I know this has been asked in various forms before, but I am asking in a different way.

I am retired and mildly disabled, and am seeking to find a camera to learn photography from. I prefer Canon, but will not yet limit myself to that, but it is preferred. I have no price range to state, because I do not know what is available, so I would not know how much it might cost me. And once I know how much, I can then work to get that amount of money to acquire it, as needed.

What I seek is a small camera that I can easily carry around with me all the time, similar to a cell phone or point and shoot in size, but not necessarily limited to that. Pocket sized would be most useful, but not necessarily required. I am mildly handicapped, which made that requirement somewhat important.

The important things other than size and transportability are:

Can shoot in various modes: Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program mode, as well as auto.
One that shoots RAW as well as JPEG.
A pretty good amount of zoom with the fixed lens or ability to change lenses (preferred but not required).
A reasonable low light capability.

I realize that I seek a lot, but I just want to know what is out there, especially since I am not really familiar with all or most of what is out there, and I see so many things that people speak of here in Ugly Hedgehog, that I had never heard of before, so I ask here. If you give me a brand and model number, I can look for info online about it, but it needs to be a USA-available camera.

I would appreciate any help I can get with this. Please resist the snarky comments. I am rather new to photography, but seek to learn as something to do, and want to learn to a fairly deep level, but I need a place from which to start. Thank you, in advance.

Is anyone else getting 30 days to the gallon on the highway?

I was so bored I called Jake from State Farm just to talk to someone. He asked me what I was wearing.

2019: Stay away from negative people. 2020: Stay away from positive people.

The world has turned upside down. Old folks are sneaking out of the house, and their kids are yelling at them to stay indoors!

You think it’s bad now? In 20 years, our country will be run by people homeschooled by day drinkers…

Do not call the police on suspicious people in your neighborhood! Those are your neighbors without makeup and hair extensions!

Since we can’t eat out, now’s the perfect time to eat better, get fit, and stay healthy. We’re quarantined! Who are we trying to impress? We have snacks, we have sweatpants – I say we use them!

Does anyone know if we can take showers yet or should we just keep washing our hands???

I never thought the comment “I wouldn’t touch him/her with a 6 foot pole” would become a national policy, but here we are!

Me: Alexa what’s the weather this weekend? Alexa: It doesn’t matter – you’re not going anywhere.

Can everyone please just follow the government instructions so we can knock out this coronavirus and be done?! I feel like a kindergartner who keeps losing more recess time because one or two kids can’t follow directions.

I swear my fridge just said “what the hell do you want now?”

When this is over…what meeting do I attend first…Weight Watchers or AA?

Quarantine has turned us into dogs. We roam the house all day looking for food. We are told “no” if we get too close to strangers. And we get really excited about car rides.

You did notice that I said I have OWNED both versions of the Canon and the Tamron!!!! Right, of course you did.

I use my Canon 100-400L mk2 and my Tamron 150-600 G2 (and the first versions before them) all the time for birds, butterflies etc.

The link is to an evaluation of the 4 available 150-600 lenses on the market (yes all four are in production) for comparison. I have in the past read an expanded version of the same article, that I lost my bookmark for when a drive went bad on me that included shots and commentary by a professional wildlife photographer whose conclusion was that he could produce quality publishable images with all of them but considered the Tamron G2 to be the overall best choice.

I use the Tamron when I need maximum reach, the Canon for carry and hand held. And before you come up with it, Yes, I do own a Canon 1.4x III I use on the Canon frequently and a Tamron 1.4x for the Tamron. With those they also produce very good images though the Tamron becomes a manual focus lens with some bodies or in less than great light. I have used it on 4 different Canon bodies plus my wife's T6s and our daughter used them on her T2i before she left for medical school.

Some take this as a panacea, an ideal situation, fly, sing, feed, reproduce...

Well, given a choice between a bird and a mole I select being a mole.

A bird whatever it does has to be weary of everything from above, below and in between.

As a mole, the only thing to worry about is a flood and even then going to the surface can save you, beside food goes up with you! Hot? Cold? windy? No problem, underground the temperature does not vary that much. No light? Who cares, a mole is near sighted (or so it is said). Singing? Bah, over rated.

So given a choice what do would you consider as a 'life form' if you had a choice?

I know some will try to put me down as being an idiot among other things to even think of that. Good for them, it is just a réflexion of their own value, no skin of my back.

Mostly it would be to have in the backpack on a trail in a national park, say Yellowstone/GTNP and/or Glacier as examples since we keep returning there. So it might be big wildlife, moose, wolves, bear and such, maybe far off waterfalls, flora and fauna. I rented a 400 last summer and even that didn't have enough reach for how far away many creatures were. I can AF to f11, so the idea of a 300 with an extender is appealing.

Would you say the original 300 f4 is sharper than the current version?