mes

Looking to buy a new camera for birding, motocross and just every day family pictures. I would like to stay around $1000. I am open to dslr or mirrorless. Thank you for any suggestions or pros and cons. Thanks Matt

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

What do you have already or have experience with? What do your friends and family use, if they can help in sharing experience or lenses?

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

Does that $1000 include a lens? I suggest a Canon EOS 80D refurbished from Canon with an 18-135 or 18-200 lens to start.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

You can get a Canon 7Dmkll for that, but that's without a lens!!!

Maybe a 7Dmkl with a 100-400L mkl for a thousand??

That should work nicely!!! For a thousand, no cons, just pros!!!
SS

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

What glass do you already own? Nikon D7200 is a nice camera. Sony a6300 might work. Lot of choices.

Jeffcs Loc: Myrtle Beach South Carolina

Honestly your not going to get much for $1000 at least not for birding

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

He could find a good used setup. Maybe a D300 or D7000 with lenses.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

According to today's B&H prices, you could get a Pentax K-S2 with 18-50mm and 55-300mm lenses for almost exactly $1000. An additional $200 would purchase a newer K-70 with 18-55 and 55-300mm lenses.
Both camera kits are Weather Resistant and have good penta-prism Optical ViewFinders.

bleirer

Costco has some nice choices, Nikon D5600 with two lenses for $899, Canon 80d with 2 lenses $1,400.

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

Bingo, that's a good camera system for a grand.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Birding and sports photography... stick with an optical viewfinder (which rules out many mirrorless).

You'll also want a long telephoto lens for both those types of photography, another argument in favor of a DSLR instead of mirrorless. There aren't many truly long focal length lenses for mirrorless. Instead they use the same lenses as used on DSLR via an adapter, so with the smaller mirrorless camera you actually end up with a larger, more poorly balanced rig than a DSLR.

And, for wildlife and sports you need fast, responsive autofocus. That's fairly standard in DSLRs, but not all mirrorless are fast focusing or good at tracking. You generally have to buy a fairly high end mirrorless, to get AF that's equivalent to a more mid-grade DSLR.

Finally, mirrorless are quite popular right now, which has kept the prices relatively high. So, in the end, I'd recommend a DSLR and I'll give you some Canon examples, simply because that's the system I use and am most familiar with...

A Canon T5i can be bought brand new for $600 in kit with the EF-S 18-55mm IS STM lens (which will serve well for general purpose, walk-around, every day family photos). The T5i has a fairly straight forward, easy to use 9-point AF system, with all points the "better" dual axis/cross type. Earlier models and current, cheaper Rebel models have only one dual axis/cross type point at the center, which can be used for sports & wildlife but isn't as versatile. Later, higher and more expensive models such as T6i, T7i, 77D, 70D, 80D have more AF points and more sophisticated AF, but all of them come at a significantly higher cost.

You can get the same T5i and EF-S 18-55mm IS STM lens kit for a little bit less REFURBISHED, directly from Canon USA's online store. There it's currently available for $480. (https://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/eos-t5i-18-55mm-is-stm-lens-kit-refurbished). Canon's refurbished cameras and lenses are little different from new.... they have the same warranty as new and sometimes have seen little or no actual use. Might have been demo units, overstock, or shelf-worn packaging or similar.

For sports and wildlife, you also need to keep aside some of your limited budget for a reasonably high performance telephoto zoom lens. Canon EF 70-300mm IS USM II that is currently on sale for $500 is one good possibility. The previous version of that lens is another and, only recently discontinued, is still widely available new for about $50 less. With the above camera, either of these would put you right at or slightly over your budget, but they have fast USM autofocus and helpful IS image stabilization. The Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS STM is a good lens that can be found for a bit less money ($300), but has a little less reach and has slower STM autofocus that will be less successful with moving wildlife and sports subjects. There's also a micro motor version of the 55-250mm that's a bit cheaper, but even slower (and noisier) focusing... fine for some things, but I wouldn't recommend it for birding or sports.

Also, I recommend you AVOID the even cheaper Canon EF 75-300mm "III", which has slow/noisy micro motor focus drive, lacks image stabilization AND doesn't have the greatest image quality... In other words, there are reasons it's Canon's cheapest telephoto lens (around $100 in kit or $150-$200 when bought separately).

If you could stretch your budget a little farther, for sports and wildlife it would sure be nice to have greater than 300mm focal length. One of the best priced longer telephoto lenses right now is a recently introduced Sigma 100-400mm OS HSM that costs $800. Sigma's OS is similar to Canon's IS stabilization.... and Sigma's HSM is similar to Canon's USM focus drive. I haven't used the new Sigma lens, but it reportedly is a pretty good performer. There also was an earlier Sigma 120-400mm OS HSM that can be found used for $500 or less, but I think the newer lens has better image quality, especially at the longest settings.

Canon 100-400mm IS USM "II" would be a top choice, except that it's well outside your budget at just over $2000. The earlier version of EF 100-400L IS USM is also very good and still available new for around $1200, or used for around $800. There's also the Canon EF 70-300mm "L", which is a larger and heavier than similar lenses mentioned above, but better built, better sealed and has top image quality. However this "L" version sells new for over $1300 and used copies of it typically bring more than $1000.

You can probably find similar from other manufacturers. I just am not as familiar with them, so have cited Canon examples. Do your homework, though.... sports and birding photography are both fairly demanding, especially for autofocus systems. You'll need fast acting and good tracking AF, for the best success shooting active subjects.



These are examples of kits that might be fine for a lot of things, but may come up a bit short for birding and sports photography. The cameras themselves are fine and both kits include an 18-55mm lens with a stepper motor (Canon STM, Nikon AF-P), which will be fine for those every day, family photos. HOWEVER, both of them also include stepper motor telephoto zooms (Canon 55-250mm STM or Nikon AF-P 70-300mm) which are going to struggle a bit struggle to keep up with moving subjects. Canon USM or Nikon AF-S telephoto zooms are higher performance and better suited to your purposes.... but cost more and are generally NOT offered in kit with cameras, are only available separately.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

There are two types of "birding" photography - BIF {"Bird In Flight"} and BIT {"Bird In Tree"}. For someone in the OP's position, BIT is a good start, and more rewarding than nothing. BIT is much less demanding than BIF is; the solutions from COSTCO {Canon 55-250mm} and B&H {Pentax 55-300mm, suggested by me above} would both be a good start, and within the OP's price range.

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

The cameras you could use for under $ 1000.00 are just too numerous to mention taking into account DSLR's and mirroless cameras and naturally...people are going to try to talk you into buying what THEY use. Go on the internet and read reviews on the cameras mentioned on this post, you can get reviews on just about every camera you can think of, past and present and don't rule out used and refurbished cameras. That way, you can make up your own mind and get some knowledge on the different styles of cameras to choose from. Good luck.

mes

I don't have nothing. Starting fresh.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I'm not on my regular computer, so I can't give you the links, but read comparisons before spending "around $1,000."

https://www.google.com/search?q=camera+comparison+sites&oq=cmera+comparison+sites.&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.7996j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8