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Okay mites, due to a recent burglary of my home in which ALL of my camera equipment was stolen, I'm in the bitter-sweet position of replacing what was lost.

I had a Canon T3i as my main camera, and an older Olympus SP570 and Sony cybershot as my backups. Now, the million-rand question...

What should I replace the T3i with? I liked the camera, but wasn't in love with it. I'd like to spend @ the same amount on the body itself, so the high-end units are out of my price range. My interests are photographing wildlife (poorly), landscapes (better), and sporting events (for some reason...I have a knack for this).

Any thoughts? What would you do?

Stark
First thing first.
There is no hurry.
Think about what you want to achieve now, short term and long term.
Do you want to improve if so will you need more expensive equipment.
Will you be able to enhance what you buy without starting again because of a wrong choice at the beginning of this process?
Look at every make and type of camera and lenses. Don't rule out anything untill you are certain.
Using local camera shops try out as much as you can.
Try out friends cameras and look at reports in the media and on the internet.
Consider second hand equipment from a reliable source.
Most of my kit is secondhand apart from the Nikon D7000 which I bought in Sedona having fallen over and using my D200 to break my fall. At twenty stone it didn't have a chance!!
Just some thoughts
Good hunting
Regards
JDW

Hi there,
If you want to shoot wildlife (birds and animals) buy a lens over 200mm. For landscape, buy a lens with a short focal length ie the 24-105 or 17-40. Don’t look to buying one lens for both jobs as your images will not be the best.
There is a reason why all the big names in photography (NIKON and CANON) have not made a lens with a focal range from less than 50 and more than 400. The results with speak for themselves.
Yes Sigma and Tamron sells lenses in this huge range (50-500, 150-500, 170-500, 200-500 etc), buy the image quality from a CANON or NIKON lens, will always be better. I have only been using Canon lenses for the last 7 years, after I used and tried multiple 3rd party lenses, I will not buy a 3rd part lens with such a huge focal range.
I AM IN NO WAY NOCKING THE SUGMA AND TAMRON NAMES. I have owned a Tamron 90mm marco for the last 4 years as well as a Tokina 20-35 and simply won’t sell them because they are very good lenses. Yes a bit low at focusing, but the image quality is worth the wait.
MY BEST LENSES FOR WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY:
1 X 300mm F2.8 l IS USM with a 1,4 TC III
MY BEST LENSES FOR LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY:
1 X 24mm-105mm f4 l IS USM, or 1 X 17mm-40mm F4 L USM (reason why you wouldn’t need the 16-35 F2.8 is because for landscape you would be shooting over F2.8 any ways).

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