Camera recommendations to go with RF 600 mm lens

[gnleiter]

I do not have the right body for this new lense.  I have a EOS Rebel T5 body.  I would like to purchase a new body.  Could I get some recommendations?  Thanks

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[kvbarkley · Accepted solution]

What is your budget?

Any of the R series will work.

[kvbarkley · Accepted solution]

What is your budget?

Any of the R series will work.

[stevet1 · Accepted solution]

gnleiter,

None of your standard Rebel Series cameras will work. As kvbarkley suggested, you need a camera that starts with the letter R, like an R50 or an R10, or an R5 or R6, etc.

Once people know how much money you want to spend, then they can start making some recommendations based on the kind of photography you want to pursue. A 600mm lens has quite a lot of zoom to it, so it sounds like you want to photograph things that are far away, like wildlife, etc.

Steve Thomas

[Tronhard]

Hi and welcome to the forum:

Apart from the need to have a budget, it would be very helpful to know what kinds of subjects you want to shoot and under what conditions?  For example, daylight field sports (like football or baseball) may have different requirements for exposure from shooting birds in relatively dark conditions. This can have an impact on sensor size.

[TomRamsey]

Your budget is very important, but I would think you would want a stabilized body, some of the R series are not stabilized.  I'm guessing you are shooting wildlife, there are a lot of articles on the web about camera recommendations, although many are only concerned with the most expensive top of the line cameras.  I recently bought an R6 Mark 2 for wildlife shooting, and the R7 was also a consideration.  Those two cameras are similar in some things, but very different in others.  Look at the whole series and look at the specs for each camera.  The reason I mentioned a stabilized body, it that camera shake is magnified by longer lenses, there is less room for error.  You will gain even better stabilization using an RF stabilized lens with a stabilized body.  You probably do okay with any of the series, but do the research and hopefully you won't have any regrets.

[Tronhard]

I would concur with my colleagues that if you can afford to do so, you should move to the dominant platform of R-series Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Cameras (MILCs).  That is not the future and the DSLRs and their lenses are being retired from Canon's lineup.  However, what body is entirely dependent on your situation.   Please consider the following document and answer the questions it poses (which are non-technical) so we know how you will use a camera, and what your limitations are - e.g. budget, by which I mean an actual numerical value.

The questions you need to consider when buying camera gear

One thing to consider is the lenses you have right now - it is a trap to concentrate purely on the body - the lenses you currently have will have a significant impact on what you buy if you wish to use them.  To explain...  The T5 you have is a crop-sensor camera that can use lenses with an EF or EF-S identifier on the front of the lens.  However, if you wanted to use a Full Frame camera, those EF-S lenses would not be practical to use (neither will RF-S lenses).  So if you want to use any of your EF-S lenses, then we need to stick to crop sensor R-series bodies. 

FWIW, the RF 600 specifically will work fine on either crop or full sensor R-series cameras.