Upgrade Canon Rebel T3i Recommendations

[Tleray]

I currently have a Canon Rebel T3i with the included 2 lenses and 2 additional lenses i purchased.   I use my camera for all things "kids" (indoor cheer competitions, outdoor cheer for school, indoor school dance team performances in gym, dance team performances on field, etc).   My rebel has died and i'm looking for a new camera as the kids seasons has just started;)   The last year i have started using manual and AV modes playing with manual adjustments.

I have looked at the Rebel 8i which had ok reviews but read everything is moving to mirrorless, so i looked at the Eos RP.

I would like suggestions for an amateur to take pictures for school events and sports indoors and outdoors. Sometimes lighting is poor so i need a camera that can adjust to lighting.   This is not a camera for professional purposes but for family memories and scrapbooking.

[deebatman316]

Also OP your lenses will appear much shorter. Due to their being a 1x crop instead of a 1.6x crop your used to. Since you mentioned cheer team you may need longer lenses to compensate. Your results may vary when using older lenses. Older lenses tend to show their imperfections more on high megapixel bodies.

-Demetrius

40D, 5D IV, EF 16-35mm F/2.8L III, EF 24-70mm F/2.8L II, EF 28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 IS USM, EF 50 F/1.8 STM

430EX III-RT, 600EX II-RT

[Tronhard]

"Also OP your lenses will appear much shorter."  For the FF sensor, I agree. However, the EF 85mm 1.8 on the RP will have the same FoV as the EF 50mm on an APS-C crop sensor body.  The 50mm f/1.8 will offer a new possibility at the wide angle end, and both lenses will benefit from the ability to have a shallower DoF on the FF body.  These are relatively fast lenses and will benefit from being on a FF body.  Neither of these is designed for distance or sports work in any case, and they are of a fixed focal length. They are both great for portrait work, but not so much when flexibility of focal length is beneficial to zoom in on the action.

Unless one of the kit lenses is the EF-S 55-250 STM, I would not retain them, and recycle the funds from selling them into a new lens. For family events and sports a zoom is much more flexible, hence my suggestion of the really excellent RF24-240 lens, that is designed to work with the R-series bodies.  Focus is fast, silent and reliable.  BTW, one can still set the RF to crop mode and thus reduce the FoV to that of an APS-C camera - it's in the menu system.

Here are a couple of links to reviews on this lens: From Cameralabs and Justin Abbott - both respected reviewers.

[deebatman316]

I was mentioning that the lenses would appear shorter. I didn't know if OP ever used FF/ or a 35mm film camera. I'm also aware that one can set the EOS R series to 1.6x crop with FF lenses. As far as kit lenses for a Digital Rebel. Canon has sold many different 2 kit lens setups. Most of which include some version of the 18-55mm lens. I've seen some kits include the EF 75-300mm, EF 28-135mm or the EF-S 55-250mm. OP never mentioned what their 2nd kit lens was.

-Demetrius

40D, 5D IV, EF 16-35mm F/2.8L III, EF 24-70mm F/2.8L II, EF 28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 IS USM, EF 50 F/1.8 STM

430EX III-RT, 600EX II-RT

[Tronhard]

'I was mentioning that the lenses would appear shorter.'  By this I believe you mean that the Field of View would not be impacted by the smaller sensor size and thus the crop factor would thus not appear to provide the same result as for an APS-C body.

I absolutely appreciate your point and your knowledge. My point was that the OP might not be aware of that, so I made some effort to address it for their benefit.  With respect, this is not about you or me, it's about making sure we give the best advice to the client, so my comments were directed to inform them.  That said, your point deserves to be unpacked...

The Kit Lenses:
Given that the OP has a two-kit set, (the simplest would be if they defined exactly what kit lenses they had), one would expect that they have the EF-S 18-55 MkII and either the EF-S 75-300 or the EF-S 55-250 lens. While there was a kit with just the EF-S 18-135 lens, it was not, to my knowledge, ever paired with another, longer focal length lens - too much overlap.

The 75-300 lenses - all versions - are arguably Canon's worst optics and would not do justice to the R-series bodies. 

Lenses that are not STM or Nano-USM lenses will be painfully slow to focus on the R series mounts, something the OP needs for kids and sports.  Of the various kit lenses available for the T3i model, I am not aware of any STM lenses being available at the time the T3i body was launched in Feb 2011.  The earliest STM (18-135) was launched in June in 2012 with the T4i: thus superseding the T3i.  The 18-55 STM was launched in Mar 2013, while the EF-S 55-250 STM was launched in mid-2013.   Thus, of all the kit lenses supplied for this body, the 18-135 STM which is a good lens, would arguably (but very unlikely) be the only one that might be in a kit for the T3i, if it was one of the very last produced, and thus worth salvaging for the newer R system. Again, this FL range was not apparently part of a pair of kit lenses.

The Alternative
It is for this reason that I suggest keeping the prime lenses, selling the kit lenses and getting the RF 24-240 lens as per my previous post, and supported by the links I provided. This will give the OP a native RF one-lens solution for most circumstances, with the two primes producing their natural focal lengths of 50mm (a good normal FL), and 85mm, the latter still being a great portrait one and providing the same FoV as the 50mm did on the T3i body.

[johnrmoyer]

With that budget, I would choose the EOS R10 and an adapter. All of your old lenses would work better on the R10 than they did with the old camera. The R10 would have slightly higher resolution allowing more cropping and much better auto focus than the old camera.The R10 would work much better than the Rebel T3i in low light, but not as well as some more expensive cameras.

There is a Canon video describing the EOS R10 camera at https://youtu.be/xSaDRg6Ykog and a review at https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-r10-initial-review .

Later, an additional lens might be purchased.

https://www.usa.canon.com/shop/p/eos-r10-rf-s18-45mm-f4-5-6-3-is-stm-lens-kit?color=Black&type=New 

or for $500 more which with $100 adapter would put you $100 over the budget maximum: https://www.usa.canon.com/shop/p/eos-r7?color=Black&type=New

I hope this might be helpful.

[stevet1]

Tieray,

I have the T8i and like it very much.

Steve Thomas

[deebatman316]

OP does own a non USM or STM lens the EF 50mm F/1.8 original. Which I believe used an AFD AF motor. This was the original EOS lens AF motor. USM wouldn't appear until 1989 with the first EOS-1. The RF 24-240 is a great native option. 

-Demetrius

40D, 5D IV, EF 16-35mm F/2.8L III, EF 24-70mm F/2.8L II, EF 28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 IS USM, EF 50 F/1.8 STM

430EX III-RT, 600EX II-RT

[deebatman316]

OP specified FF mirrorless. The EOS RP would be a great fit. With an adapter to use all of their current lenses. They can also add the RF 24-240mm to have a native lens.

-Demetrius

40D, 5D IV, EF 16-35mm F/2.8L III, EF 24-70mm F/2.8L II, EF 28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 IS USM, EF 50 F/1.8 STM

430EX III-RT, 600EX II-RT

[johnrmoyer]

One more possibility close to your budget maximum: https://www.usa.canon.com/shop/p/eos-r10-rf-s18-150mm-f3-5-6-3-is-stm-lens-kit?color=Black&type=New   but also on sale at Amazon and BHPhotoVideo and others.

https://www.usa.canon.com/shop/p/mount-adapter-ef-eos-r?color=Black&type=New would make all of your old lenses work with the new camera and work better than they did on the old camera.

Review of the kit lens on a more expensive camera is at  https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-RF-S-18-150mm-F3-5-6-3-IS-STM-Lens.aspx

EOS R10 review: https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EOS-R10.aspx  

[jrhoffman75]

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@Tleray wrote:

I currently have a Canon Rebel T3i with the included 2 lenses and 2 additional lenses i purchased.   I use my camera for all things "kids" (indoor cheer competitions, outdoor cheer for school, indoor school dance team performances in gym, dance team performances on field, etc).   My rebel has died and i'm looking for a new camera as the kids seasons has just started;)   The last year i have started using manual and AV modes playing with manual adjustments.

I have looked at the Rebel 8i which had ok reviews but read everything is moving to mirrorless, so i looked at the Eos RP.

I would like suggestions for an amateur to take pictures for school events and sports indoors and outdoors. Sometimes lighting is poor so i need a camera that can adjust to lighting.   This is not a camera for professional purposes but for family memories and scrapbooking.

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It sounds like you were doing fine with your original gear until the T3i died and would not be updating if it didn’t. That being the case I recommend the T8i.