KevinP said:
The APS-C upgrade path has been maddening me this year too. It is that cost and size problem.
I've looked at the 11-20 f2.8 Tokina, 24-70 f4 macro, and 100-400 Sigma as another affordable-ish crop body trio. A Tamron 24-70 f2.8 (non G2) could be another good option to stay below $800 per zoom and get the faster aperture for the portrait range.
For camera size, I like SL2 to 77D range. The size of current FF Canon is an instant veto for me, and even more for my wife. Big lenses don't change that the big cameras feel oversize to my hands. The A7III is an instant crush this week (give me eye AF and IBIS for my shaky hands). I'm just not ready for a full frame kit approaching 2x the cost. Eye or pupil AF in the new M50 is encouraging. 90D could be a really cool camera. For now, just waiting until I see a deal on a Canon crop body I can't resist.
I would go 80D over 77D.
The Canon EF70-300 f4-5.6 USM (nano) is a pretty good bet. The image quality is good, the autofocus is fast and reasonably consistent considering the price, and it goes on sale for ridiculously cheap prices at times. It suffers from slightly soft corners, which you'll happily never see on a crop
The alternative is the EFS55-250 STM, which is a great lens for the price, and not very big.
If it were me, the only other lens I'd need on a budget would be the Canon EFS18-135 USM (nano). That's an exceptional lens for the price, I think, with probably the fastest, quietest AF I've seen of any lens, ever.
Sure, it's not amazing under 24, and isn't really that great over 100, but that leaves a pretty good range where it is perfectly sharp all around, especially stopped down to f/5.6. And even at the ends of its focal range, it's not a
terrible lens; it's just not as good as much larger, heavier and more expensive options.
If you want wide, I don't think that you can do better than the EFS10-18. That's spectacular image quality at a steal, though the lens doesn't "feel" very premium.
So... there you go, that would be my crop trinity (10-18, 18-135, 70-300 or 55-250), though the 70-300 isn't EFS.
By the way, I really love the EF24-70L f4. However, on a crop, I find that 24 usually wide enough, but sometimes not quite. And, that leaves a big gap between 18mm - 24mm, which is an important focal range to me.