Upgrade recommendations from EOS M50

[cranfordrd]

Currently have a Canon m50. I'm looking to upgrade but would like to stay with a cropped sensor (keep the body small and cost of lenses down). I am looking for better auto focus, customizable settings (I'm a birder and want to be able to go from settings for a still bird to a flying bird or landscape very easily) and a weatherproof body. Is there such a camera? If nothing has all I want what would you suggest?

[Tronhard · Accepted solution]

It is extremely difficult to make suggestions without a hard and fast budget for both the body and lens. Also we need to know what lenses you currently shoot with to establish if they can be ported across to another camera platform, such as a DSLR or MILC R-series body.

At what ranges do you normally shoot, or to put it another way what focal lengths are you using or want to use?
Finally, what do you produce?  For social media, digital display, small-medium prints?

All of these have impacts on what is a viable suggestion for you.,

Straight off, without knowing ANY of these fundamental details, the R-series MILC platform is the one that has any longevity and as such is the most practical one to buy into. DSLRs are on life support as a platform.  None of your EF-M lenses will work with any of these bodies, although you might be able to port across any long EF lenses you have via the Canon EF-RF adapter.

Wildlife and scenic are quite divergent categories.  While wildlife may benefit from the cropped field of view of an APS-C camera, landscape favours FF bodies to use wide angle, short focal length lenses.  Mind you, much can be achieved with the right optic.  While one can use a longer lens to get close on a FF body, it is harder to get wider angles on a crop sensor body.

The current leader in the APS-C body R-series is the EOS R7, which has In-body-image stabilization (IBIS), face and eye tracking and claims some weather sealing.  That latter point is not a simple thing.  First of all no camera, unless sealed, like a tough camera or diving unit, is totally weather sealed, and a weak point of even the more sealed bodies is the lens attached to the front.  If one goes for the premier L lenses (which are for FF bodies but can be used on crop sensor cameras), then they have some degree of weather sealing - but the rest, not so much.  This is particularly relevant for lenses that extend and contract significantly to zoom in and out.  Such actions create a bellows effect that sucks moisture and dust into the lens and eventually pushes that into the camera body.  Dust in a lens is not a big issue - that is not seen on an image, if dust penetrates to the sensor it will show up on every image.  The enemy is moisture.  Once it penetrates a lens or body it starts to cause corrosion and can also generate fungal growth - which is essentially the death of a lens.  Of course, this can be mitigated by avoiding moisture or wrapping your gear with some kind of cover - especially if shooting near the coast or in wet conditions.

There are currently (nor have there been) any sealed lenses specifically for APS-C lenses.  Further, the range of kit lenses is generally considered cheaper and rather underwhelming.  Canon have licensed Sigma to produce lenses for the RF-S range (not RF lens range) and these are based on excellent optics currently that have proved their worth on Sony and Fuji cameras.  Some of those might be of interest for your landscape - particularly the 10-18 and 18-50 units that are being released.  For longer optics there are currently only Canon native RF lenses and one can use EF and EF-S lenses via the Canon EF-RF adapters and they seem to work pretty seamlessly.  I currently shoot with the EF 100-400L MkII, and the Sigma 60-600s with no issues.  I have shot with the Sigma 150-600c lens and on my FF cameras there have been no issues.

There have been issues for some using the R7 with pulsing in and out of focus.  This has been addressed by Duade Paton, an Aussie birder who engaged with Canon to find out why he and others were not getting consistent focus with the R7.  Here is the result: CANON RESPOND, THEIR ADMISSION SURPRISED ME! (youtube.com).

I could give you a long, fairly technical explanation of why this happens but it comes down to the focusing system being on a budget and challenged by too much data coming from the sensor to handle.   So, the next body down in the APS-C R mount is the R10, which has a much more modest (and forgiving) 24MP sensor, a smaller battery (LP-E17 like your M50) and no IBIS, but it does have the face and eye tracking and excellent focus.  Not so much weather sealing but that can be mitigated as above.   I would not go below that to the R50 and R100 models as they lack the controls that are useful for wildlife.

However, I would suggest not giving up on the FF bodies.  Their sensors are inclined to be less noisy, and the R6 series have IBIS, weather sealing and a bigger battery.  They can also take battery grips, which can be very handy when using big lenses - both for the energy capacity to focus them and also the set of portrait controls when shooting in that orientation.   

Right now there are some truly excellent deals to be had on the Canon Refurb site* for R6 bodies (either the R6 or R6II is a great camera) which will work well with the lenses I have mentioned and you can then get glass with weather sealing.  I have posted a series of images taken with these bodies in the section  Gallery > Share your Photos if you decide to check them out.

There are cheaper FF bodies as well, and again these have the same face/eye tracking as the R6 series, but lack the IBIS and sealing.  They too use the LP-E17 battery and in that group the one I would consider is the EOS R8.

As a wildlife shooter  I find the R6 series to be excellent performers.  The lenses are another question and that is where the longer-term investment comes in: bodies come and go but lenses are a longer-term investment and also arguably have a greater impact on image quality.

Canon makes a couple of great lenses that I use:
As the ultimate do it all unit the RF 24-240 lens is rather brilliant, while not an L optic, is has great performance.
The RF 24-105 f/4 is a great lens, sealed and a very popular kit lens.
The RF 100-400 is not an L, but good performance at a reasonable price
The RF 100-500L is a brilliant lens, but is not cheap
The RF 200-800, is not an L lens, but has some sealing and is a great optic.  The hard part is getting one.

If you want to venture outside of the Canon native glass, then using a Canon EF-RF adapter will let you use:
Sigma 150-600c   a great value FF lens for wildlife
Sigma 60-600s  massive range, fabulous optics but a bit pricier and heavier - equivalent to an L lens

That should give you something to chew over.   Again if you want more targeted suggestions, the providing the information asked for will help us to help you.

The Canon Refurbished Camera site has cameras that may be new and overstock, opened but not used, show or demo units, but are essentially as good as new and come with a warranty and a discount.   See:
Canon Refurbished Cameras & Accessories | Canon U.S.A, Inc.  for refurb lenses see:
Refurbished Lenses - Lenses - Consumer Catalog (canon.com)

[cranfordrd]

Hi, a delayed thank you for the informative and detailed reply! I ended up with a R10, the R7 and FF are just too heavy for me. I LOVE it but had issues with my Tamron 18-400 hunting for focus. I live 10 mins from the Tamron USA Headquarters so I walked in and they updated the lens firmware, that along with a basic Canon adapter (not the one with the adjustable ring) seems to have done the trick.