Explore the best camera for birding in 2025 with our expert guide. Discover top-rated options for capturing sharp, detailed bird photos and videos—ideal for both beginners and professionals.
Both beginner and seasoned professionals know that selfie photography and video photography are extremely challenging and unforgiving. It requires you to invest a hefty amount in your camera gear, have a high skill level, and be patient with your results. But selecting a good camera body remains pivotal in this. Here are the top five camera bodies that we think are worth spending on this year.
Best Cameras for Birding:
1. With its lightweight telephoto profile and a fantastic 209-point hybrid system for autofocusing, the Nikon Z50 is the best camera for birding in the entry-level category of 2025. With its 20.9MP APS-C camera sensor, a nice 11 fps burst rate, and excellent color profile in the final shots, this camera can deliver some serious results at a budget price. The only downside is that it doesn’t come with stabilization, which will be a big turn-off for many.
2. Next is the Canon EOS R50, another great beginner-friendly camera on this list, which has an excellent Dual Pixel CMOS AF II system and a 24.2MP APS-C camera sensor with a burst rate going up to 15 fps with its electronic shutter. The camera is not going to perform like those in the top-tier league, but it can provide a great balance of speed and image quality for beginners.
3. The Canon EOS R7 steps up the game with its 32.5MP APS-C sensor, which can capture up to 30 fps burst and is optimized to work with both manual and autofocus lenses to get ultra-crisp shots for fast action and flight photography in its class. The lens also comes with nice weather sealing and has the best burst rate in this price category. The only downside with this camera is its limited ecosystem of RF-S lenses.
4. Now we are approaching the top of the food chain with the Sony A1, a camera body perfect for creating animal documentaries, and it is a marvel of engineering. The A1 is a high-res hybrid with super-high-speed capturing, a max of 30 fps burst with real-time tracking, and a special feature of Animal Eye-AF tracking. Combine it with an E-mount adapter for anamorphic lenses, and you will get true bird documentaries.
5. The Nikon Z8 is another beast placed at the top of the line from Nikon, which delivers the company’s flagship performance with its pro-level AF and a burst of 20 fps in RAW format thanks to its next-generation 45.7MP full-frame sensor. The camera is also weather-sealed and features a new optical design, which makes it the best camera for birding for professionals, where budget is not an issue.
Elevate Birding with Anamorphic Lenses:
Such camera bodies are a true powerhouse and have so much processing power when it comes to birding photography and videography. Shooting with ordinary lenses while investing in such camera bodies can be overkill, but now with the arrival of much cheaper anamorphic lenses, such cameras can truly unlock their true potential for this niche.
One such camera lens is the SIRUI Venus Full-Frame Anamorphic Cinema Lens set, which not just helps you document your footage but also adds emotion and preserves fleeting beauty with its anamorphic optics. The set comes in 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, 100mm, and 135mm variants and features a 2X squeeze factor, which can add a cinematic widescreen look to your footage with beautiful bokeh and lens flares.
The lens series also features a one-time focus mechanism that enables users to quickly focus on birds in dynamic situations. Moreover, these lenses are optimized for controlling focus breathing to make sure every shot you capture is well-focused and crisp. A must-have lens to pair with the above-stated camera bodies.
Wrapping Up:
The best camera for birding is the one that is weather-sealed, is super-fast in burst, can autofocus quickly, and captures in the highest resolution possible with stabilization. The lens to pair with such cameras should be one that can do much more than capture higher-resolution pictures. One such lens is the SIRUI Venus Full-Frame Anamorphic Cinema Lens, which gives a cinematic documentary experience to its users and helps unlock the true potential of these cameras.
