So my sister is getting married in January and I've finally decided to ditch my old Rebel T6 because the autofocus is just not cutting it anymore for fast stuff. I've been looking at the Canon mirrorless R series for a few weeks now but the pricing is all over the place. I saw that B&H has this bundle for the R6 Mark II but even with the discount it's still way over 2 grand which is pushing my budget way too far. I found a deal on the Canon refurbished site for an R8 that looked amazing price-wise but then I read a few threads saying the battery life is pretty bad for long events like weddings so now I'm second guessing that whole setup.
I'm trying to stay under $1500 for the body and maybe a decent kit lens if possible. I'm based in Chicago so I have access to some big camera shops but I dont know if they do better deals in-person than what I see online. Everything I find labeled as a Black Friday deal right now looks exactly like the prices I saw in October honestly... it's kind of annoying. Do you guys think there are actually gonna be deeper cuts on the R7 or R8 closer to the actual day or is this pretty much as good as it gets? I'm worried if I wait too long the stock will just run out...
Honestly, the deals you see right now are likely what you are gonna get for the rest of the month. Canon usually sets their holiday pricing early and sticks to it, so waiting for a massive drop on the actual Friday usually just leads to disappointment or out-of-stock notices. I wouldnt bank on deeper cuts than what is already live. Regarding the battery issue on the Canon EOS R8 Mirrorless Camera Body, those threads arent lying. The LP-E17 is tiny. If you go that route for a wedding, you absolutely need to buy three or four spare batteries. It works, but it is a hassle to swap them every couple hours. Since you have a $1500 budget, you should look at the Canon EOS R7 with RF-S 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM Kit. It uses the larger LP-E6NH battery which lasts way longer, and more importantly for a wedding, it has dual card slots. If one card fails during your sisters ceremony, you have a backup. To me, that's worth more than the full-frame sensor of the R8 when shooting an unrepeatable event. Keep an eye on the refurbished site tho. Sometimes they do a 10 percent off sitewide sale on top of the refurbished prices right around Thanksgiving. If you can snag a refurbished Canon EOS R6 Mark II Mirrorless Camera Body during one of those flashes, it might just barely fit your budget and that is a much safer tool for what you need.
