mdoing

You will want as much reach as you can get. Two bodies, two lenses. Don't change lenses in the field. First trip I had max 480mm Equiv Crop sensor, second trip I had 200-800mm Equiv M4/3. The 800 was better, most shots on trip at 800. Scenery, atmosphere shots with second body and wider lens. Low light in morning and evening is an issue, best time for animals. Might break the no change lens rule to use 100-400 in morning, then add the extender once it get sunnier, just a thought. Really can't use a tripod except maybe at the camp. Jealous of your long trip! Travel light!

As for the idea of one camera body, I had a shutter fail half way through our trip to Nepal and Bhutan, have not traveled with one camera body since. On that trip a nice guy with two bodies loaned me one so I did not have to travel Bhutan with only a cell phone, I guess the sick look on my face caused him to have pity on me!

Tom L. Loc: New York, NY

A few years ago, we took a two-week family trip to South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, including safari at two different locations, Figuring out what gear to take was a tough call.I am not a professional shooter. Storage and computer aside, I made due with one body (a big risk and something I would not recommend, a 100-400 II, 16-35 F4, and a fuji x100F (35 FF equivalent lens). I skipped the tripod. Unless you plan on taking landscapes or planing on setting up for long periods of time in a blind, I would skip the tripod. A tripod would be great for landscapes. You may want to take a small travel one for use with a small lens. I did. not take a tripod and made due with a 16-35 F4 which has IS. I would take either the 24-70 or the 24-105 but not both. WIth your two bodies, I would keep the 100-400 on all day, with say a 24-70 the other. You might be able to lighten your load with a 24-70 without the 24-105 or the 16-35. At sunset and early mornings, you will like the 70-200. I assume it is a F 2.8. I would definitely squeeze in a 50 mm. Its a good backup for the 24-70. And if it is the cheap one, like I have, the 1.8., it is lightweight. ALthough It is a matter of style, consider taking a 35 mm in lieu of the 50. On of the things that was helpful was watching YouTube videos pre-trip. Finally, please bring a polarizer, It may come in handy. I would definitely add a simple point and shoot. It is a great thing to have for sitting around the campfire and handing off to others to take snap shots of you.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

A command or what you want?
Glad you know what he wants.

mdoing

Possible substitute for a laptop is an I-Pad, 1LB, gives you something to download your photos to and see them, make sure you are doing things right.

kcp.portland Loc: Portland, OR

Re. Africa trip - be aware that flight weight restrictions on internal (small) plane hops can be significantly lower than those on international flights.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

I’ve tried a couple combinations for similar trips/workshops where flexibility was important. On one trip, all I brought was a Canon 7d2 and a Tamron 18-400 (plus a SX60 HS as backup). Another time, the same 7d2 and a 100-400 (plu the SX60). On the other, all I had was a Canon G1x iii and a G3x (plus the SX60). The SX60 wasn’t used for either. One last thing, about half of the excursions included a tripod or monopod. They were never used. The moral of the story, keep it simple while keeping in mind the lighting and range conditions.

Spirit Vision Photography Loc: Behind a Camera.

👍

xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

I have completed three safaris... you will be so close to the game you will not require extra long lenses. If you feel the need for all that dead weight, hire a Sherpa...

Have fun over there.

Cheers & Merry Christmas

Hip Coyote

First of all, I am envious of your trip. I've been to Africa and cannot wait to go back. Remember, you go for the animals and come back for the people. Seriously.

Overland across a vast part of the central and southern part of Africa? That will be some mileage.

Now to the equipment. I (almost always) agree with Chg_Canon. Skip the lenses that are overlapping. You have waaaay too much weight. I disagree with him on the 2 bodies. When I was there I found it absolutely necessary to have two cameras set up for the scenarios I was going to run into in the bush. I carry M4/3 equipment (which is much lighter btw and was perfect for my trip). I had one body with a 12-100 (24-200 FF equivalent) and one body with a 100-400 (200-800 FF eq). I was THE perfect set up. The roads can be quite dusty so changing lenses in the bush is not an option. In fact, I had a backpack on the seat between my wife and I and eventually kept my cameras in some light weight sacks on my lap to keep the dirt off (it was way beyond dust..it was dirt.) Keep a blower with you at all times. Clean all gear at the end of the day.

I also went to Namibia. People go for the dunes...ok...fine...everyone goes there. But Namibia has some tribe villagers there are quite accommodating for photography. And lovely people. There, in the dunes, I used my 7-14 Pro lens which worked well. But I could have left it at home. Roads there are awful. I know...we did over 1000 miles on their roads.

I'd skip the tripod. I would have never used it. Cant use it in the bush because you cannot get on the ground usually, lest a critter might want to eat you. And if you do (we did...had an interesting encounter with a rhino), you have to be mobile. There may be a way to do some nighttime astro stuff, but keep in mind, animals are active at night.....eating. You cannot just go out and start shooting away. In Namibia, at the dunes, you have to be out by sundown and there is plenty o' light to shoot.

Most of the animal photography i did was far more close than I would have expected. Like maybe 20 feet. I could have left my long telephoto home and only missed a few shots. That 70-200 is going to get a lot of use.

Be armed at all times! Meaning take a camera everywhere you go. We were walking to dinner in Namibia (kind of freaky in that we were in a camp with no fencing and no escort to dinner and a watering hole nearby) and some bush babies were poking their heads out of trees. I slapped the camera into Auto with a high iso and got some decent shots.

I found no need for a computer. I just put my little SD cards in a holder and hoped for the best. Having a drive back up makes sense. You need a lot of dust and dirt mitigation stuff...blowers, leaf blowers, what ever.

I set up a pre-set on both cameras to capture very fast movements of animals in case we were lucky enough to see a chase. Never happened except at a cheetah preserve in Namibia. But I suggest you do it. When and if that happens, you will not be able to respond fast enough to capture the chase without a preset. I usually shot in Aperture mode. Animals were not really active.

I took a flash and never used it. Some folks bring one with a snoot. Most game reserves do not allow it for obvious reasons.

Remember, you are a rich American. Tip generously. You will find that the Africans will try to make your trip as pleasant as possible. In Namibia, I tipped $100 for a two night stay and the receptionist got teary-eyed. You visit a village, try to buy things and leave some money there. You will see some people in very dire circumstances. Covid has drastically impacted the Africans. Be prepared and be generous.

I know that is more than what you asked for. But I want you to have the best trip possible. Two last pieces of advise. 1- Sometimes, put the camera down and just BE THERE. I did it a few times and it was memorable. Thinking I was in the middle of the bush, watching a lion eat some critter, I was with family, and darned lucky to be able to do it. 2- Talk to people. We were at Robben Island where Mandala was imprisoned for 25 or so years. The crowds went off and I was left with the Robben Island tour guide...who was a prisoner there for about 15 years. Very long story short. He was an anti-apartheid fighter. He was a convicted terrorist (from the ruling White perspective). Was trained in Angola by the Cubans to fight the white ruling party (Afrikaans) in South Africa. He and his fellow resistance blew up bridges, power stations, etc. They were careful to not harm people because they knew they would eventually win and have to live with the whites. We talked about weaponry, philosophy of their strategies, family, struggles, etc. It was a memorable day.

I included a few shots from Africa. The dunes (Sossusvlei?) shows just how high the dunes are...there is a line of people at the top in the middle of the tree.

Enjoy. PM me if you have any need for follow up...or need a driver on your trip!

Hip Coyote

BullFrog...In my prior post, I said one would get up close. But I agree with you. If the guides cannot get off road, you have to go long. If they can, I could have used my iPhone.

Hip Coyote

Jerry, we had the same set up (I had the Ome Em5 m ii) but same lenses. Perfect for the trip.