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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dave Williams" data-source="post: 3503855" data-attributes="member: 53820">The market in the USA might be different to the UK's but here there is a greater selection of used Canon lenses than there is Nikon's. The reason is probably that Canon have stayed ahead of the game in the lens department.Body wise though I always feel that Nikon have had the edge and Canon only play catch up, never seem to leap ahead. This might be a false impression though, Nikon users waited an age for the D400 which never arrived, I know I was a Nikon user with a D300s ( a great camera) before moving over to Canon but my move was motivated by lens availability not camera body.In the mid price bracket right now there are two obvious choices to me , Canon's 7D2 and Nikon's D500.I think the D500 wins but as a more recent release it's not surprising. The 7D2 is a very useful bit of kit though and as it's been around for two years you should be able to pick up a well looked after used model for about half your budget. I doubt you'll find a D500 at a knockdown price for a while.So, if you decide this is the route to travel then keep your eyes out for a used 400mm f5.6 which again you should find for roughly half your budget.Most people agree though, a lens is a better investment than a camera body. A good lens will hold it's value much better than a body because the technology improvements to lenses are limited more to weight and electronics than image quality. A piece of glass is just that. The 400 5.6 might be ancient but the glass is up to date with all the others. Where you might find an issue is with the reach that you have although with a crop body 400mm should suffice. Some bodies will allow use of a 1.4TC with this lens. The aperture becomes f8 and this is where two factors come in to play. The lower light ability of the body and the speed of auto focus of the lens.For the latter I guess that's where the electronics come in to play and recent lenses are faster than their predecessor equivalents.The Nikon D500 is better from what I gather than the 7D2 but it's discounted for cost so it's a 7D2 then. You should be able to comfortably shoot at ISO1600, produce noise free images at 3200 and even push to 6400 and beyond. It will be a major leap forward from the body you currently use with huge improvements in frame rate for action shots, auto focus ability with so many more focus points available ( but that depends on what lens and/or TC combination you use) whilst ISO performance shows decent improvements too.All in all that would be my choice.You have a Canon body so my first acquisition would be the lens. Be patient, they come on the market quite frequently. Wait for a good deal. Then grab yourself a good deal on the 7D2.Good luck.Dave.</blockquote>

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