Canon DSLR for photographing bugs

Columbusrat wrote:

I'm thinking of upgrading from my Canon Powershot G7XII to a DSLR for my hobby - photographing bugs in the garden. I'd like a Canon as my much more tecchie-minded husband and son use them so they'll be able to help me out with settings etc. when needed. I have a number of compromises I need to make, so wondered if anyone could recommend the best body/lens combo, please?

The main downsides of my G7XII are that it's much harder to focus than my son's DSLR, even using the touchscreen or manual, and I don't get the lovely shallow depth of field look I get with the DSLR. Plus it's not great for macro in general.

Limitations:

1) I want to be able to wander around the garden, see what I spot, swing my camera into action, point and focus, and photograph it before it's flitted away. Now, it may be a tiny insect less than a centimetre long where I can get in really close and want to be able to see the hairs on its legs... or it might be a butterfly on the top of a bush where I can't get within a metre.

2) I don't want to have to use a tripod, or set manual focus and wait for an insect to land on a particular flower head. Life's too short, and I probably only went into the garden to get the washing in.

3) The lighter the better - I'm not very strong and using my son's DSLR and 55-250mm lens plus extension, I find it very hard to hold steady when pointing at something over head height.

4) I'd like to be able to take decent photos in more shady areas, without camera shake becoming a problem - on P setting, the DSLR often chooses 1/60sec which is hopeless, with camera shake and insect movement becoming a problem, but setting a faster speed obviously leads to other compromises. So maybe I need a ring light?

I know these are pretty mutually exclusive, so accept I might have to settle for doing separate 'macro' forays and 'flitting around in the borders' forays, changing lens in between - or a physically longer lens. Hubby is suggesting a fixed length lens for the more short-range stuff.

In terms of quality, I'd like to see the hairs on a small fly's legs clearly defined, but don't need to see every cell in a compound eye. And I like the zingy colour I get with the G7, but I assume any DSLR would give as good results.

I don't really want to go over £1000 in total. Oh, and focus stacking could be useful, for those shots that are so close in one end of the insect is in focus and the other isn't...

To reach 1:1, you'll need a macro lens, which will be a fixed focal length. You probably want something in the 90mm range to get a reasonable working distance. Having Image Stabilization will help up to a point, but beyond that, you will likely use a TTL speedlight to freeze motion and avoid camera shake. For strictly hand-held, I'd expect to use flash.

I'm not familiar with Canon, so I don't know what sort of weight is involved. I doubt it could be much lighter than the dslr you use now. A micro 4/3 with a macro lens can weigh less than 600 grams for comparison.