Grace98 Loc: Waterlooville, Hampshire - United Kingdom

I need your expert advise please. I'm going on a 3-week safari to Kruger National Park and taking two cameras with me. My main camera is the Nikon D7500 with Tamron 100-400 zoom and the spare is the D3300 with the 18-300 zoom (animals can get too close to the vehicle so would need this lens). I normally set my camera to Aperture Priority and ISO 100 (e.g. when at the zoo). I also use Shutter priority for fast moving objects with Auto ISO. As during the Safari I would be shooting both big animals and birds, would it be OK to leave my camera on Shutter priority all the time, with Auto ISO. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you. Grace

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Looks like you’ll be doing a lot of "unposed" snapshots so Auto ISO and shutter priority would be adequate. Also set your camera for AF-C and back button focus since you or the subjects would be moving.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Grace, each of us is different. I have never been to Africa but my retired ophthalmologist has been there 17 times already. He used two lenses, the 18-200 VR and the 500mm f4 that he rented. During his last trip he took his D750 with a rented 200-500 f5.6 and a 28-300 VR lens.
Some of his images (he is an amateur) have been published. I am sure your D7500 and the Tamron 100-400 should do an excellent job and the 18-300 will manage many subjects also.
I have nothing against using AUTO ISO but I prefer to be in control so I prefer to set the ISO speed manually and a good start is ISO 400. I seldom use Shutter Priority because I prefer Aperture Priority but I am careful enough to watch the shutter speed for the shooting conditions I am in so as to raise the ISO of the camera in case it is needed. Noise will only show its ugly face when shooting under dark conditions.
You should do well. Good luck to you and bring back some nice shots.

justmyshutter

I just returned from two weeks in Africa three days ago... I don’t think you need to worry about going back and forth between birds and wild animals... I found myself in the moment with mainly the wild animals out in the bush. (Meaning, if you are shooting an occasional bird, they wee few and far between and did not affect my settings) What I found to be the bigger challenge was getting focus on the moving animals as they approached our land rovers. Any sort of back button focusing was too slow and constantly changing. I changed my settings back to shutter focusing when in constant/wide tracking and that worked better. I shot with a mirrorless Fuji that had tracking capabilities but nailing the focus on the eyes was challenging if they were moving, especially coming towards me. Shutter priority sometimes would work well but I tended to like more control over what was getting bumped up so I stayed in manual more often than not. I could dial in those settings pretty quickly and then we would stay with a scene for some time giving me plenty of time to fine tune settings... good luck and have a blast! Where are you going? I was in Kenya... the great migration has shockingly started in Tanzania. The guides were in disbelief. There has been a drought recently that they thought was causing it to start early.

RPaul3rd Loc: Arlington VA and Sarasota FL

Not a sermon, just a thought. When I went to Tanzania, here's what I did for my Canon with an 18-400 lens from Tamron. I used shutter speed priority (the TV setting on Canon) at one stop above the longest setting on the lens. That's a great lesson I learned eons ago in the Nikon school of photography. For an 18-400 lens that would 500th of a second. I also set the ISO to 800 (or 1600 on cloudy days) giving me a good range for depth of field. I also shoot JPEG + RAW which gives me the post production capability of correcting many of the unexpected errors that might occur. AND I took many many photos which gave me the choice in what I wanted to keep. Enjoy your trip. Remember this rule of thumb: You can always delete duplicates or triplicates but you will always kick yourself for NOT taking the photos you wish you had.

srt101fan

You might look at some of John Gerlach's writings. He is a nature photographer who has led numerous photo safaris in Africa. He is a UHH member; you can get to his posts by searching the "User List" at the top of a UHH page.

Here's a link to articles he has written; some of them might relate directly to your Africa question:

https://www.gerlachnaturephoto.com/articles

Grace98 Loc: Waterlooville, Hampshire - United Kingdom

Thanks. Yes I do use back button focus and always use AF-C for wildlife.

Grace98 Loc: Waterlooville, Hampshire - United Kingdom

Thank you. I know what you mean by Auto ISO - not very keen on it either. Maybe I should start with Aperture Priority and see how it goes. I have three weeks so eventually will get it right!!

Grace98 Loc: Waterlooville, Hampshire - United Kingdom

Thank you. I'm going for three weeks to Kruger National Park. I'm going with two friends from my cameral club who have been going there for the past 20 years. They're honorary rangers and know Kruger like the back of their hands. There are many birds as have seen their photos. Guess have to play it by ear and experiment. Hopefull will get a few tips from my friends (they're Canon users).

Grace98 Loc: Waterlooville, Hampshire - United Kingdom

Thanks for the tips. I'm going armed with several SD cards and will use continuous shooting and will check my pics every evening and delete the bad ones.

Grace98 Loc: Waterlooville, Hampshire - United Kingdom

Thank you. I will have a look at his website.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Yes on the shutter priority - you don't want to end up shooting at 600mm and 1/60! The only time you will have problems is on the evening game drives.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

I would pick your travel companions brains and be guided by their past experience. This way your "experimenting" will be fruitful.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

For moving subjects I use, GROUP AUTO FOCUS, Continuous Auto Focus, Center or Matrix metering, CH on the motor drive, aperture priority (aperture should be set about 2 stops down from wide open), and an ISO that will deliver a shutter speed of at least 1/1000 sec. but better at 1/1600 sec. or faster for moving objects.
Good luck and keep on shooting until the end.

Grace98 Loc: Waterlooville, Hampshire - United Kingdom

Thank you