250D or 850D... or mirrorless?

I'd like to upgrade from my G7X II and am considering a 250D or 850D. I have quite specific requirements, which I hope will help people guide me in my choice.

My hobby is photographing bugs in my garden (I may go further afield when I run out of species!). Ideally, I would saunter down the garden on the way to hang the washing out with my camera over my shoulder 'just in case', look into the borders and be able to snap a tiny hoverfly at close range, or a butterfly over head height at the top of a bush. Chances are the insect will have disappeared before I've had a chance to faff around with focus, though occasionally I'll set my camera to manually focus around 8" and move in and out in continuous shooting mode.

Lighting can be tricky, particularly for bugs in shady areas, as I'll want a fast shutter speed to freeze wing movement and overcome camera shake, but I may also want a narrow aperture to help with focusing. I've yet to play with ISO to try to counteract this, but may well want a ring flash for the up-close shots.

Realistically, I may be better doing two rounds of the garden, one with a macro prime lens for close-ups, and one with a zoom lens. Given the way I want to work, I don't want to use a tripod.

I know that lens choice is probably more important here than body choice, but I'm most definitely a novice, am working through my Dorling Kindersley book on photography for beginners, and haven't got that far yet, so I'm just concentrating on the body for now! My husband and son are quite knowledgeable (though they tend to lose me the moment they try to explain anything...), but it would be good to hear the experiences of anyone who has used these bodies for what I want to do. Is the extra cost of the D850 worth it? Should I also be looking at mirrorless in the same price range? I want to stick to Canon as hubby and son use them and are familiar with them, and already have a few lenses.

Photo below of a shot I took with my son's 700D. No idea what lens I had on at the time though. 1/250 sec, f7.1, ISO 200, I'm guessing with the camera on auto.

I'm having exactly the same thought process with my 700D.

First the exif data shows that the image you posted was taken with the 55-250 mm STM lens which I recently bought new.. a very good kit lens but the 700D isn't a particularly good camera IMHO. My 650D has much better image quality than my 700D and my brothers 800D is similar as well.

The 850D is supposedly considerably better than the previous Canon models but frankly I dont think its good enough to justify the price tag.

From all I've seen the 250D (SL3) is a considerably better camera than what I'm currently using image quality wise. For video work I would look elsewhere.

One of the major issues I have with 700D is poor AF performance. With this model they brought in the new hybrid AF and its not great, they changed this in later models to AF with 19 points and it seems to be more reliable.

With all that in mind I'm looking at 3 options, the EOS 250D, the EOS M50 or the somewhat older EOS M6. At the moment the EOS 250 appeals because I already have lenses for it, but I do like the smaller lite weight mirrorless cameras as well.

I'm giving my 700D one last chance with an upcoming photography club outing to see if I can really get good images out of it and figure out the best method to do so.

Otherwise for me it will be a move towards the 250D, pricing is too prohibitive for me to go mirrorless right now.

Thanks for your reply, Ralph - it's very helpful. My son also agrees that the 850D probably isn't worth the extra.

I hadn't realised that not all lenses fit the mirrorless cameras, so that's good to know, particularly as we have some lenses already.

I'm not sure the reduction in size/weight of the M50 is too important for me, as the D250 is lighter than the D700 and I've managed that OK (apart from problems with stability with overhead shots). If I want to take a camera out on walks, or to have it slung over my shoulder while gardening or entertaining the dog I can fall back on my compact.

Ideally I'd get my hands in the different models and see how they feel, but that's not easy right now.

Columbusrat wrote:

Thanks for your reply, Ralph - it's very helpful. My son also agrees that the 850D probably isn't worth the extra.

I hadn't realised that not all lenses fit the mirrorless cameras, so that's good to know, particularly as we have some lenses already.

I'm not sure the reduction in size/weight of the M50 is too important for me, as the D250 is lighter than the D700 and I've managed that OK (apart from problems with stability with overhead shots). If I want to take a camera out on walks, or to have it slung over my shoulder while gardening or entertaining the dog I can fall back on my compact.

Ideally I'd get my hands in the different models and see how they feel, but that's not easy right now.

Hello

as far as I’m aware all lenses that fit a canon DSLR will also fit a canon M mount mirrorless body by use of the adaptor that from what I gather works flawlessly given it’s a canon product. So you could certainly go M50 etc and use your sons lenses.

Ah, thanks AD12. I'm probably going to go for the 250D, but it's good to know the mirrorless are still an option.

Thank you threed123 - I've only been looking at Canon lenses to keep things simple, but maybe my perfect lens is elsewhere....

threed123 wrote:

Columbusrat wrote:

Ah, thanks AD12. I'm probably going to go for the 250D, but it's good to know the mirrorless are still an option.

Many EF lenses not made for mirrorless cameras will vignette the image because the lenses are typically made for APC-sized sensors. My son was looking at mirrorless and when we researched it, there were only a couple (expensive) lenses recommended for it. My son has the US version of the 850D and loves it, and it can use any EF or EFS Canon lens, and in the end, lenses are everything for bugs. The 250D is a good choice for you as the images will be about the same as the 850D. Plus get a nice macro lens or regular lens that does macro as well. Lots of good used lenses out there now. Telephoto or zoom lens can be used as close-up lenses, but you have some image warp, whereas macro lenses have a better flatter field. Just ask on the forum, you will get a lot responses on lenses.

Sorry could you explain a bit further? I’m sure that the EF and EF-S lenses work fine on the M mount by adaptor. APS-C EF-S lenses are the same size sensor as M mirrorless, both APS-C. The EF full frame lenses will certainly not vignette I’d expect as they are designed for a FF sensor.

The best macro pictures I took, was with the canon sx 60. Because of the smaller sensor and zoom lens you get great depth of field. The greater the sensor the harder it will be to catch flying bugs. From that perspective the GX7 is not that bad and an apsc sensor camera will maybe not directly deliver the results you are hoping for.