Thanks for your suggestion! I think that I will do just that, but am going for the 70-400mm and a D5500 body as the second camera. Renting lens and camera for 2 weeks will be the equivalent to the purchase price. My dealer says I can always sell the equip back to him if I want, after I return. [He has organized the trip - his 6th year and I've done business with him for 40 years!] A better option--at least I get something back and the net cost won't be so much.
jackpi wrote:
Today's crop sensor cameras are much better than older full frame cameras. The biggest two advantages of full frame cameras are small depth of field at a specific lens focal length and lower noise at high ISOs. The biggest advantages of crop sensor cameras are lower weight, lower cost, and the crop factor. A 400mm lens on a crop sensor camera has the same equivalent field of view as a 600mm lens on a full frame camera. 300mm-->450mm; 150-600mm-->225-900mm. Crop sensor cameras are usually preferred over full frame cameras with teleconverters for sports and wildlife because teleconverters reduce light on the sensor and diminish image quality. Since you are going to Kenya, your D5300 is a very good option, and if you need another camera body, I suggest you take another crop sensor camera. A 150-600mm telephoto zoom lens is a good option for wildlife that is far away. If you don't want to buy such a lens, you can rent one. If you do take another camera body, consider mounting a 150-600mm lens on one body and something like an 18-140mm, 18-200mm, or 18-300mm on the other. That way you won't have to change lenses in what is often a dusty environment, and you will have complete coverage of 18-600mm (or 27-900mm full frame equivalent field of view).
Today's crop sensor cameras are much better than o... (
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