Hey all,

I have been browsing for the past couple of months but wanted to gather some opinions. My current setup is a 7D II with a sigma 150-600 mm Contemporary. I've enjoyed the combo for the past few years and for perched birds it does fairly well. Not as good as the big primes but acceptable for me who is doing this as a hobby. I also like the combo because I tend to enjoy walking around and taking pictures hand held most of the time. The issue I'm having is that for birds in flight I'm having a lot of issues. I feel as if the lens spends too much time hunting so that I can only get 1-2 shots before the opportunity has passed. Also when I shoot with anything other than single point + surround focus settings I tend to get wings and bodies in focus but rarely get the eyes in focus. As you can imagine, this makes it really challenging to always have the bird's head in my focus spot while panning. I feel like the times I get a "winner" shot for me are basically because the planets have aligned just right and the lens/body worked for me. I've shot side by side with other photographers using big primes who don't seem to have these issues.

At this point I'm looking at upgrading my gear to help improve this part of my photography game. I have enough money saved up to make one "big" purchase and wanted to ask what others thought would allow me to improve my BiF photography. One option is to stick with my 7D II and get a big canon prime (probably 400 or 500 f4) +/- a 1.4 tele if needed. The other option would be to upgrade my body to a 5DIV and keep my other lens or get an older prime if I can find it used. The more radical option would be to jump ship to Nikon and go for a D850. I'd have to get a less expensive lens if that were the case (probably 200-500 would be my first guess but would be open to suggestions).

Ultimately, I want to improve and see my photography grow and am looking for guidance as to what everything thinks might help me to get there. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

Jared Bird