philo Loc: philo, ca

I will be going to Africa and my Tamron 150-600 is going to be my goto lens. I was planning on shooting in M with a shutter speed on 1000 and an f of about 5.6. Do you believe that these setting will produce sharp images taken from a stopped van. I'm not too concerned about noise. My iso will be set at auto. Also I can't use a tripod while in the van.

Guzser02

Hi, your Tamron 150-600 lens sounds good.
I'd like to look at a other pertinent issues.
-Take a travel adapter (multiple types of AC connectors) to charge your batteries.
-Limit your change of lenses (sensor dust).
-Take extra memory cards.

philo Loc: philo, ca

thanks...I'm packing 10 batteries and lots of cards..one 256, two 128, 3--64 and a couple of 32

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

With auto-ISO those settings should be fine, plus shooting in M you can make adjustments as necessary if needed.

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

I would think that by the time you filled up all those cards you would have shot something at just about every shutter speed/f stop/ISO combination your camera has. Impossible to say what is right for an unknown situation. With that lens, shooting long, I don’t think f5.6 will be your friend. Your DOF is going to be pretty narrow. I would pay close attention to that. Three lions together and your going to want them all sharp even if they are on different planes.
...Cam

Hip Coyote

I have SOME experience. Can I ask where you are going? And is your safari vehicle / guide allowed to go off road or is it confined to the road? I will respond when I get the responses.

Woodchip

Be prepared for dust my wife and I went a few years ago and when there is 4” of dust on the road and you can not see her beside you your camera needs protection

george19

Consider taking a bean bag to rest the lens on.

scubadoc Loc: Sarasota, FL

Manual settings with auto ISO is the best way to shoot animal photos on safari, but you need to be very careful with the settings, as the best setting will depend on the scenario. Lion families are fairly sedate and you will encompass many scenes where a lioness is feeding her cubs while lying sedately on the ground. You will not need a high shutter speed and a smaller f/stop will help capture the entire family. Leopards sitting in a tree in the shade will likely require a wider aperture. Obviously, animals on the move will require shutter speeds of at least 1/1000, while birds in flight will require shutter speeds of 1/2500 and up, so auto ISO will be your friend. There are many YouTube videos from experienced safari photography sites who will also provide detailed information.
You do not mention the IBIS capability of your camera/lens combination, and that is also a factor to consider. If you are shooting on a full frame body, 600 mm will give you great portraits. Depending on the environment and your guides, you might get quite close to the animals and will likely be using focal lengths of 150-400 mm more frequently. After your first day of shooting, try to critically analyze your images to see what, if necessary, you might want to change for the next day.

David in Dallas Loc: Dallas, Texas, USA

I toured Kenya in 2019. I had 2 D7100 camera, one wearing an 18-200VR2 lens and the other a 200-500VR lens. I had 2 cameras to avoid having to change lenses in the field (to avoid dust). Most of my shots were done with the smaller lens. I just used Auto no-flash and Auto ISO for most of the time. For the animals the longer focal lengths were primary and for general scenics the 18mm setting was often used, with f/14 and 1/800, ISO 1600 as common. With the 18-200 lens, animal shots varied from 60mm to 200mm, with ISO 1600 and speeds from 1/500 on up to 1/1600. The long lens was often used at full 500mm with speeds of 1/1000, but the ISO was sometimes as low as 400, with the full f/5.6 aperture.

Are you going to be riding in a rover vehicle? If you shoot from the open roof you'll want to use a pad of some sort between the roof and the camera.

If you'd like to check out what I shot, they are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8712554@N02/collections/72157713295140362/. An Album with just selected photos is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8712554@N02/sets/72157711628146807/. Photos with titles beginning "DEC" were done with the shorter zoom lens and those beginning with "DSC" were done with the longer zoom. If you have pulled up a photo, the EXIF information will detail what the camera settings were.

My experience was that the settings varied so much from photo to photo that it would have been quite a chore to be doing that in the Manual mode. Maybe you are more skilled with that than I am. I tried a few under Manual and somehow got the shutter set to 1/8000 for some of the shots--they were VERY dark and it was all I could do with post-processing to get a usable picture from them. A warning to be careful.

Enjoy your trip to Africa. Your 150-600 lens will do fine for most of what you want to shoot. My shots of the villages from the highway travel were with shorter focal lengths, but you may not be doing that.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

You should be good with a 1/1000 shutter speed at all focal lengths. You shouldn't slow it down unless using much less than the 600mm focal length. Not sure why you would need a tripod with this shutter speed, and not sure how you will use a tripod in the vehicle. A lot depends on the vehicle and the arrangement of passengers. You will generally NOT be getting out of the vehicle, so a tripod is just extra weight and baggage. A bean bag might be useful to rest the lens on depending upon your vehicle. 98% of your photos will be during daylight hours. You may be able to use a smaller aperture and still keep the ISO in a reasonable range, depending upon your camera. You may need some adjustment of shutter speed in early morning and late evening, or else accept a much higher ISO - again - it depends upon your camera's capabilities in low light..

Canisdirus

Not sure why location would alter the methodology you have already...
You could just step outside and test it...

Abo

Perleeeze

mitrecon

Bring battery charger and converter as your camp(s) will no doubt have power. Bean bag definitely. Shooting in burst mode when animals moving not conducive to manual; make sure SD cards are fast. Bring pillow case to wrap camera in dusty conditions. Enjoy - it’s an experience like none other.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Consider using one of those shoulder stock gizmos so you can brace that sucker as you shoot.