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Camera (Jan, 2026)
The Canon R6 Mark III is the most cost effective camera purchase when combined with the Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 IS USM.
This combo gives you an affordable mirrorless camera with great low light performance, great AF as well as the highly coveted pre-capture. It is a perfect fit for the 200-800mm zoom. Maybe the most popular combo today!
If it is in your budget then I would recomend the Canon R5 Mark II instead. You get more functionality, and 45 megapixel instead of 32 megapixel, which is great for when you have to crop your images.
I personally already own the Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM and the Canon R5. I would really like to have the pre-capture and a longer reach. I might switch camera/lens in the future, but for now I am eagerly waiting for the Canon R7 Mark II to see if it is better than the R7 (Mark I) lemon I previously owned. I also enjoy the light weight of the 100-500mm, but often wish I had the reach of an 800mm!
Lens
I recommend the Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 IS USM if you primarily photograph birds. Having the reach of 800mm and the possibility to zoom out is the perfect combo.
The Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM is still the best all-round tele-zoom. Its main advantages is the light weight, good for Birds in Flight (BIF) as well as handheld portraits. It has a close focus of only 119cm for insects and flora, and at 100mm wide enough for mammals. The biggest drawback is the cost and that it is a bit short with a full-frame camera.
Best Lightweight & budget
For beginners, those who want the cheapest new setup or those who want the lightest possible lens+camera combo can look at getting Canon R7 with the ultralight Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM.
If you find it to be too short, then I would also suggest the lightweight and affordable Canon RF 800mm f/11 DO IS STM for those small and far away birds. Note however that this lens has a real bad aperture and close focus distance.
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III + M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 300mm F4 IS PRO might be the best deal for the more demanding birdphotographer with a fixed aperture of F/4.0. But note that the depth of field doesn't equal F/4.0 of a full-format camera like the Canon R5. Some people say it is more like the bokeh of a F/8.0. But the camera and setup is very small and the second most lightweight combo.
Sigma & Tamron mega-zoom
I have used Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2 and the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM C, but I found them to be too heavy and cumbersome as a walk-around lens and most of all loose too much in sharpness at 550-600mm. It could have been with not stopping down the aperture, AF issues etc. I never found them reliable at the far end. It is difficult to remember this in the field so I sold them and stuck with the Canon 100-400mm zoom for a while instead. Note that you can add an Extender (1.4x) to the Canon Zoom, but I never got any good results with that combo (using APS-C cameras)! It is usually better to use it as is and make use of the extra megapixels when you are cropping the images instead.
Sony
Sony FE 400-800 f/6.3-8 G OSS has the best quality and reach for the price, renders the best sharpness at 800mm (see above on Sigma/Tamron 150-600mm). The ultimate Sony camera with this lens is the very expensive Sony α1 II as it has birds-eye autofocus etc. I find the Sony α6700 to be too small for this hefty lens. It becomes a bit cumbersome handheld (but it works). A good alternative would be a used Sony α7R V camera, but then the price goes drastically up.Note that this lens is not handholdable for longer periods of time, I used its cousin 200-600mm mostly on a tripod/monopod. I finally sold this lens to get the Canon 100-500. It was mainly for the lighter weight, but also because I wanted better close focus for flowers and insects as well as the wider 100mm for mammals. I also wanted an affordable camera (Canon R7) with birds-eye autofocus, which my a6600 didn't have.
If you want to save some money on the lens and want better close focus of only 60cm then the Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Di III VXD G2 could be an option.
Nikon
Their best new mirrorless is the Nikon Z9 and the Z8. I would use the Z8 with the compact and light weight NIKKOR Z 600mm f/6.3 VR S. The heavier but more versatile Nikon Z 180-600mm VR could also be an option.Fujifilm
A strong contender to the Sony setup might just be the new (for 2022) Fujinon XF150-600mm F5.6-8 R LM OIS WR coupled with the Fujifilm X-T5 or X-H2 with 40mp sensors! They have a crop factor of 1.5x making the effective reach 900mm. I had previously the Sony 200-600 zoom as the "Best quality and reach for the price". But especially as the Fujinon is much more lightweight than the Sony lens, with a camera+lens total weight of only 2260g, this is possibly the new leader in this category of internal tele-zooms. I will however stick to my Canon 100-500 for now as I value the close focus of only 1194mm compared to the Sony and Fujinon lenses of 2800mm and 2400mm respectively.OM SYSTEM (formerly Olympus)
Many switched to Olympus for the quality, light weight and portability with comparably small lenses and cameras. Those who got tired of lugging large lenses or needed the most compact form factor often went for the very good OM-1 Mark II + M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 300mm F4 IS PRO at only 1850g together. With the Micro Four Thirds-camera sensor this lens becomes a 600mmm in a 35mm equivalent (similar to the Canon 100-400mm). Note however that OM-system cameras have a much smaller sensor which brings higher levels of noise as well as having less bokeh of comparable lenses. Their latest high-end camera + lens combo is the OM-1 Mark II and the M.Zuiko 150-400mm F4.5 TC1.25x IS PRO which gives you a much better reach, but again weighs more.
The ultimate setup
To get the sharpest images with the most pleasing background blur then nothing beats a prime lens (one focal length) with a large aperture. If money and weight are of no concern, and you are a Canon shooter, then I would get the Canon RF 600mm f/4.0 IS USM and Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM for when the 600mm isn't practical.If filming or low light photography are the main purposes for the camera then I would get the expensive flagship Canon R1 otherwise the Canon R5 Mark II. I would also get the Canon R7 Mark II when announced, for the zoom lens as the go-to walk-around combo. I will never again use the Canon R7!
Final thoughts
The best options in my opinion if I only wanted one really good and affordable lens it would probably be one of these four lenses and brands. The cameras varies to your financial decisions and what is the current best deal. My suggestions today:
- NIKKOR Z 600mm f/6.3 VR S + Nikon Z8
- Sony FE 400-800 f/6.3-8 G OSS + Sony α7R V
- Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 IS USM + Canon R5 Mark II
- M.ZUIKO 150-400MM IS PRO + OM-1 Mark II
Workflow & image editing
The first thing is to learn your camera, set it up properly and to your liking. Often we simply use company presets, but soon you realize that you want to shoot RAW in order to edit your files, and maybe adjust the autofocus, metering etc. I suggest watching the instructions on YouTube
When the camera is setup you need to work on your composition and find your style of photography. There are plenty of books, online tutorials, videos etc. I like like this old generic Guidelines for Better Photographic Composition from the early Internet website period, don't be alarmed ;-)...It applies not only to humans and architecture, but to all subjects.
Next is to find a workflow that works for you. Pictures often need improvements before you share or print them, such as sharpening, noise reduction, color, contrast, or light adjustments. You want to minimize the time spent doing this and then make sure you store them in a safe, smart way. There are many good tutorials out there. Begin by going to Glenn Bartley and his Post Processing Simplified. Do check out his YouTube: Bird Photography Show and I especially like his friends channel YouTube: Jan Wegener and he has his own Editing techniques. I also recommend looking into Jess Findlay's Post-Processing eBook
My Workflow
- Review images on the camera; Rate & Delete
- Download images to a fast external SSD
- Review images on the computer; Rate & Delete using Adobe Lightroom Classic, Adobe Bridge, Breezebrowser, XnView MP etc.
- Edit in Adobe Photoshop CC;
- open in the latest Adobe Camera Raw and remove noise with AI-powered Denoise.
- crop & resize to 1500px wide and about 200kb large
- adjust white balance & exposure if needed
- selectively modify background and object; Sharpening/noise reduction with Topaz Sharpen AI
- Save & organize images according to date + description on a duplicate set of harddisks