Canon Community

ws · ‎10-10-2015

I like to go birding and found it enjoyable using my sons Canon 5T, some pics were good and others I needed sharper resolution. Would an EOS 70 D be marked improvement? Is this model restricted to specific lenses, so if are there restrictions to the lenses it can use?

jrhoffman75 · ‎10-10-2015

Birds in flight or stationary? What lens were you using?

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

ws · ‎10-10-2015

Both! I got some decent picks of a black phoebe and an Anna's Humming Bird in mid flight using the sports or action setting. It was a 300mm zoom that comes in the kit he bought at COSTCO for this model.

jrhoffman75 · ‎10-10-2015

I would guess your lens is the limiting factor. A faster lens (lower f/stop number) will let you use a faster shutter speed to stop action. Are your "unsharp" images motion blur or image quality?

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

ws · ‎10-11-2015

Ya the lens is pretty low end. It struggled a bit in shady conditions and the wing bluer was a bit much. The EOS 70 D comes with a 250mm lens versus the 300mm on my sons. Would the 250mm lens work better because of a more sensitive ISO range?The ISO ranges from something like 100-12000 where the one on my son's ranges from 100-600.
Thanks

jrhoffman75 · ‎10-11-2015

Birds in flight is very challenging. The higher level camera you have the higher your success rate. If it fits your budget the 70D is a better choice.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/cameras/canon/70d/vs/canon/t5/

At www.the-digital-picture.com you can peruse lens reviews.

Another option, slightly less expensive than the 70D is the new T6s.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/cameras/canon/70d/vs/canon/t6s/

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

TTMartin · ‎10-11-2015

@ws wrote:
Ya the lens is pretty low end. It struggled a bit in shady conditions and the wing bluer was a bit much. The EOS 70 D comes with a 250mm lens versus the 300mm on my sons. Would the 250mm lens work better because of a more sensitive ISO range?The ISO ranges from something like 100-12000 where the one on my son's ranges from 100-600.
Thanks

The reasons to go with the 70D over a Rebel like your son's T5 is a better AF system, more frames take per second, and a larger buffer so you can take more pictures in a row.

I would choose the EF-S 55-250 IS STM over the EF 75-300 lens that it is likely that your son has. The STM lens will have better image quality, and also image stabilization (IS) which does help with birds not in flight.

Figure either of those lenses will be 'starter' lenses, and if you really get into birding you will eventually move up to the EF 100-400 L IS II or one of the 3rd party 150-500/600mm lenses.

To answer your original question the 70D can use all the same lenses as the T5 which includes all EF and EF-S lenses and compatible 3rd party lenses. Both the lenses you've asked about have the same maximum aperture of f/5.6 so ISOs will be similar. I believe the 70D has better high ISO performance than the T5 so coupled with the better image quality of the STM lens you should be able to crop a little further than you could with your son's setup.