mudduck

I picked up a brand new sony A7 (24mp) on ebay and a new sony lens from someone else( I forgot who) and grand total was less than a grand.

lamontcranston

I would agree with you except about the best you can do on that combo is $1500 which is $500 more than the OP wants to spend.

To stay within the OP's budget I think the Sony A6000 and 18-135 f/3.5-5.6 OSS E would fit the bill. Excellent camera, excellent lens, and well within his budget.

rond-photography Loc: Connecticut

I am quite happy with my Olympus OMD-M10. $600 with lens at Adorama and it will take any lens made for M43 including those made by Panasonic.
It has a viewfinder, something that is not on a lot of other low priced mirrorless cameras.
It is my backup camera for my OMD-M1 when I am on a paid shoot and it is just so tiny that it is the one I grab if I am going for a walk or out on my motorcycle.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

There are so many choices when it comes to mirrorless. Ideally these cameras should be held in hand for ergonomics and look at thier features to make sure they have what is needed for the style of photography of that person buying a specific model.
I use Olympus Pen EP-5 and the Em-10 Mk II and I am completely satisfied with their performance. Olympus optics are among the sharpest I have ever used.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

For me, it's hard to imagine a young man having a problem with the weight of a camera while hiking.

delkeener Loc: SW Rhode Island, USA

Be sure to look at the used and refurbished market too.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I was thinking used. If new is required, then an XE-3 plus the same lens can be purchased new for less than $1,100. Nothing wrong with the Sony either.

miked46 Loc: Winter Springs, Florida

for me, the Canon M50 & 22mm, f/2 lens

HardwareGuy

Yup. Great camera. I owned it for about a month, got a case of GAS, and decided to upgrade to the Lumix G9, which I do not regret. But the G85 is "almost" as good, and smaller, for less money.
Consider the Panasonic 14-140mm lens for hiking. It's a sleeper and really quite excellent.

Blaster34 Loc: Florida Treasure Coast

I have that combo and its great, great

adm

I would recommend this camera also.

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

Check this one out. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1311280-REG/fujifilm_16543016_x_t20_camera_with_xc16_50mm.html

The X-t20 is the little brother to the X-t2 which many pros have made their main working camera. He will love it!

BebuLamar

The Sony A7II with the 28-70mm lens is less than $1000 new. It's full frame.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

It depends upon what he shoots most and how you define "best".

Canon's got a BIG discount on their M5 right now: $579 (regularly $979). It's the top-of-the-line M-series model with a 24MP APS-C sensor. That's more resolution than the full frame 6D DSLR. It has a better AF system and faster frame rate than the 6D, too. It's also got a slightly larger, higher resolution articulated rear LCD screen.

"Best"might be that it can share lenses and accessories with his DSLR, as well as have some familiarity since it's another Canon model. And it's significantly smaller and about half the weight of the 6D.

But there's no "free lunch".... There are limited M-series lenses available. To date Canon has only offered eight (in over five years developing the series). But if one or more of those work for him, it also will be smaller and lighter than the full frame lenses needed for the 6D. The M5 might also use smaller, lighter, less expensive EF-S lenses with an adapter (Canon's own EF/EF-S to EF-M adapter is expensive.... there are considerably cheaper Fotodiox, Vello and other third party that do the same thing). M5 in kit with an EF-M 15-55mm IS STM lens currently is selling for $700 (regularly $1100). Or it's offered in kit with an upgrade EF-M 18-150mm IS STM for $900 (reg. $1485).

Another consideration is that the M5 uses a much smaller LP-E17 battery. That and it's electronic viewfinder make for fewer shots per charge. It's rated to be able to do about 300 shots, compared to around 1100 with the 6D. Both cameras might be able to take more with some simple power saving tricks. And it's a bit unfair that the M5's battery performance is evaluated with 50% usage of the built-in flash (CIPA standard), which is a big drain on the battery. The 6D doesn't have a built-in flash and it's optical viewfinder doesn't put the same constant drain on the battery during use. But with M5, better carry one or two spare batteries if planning more than 300 or 400 shots.... If planning to shoot about as many shots as are possible with 6D.

The Canon M5 may not be the most advanced mirrorless out there... but it has been a real game changer for Canon as their first model with a built-in viewfinder. Since Canon introduced it, they have achieved 1st place ranking selling mirrorless cameras in Japan (this, of course, considers all models they offer... not just the M5). And it's part of why they continue to dominate worldwide in sales of interchangeable lenses of all type (both DSLRs and mirrorless), with double the market share of Nikon and four times that of third place Sony. Earlier this year Canon had almost 50% share, Nikon about 25% and Sony roughly 13%. All the other manufacturers divide up the remaining 12 or 13% of market share. It will be interesting to see what movement there is after this Fall's introduction of full frame mirrorless models from both Nikon and Canon.

When I see huge discount like this being offered, I suspect that there's a new model coming soon and they are clearing the shelves. If that's the case, the new model will no doubt be "full price" and the M5 will still work just as well as it does now! I recommend you check it out. There are lots of good reviews online, but here's one to start: https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EOS-M5.aspx

Note: Canon's M50 mirrorless is also on sale, though not as deeply discounted as the M5. The M50 is very similar in many respects, including a built-in electronic viewfinder... but bit more designed for automation, with fewer controls for direct access to functions that more advanced photographers usually like to set for themselves. The M50 is a newer model, is one of the first from Canon using the new Digic 8 processor and priducing the new CR3 RAW file format. This may not be compatible with some older software... updates or upgrades of post-processing software may be necessary.

RolandDieter

Since weight is the issue here, a camera that can use his existing lenses does not seem to be the solution. Most of the weight in a system is in the lenses. Going down to m4/3 with smaller, lighter weight lenses or a bridge camera where you don't carry separate lenses addresses the question.