 at work. One's a Tamron, the other a Canon. I like the Canon better because the zoom ring is closer to the camera body than the Tamron. But either is fine. I figured it would take a little more focal length than the 200. It sounds like the 270 would work. So maybe a 100-300 or so.

I have a Sony a9
Sigma 100-400
I was gonna sell them to KEH or the like but will sell for same price
Also have Sony 200-600 that I’m on the fence about selling but will look at offers

Nice shots BB. I appreciate the offer, but that A9 is going to be little high for me. I'm trying to stay under 1000 for the lens and body for starting out in this new hobby.

Some impressive photos I used to be into photography but years ago before the digital age. Had Olympus OM-2 and a ton of accessories. My Dad was the Hoya rep I helped him work some camera shows at Barry’s Camera in Dallas and Lawrence Photo in OK City seems like a lifetime ago. One year went to Jamaica and I lugged that camera bag in that heat and humidity and said never again. Gave all my equipment to my son and started using point and shoot cameras now only iPhone but heck it takes some good pics.

wow

I miss the photography. Don't think you would want to afford it, but the 300mm 2.8 prime is a beast of a lens, a fundamental must have for sports shooters and would be great for birding. Like you, been a Canon shooter all my life, but if you're going be doing mostly wildlife and outdoors stuff, I would highly suggest looking into the Nikon family of things. If you look at the old rags like National Geographic, Scientific American, they were primarily Nikon shooters. I've always felt the Nikon's sensors and glass were much better at nature shots that Canon ever was. Canon was geared more towards the sports and action genre. I have zero desire to do the mirrorless thing and I haven't touched my camera gear since around 2019-20. I have the 1DX MkII that was just rebuilt by Canon Pro before Covid hit and closed the world down. Shutter has maybe 1K clicks on it. It's weird, I can't imagine parting with it, but I have no desire anymore to use it.


**I would imagine the Canon 100-400MM 4.5-5.6 IS would be a pretty decent single lens for doing birding. Maybe not as super sharp as a 300mm prime, but very good for the distances you'd be shooting at.**

Thanks for the information. I've used the 6D and 7D Mk II's quite a bit. I'm finding some fairly decent deals on Ebay and KEH for the 5D MkIII. I like the 6D over the 7D because of the full frame vs. the crop sensor on the 7D. The 7D has a narrower field of view than the 6D because of it. They will both shoot EF lenses however. The 7D does have a faster frame rate (10 vs 6), but the pictures seem to come out better on the 6D. So I'm leaning toward the 5D MKIII. This one is sitting at $411 right now on ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/146595315047?autorefresh=true
I like the idea of a 100-400mm 4-5.6 lens and am shopping now for one. You are correct though, the 300mm 2.8 would be out of my price range. Any 2.8 really. It would be nice to have, but I could probably get by with the slower shutter speed of a smaller aperture lens like a 5.6. I know I can shoot around 1/300 of a second at f2.8 and 3200 iso in a gym or on a football field at night. I could probably make 1/150 of a second work on a bird in a similar lighting situation. Again, a 2.8 would be nice to have, but it just doesn't fit in my budget right now. Because of your suggestions, I'm looking at Nikon D500 too. My like to have would be one like your 1DX MkII.

The Canon 70-200 is what we call the bread & butter lens. It's the primary lens we both shoot. If you are on a budget, you can usually find a good, lightly used on, on eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nk...GFW257Fp1EI1rDjtBXjWHcMzaDRoC-F0QAvD_BwE

Canon 70-200 F4 can be found for a decent price. Probably around $450. I prefer full frame, but a crop would give you more reach of the 70-200. I sold a 5D Mark II a couple years ago for $350. Those 2 are within your budget. If you spen a little more the the Canon RP is a great mirrorless full frame. Check on FB Market Place, at least you get to try one before you buy.

Fuji X pro2 Fujinon 55 - 200 lens

Thanks for the tips. I’ll go full frame. The 7D I used with a 70-200 had a very narrow field of view at 30’. The 6D, which is full frame, had twice the field of view. Granted, the7D bumped the 70-200 to something like 300, but close in work was too tight for what I was doing, which was shooting small groups indoors. Wrong lens for the job, but it’s all I had at the time.

The 70-200mm was pretty much all that I ever used. It was on my camera 98% of the time. Truly a work horse in the industry.