Rick Garside

Well since you really want to just experiment, you can go on eBay and buy the highest rated Canon you can find for $500. Itch satisfied, price met, Best Buy for your money, yada yada. I have purchased a lot of lenses and some cameras on eBay and never had any problems.

Effate Loc: El Dorado Hills, Ca.

I have a nice 5D Mk III I would let go for $500. Don’t know for sure but based on my files I would safely say the shutter count is below 10K. Also have an original 5D same condition $100 plus 25 to ship.

Jeffers

For what you're shooting today, I would recommend a Canon Powershot ELPH 360 HS pocket camera (~$200). It shoots at 20 MPX and has 12x optical zoom. When I shoot action of the grand nieces and nephews, I put it in burst mode. That produces a whole lot of images that you'll have to sort through to get those several perfect shots. But they'll be there. Burst mode shoots at somewhat less than 20 MPX but I've never had trouble cropping and keeping decent resolution.
Two words of caution: 1) Buy a couple of extra batteries (they're rechargeable). I typically go through 2-3 batteries at a family function. 2) When not shooting action, Portrait is better than Auto. In Auto, you can set the flash for Auto or Off. In Portrait, you can set the flash for Off, Auto or On.
And of course you won't need those lenses that you already have.
Good luck in your camera search.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Take that 5DIII offer, a camera you'll find better than your D810 in AF capability and ISO performance, just lacking the mega-megapixels. If I didn't have two already, I'd grab it myself.

Effate Loc: El Dorado Hills, Ca.

With my 5dIII it will come with extra batteries and a RRS L bracket

mundy-F2 Loc: Chicago suburban area

Rent one first and see how you like it.
Mundy

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Please tell us EXACTLY what Canon lenses you have. Those will have a big influence on what camera we'd recommend.

Most important is the lens prefix... EF, EF-S, EF-M, FD or FL. Focal length also matters.

Doc Mck Loc: Terrell,Texas

Try to find a 7d mk2 used. Excellent for wildlife or sports. You might find one with some wear for that price. I bought 2 on eBay last year for around $700 with low shutter counts.

no12mo

It's not that simple. Canon made a drastic change by dropping the FD series lens and adopted the autofocus EOS system. Again: which lens do you have?

no12mo

I had an odd (to me) experience where I bought a Pentax K1000 with what looked like an interesting zoom lens. The camera arrived DOA but I kept the combo anyway as the lens was really a good one. Fortunately, my second attempt at a working K1000 was successful and I have this beauty. Nice that you don't have to have a battery to take pictures with this camera. I have an external light meter for that purpose. Or I can use the match the needle that the K1000 has. I just have to have a good battery to use that feature.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Once again... Please tell use EXACTLY what Canon lenses you have... and don't buy ANYTHING until you do.

This info is necessary before we can give you helpful advice. Some Canon lenses simply will not fit and work on some Canon cameras. As it stands now we can only guess and might steer you wrong, to a camera that actually won't work with the lenses you have.

For example, you've already been given a half dozen responses recommending Canon full frame DSLRs, yet a lot of lenses Canon sells now and have sold cannot be fitted to those at all. Another response recommended one of the Canon mirrorless cameras, for which you will need an adapter with many lenses and which will be manual only with others. Conversely, the lenses made for that particular mirrorless camera series cannot be used on any other Canon camera system.

These cameras that have been suggested might be good choices... or they might be a complete waste of money for you to buy if they can't accommodate the lenses you have... or you might need to also buy some sort of adapter to use your lenses on some Canon cameras. We really don't know.

So please give us as much info as you can about the specific Canon lenses you have... to repeat, the prefix of the lens designation, as printed directly on the lens, is quite important. On a Canon lens it will be RF, EF, EF-M, EF-S, FD, FL, R or "S" (this last actually has no prefix printed on lens). There also are Canon cinema lenses with "CN-E" designation, but I really doubt that's what you have.

To a lesser degree, but still important because it would also influence our recommendations, tell us what focal length, aperture, etc. you have. The more you tell us, the better we'll be able to advise.

mundy-F2 Loc: Chicago suburban area

Very nice Pentax K kit 1000 kit.
Mundy

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Congratulations on your beautiful find
👁️👁️🌀👁️👁️

Bill_de Loc: US

Before you spend any money, borrow a body from your friend for a weekend. If it turns out you prefer the Nikon you can give your friend the Canon lenses.



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BlaineS Loc: Utah

I would try eBay for good used model. I recently sold a Canon 5D (Mark I) that originally cost me $5,000 for just the body for a fraction of the price. I don't recall how much but probably less than $500. The issue was it was a still only camera and the resolution was only 12.8 megapixels which by today's standard is not much better than your phone.

Here's a great buy: https://www.ebay.com/itm/265281585737?hash=item3dc403c249:g:WUIAAOSwibthI8ts