Birding Camera

You are going to discover that everything has its limitations. A FF DSLR with a 500/600mm F4 lens is just perfect for birding; sharp, lightning fast af etc. Unfortunately it costs a small fortune, weighs half a ton and requires a huge, heavy tripod and head. Oh dear, it's still not quite long enough (birds are small and usually distant). Oh well, add a teleconverter...

Half the battle with photographing birds is being there at the same time as the bird, which usually involves some walking, IME. With an OMD (or equivalent) and a Panasonic 100-300 (which combo I now have) or the Olympus equivalent lens, you're likely to have it along with you. That said it's taken me some time to learn how to get decent results out of it. In any case my bird photography is more about birdwatching than photography. Otherwise I'd be sitting in a hide with the DSLR combo.

As for learning how to use a given camera/lens combination, that's something you're going to have to chew on no matter what you buy; some gear is easier than others of course. M4/3 DOF is obviously not so much of a problem as larger formats, in fact it's advantageous for this type of photography.

As for the "bad copy" syndrome, well, it exists no doubt, but I suspect the problem's usually "bad operator".

Roy