Best birding cameras? (1 Viewer)

[TareqPhoto]

I think there are similarities and differences. In sports, you usually know that the action is going to be on a specific field/track or whatever, and you can position yourself at those locations ahead of time. That means you can have a heavy camera on a tripod without any big disadvantages. Yes, there are photographers who treat wildlife the same way, positioning themselves in a hide and shooting the subjects that come there. But a lot of others walk around with the camera and binoculars, like I did this morning at the edge of a swamp, and in that situation, it becomes important to look at the total weight of the setup.

For a lighter weight setup you could go with the Canon R7 and some of their R lenses, or you could go with for example the OM1-ii with either a 100-400 or the 300 pro which also has a very good 1.4x TC according to reports. Relative to the quality criteria mentioned:

1. Best AF
2. High FPS
3. Low light high ISO
4. Maybe weather sealing
The OM1-ii camera has fast AF with bird and eye detect tracking. FPS runs at 25/s with most lenses, 50/s with pro lenses. I have used it at iso 12800 with decent results, good results at anything below (and I may be able to improve on my processing at the higher iso once I use the camera more). Weather sealing is best in the industry according to published ratings.

It has a trick up its sleeve that I have not even tried yet: Pro capture allow you to half press, and when you commit by full press, you get images from the last half second or longer (depending on settings how long it is). Useful for example for capturing the bird leaving a nest hole where you don't when it will happen.

Hope this is food for thoughts
Niels

Ok Niels,

I have to think about this model, i still have time to think and decide, although i am still wanting to stay with Canon and Sony only, but i wouldn't mind widening my choices brands.

For now if people didn't recommend me to go with R7 when i asked about before in favor to those FF then i don't think i will go with 4/3" as well, but a crop factor camera is nice for smaller subjects such as birds so i don't do heavy crops, i will check out more results from OM-ii, and i hope that Canon can produce a new camera such as R6III or R7II that is affordable than we go higher, i want to get two bodies, that is why i try to think about options, i will do sports and birds and wildlife, i always use two bodies in sports, and in the past the same camera can be used for sports and birds/wildlife, now it sounds like one camera is perfect for birding while the other one is super for sports, so i will buy two bodies to cover those two, and i can use each as backups too for each other.