forjava Loc: Half Moon Bay, CA

A scene that is still little-shot is from the rim of Ngorongoro crater to the huge crater floor, if you cruising around Kenya/Tanzania.
Unthinkably large numbers of grazing animals are more-or-less trapped on the crater floor, as are the creatures in the large pond.
The day I was there, there was a grass fire. The wildebeest huddled and then stampeded; it took a half hour for them to pass me, on the floor.
So, long lens, maybe an extender.
Get insurance on equipment or better, rent.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

I have a fb friend through a Nature Photography site who is a world traveler. He is an absolutely fantastic photographer and I see his posts in a group called Nature Lovers if you're able to pull it up. You'll know Benno's photographs when you see them. Borneo, Namibia, Costa Rica, and many other places. He posts large and small. This is what he packs into his backpack: Canon 650D and 700D both with battery grips, Sigma 105 F2.8 macro, Canon 10-24mm f3.5, Canon 18-135mm f3.5, Sigma 50-500mm f4.5, 1.4x and distance rings. At one time he posted a photo of how he fitted everything into his backpack but I can't find it, but this is what he takes on the worldwide jaunts. He's going to Kenya soon with this array. This is what he had two years ago and he hasn't updated anything since.

Here is a photo of Benno's backpack. He didn't mention the flash. He did say that the airlines allowed 23kg of equipment and his weighed in at 20kg.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

I'm curious. I have never been on an African Safari/Vacation, but noticed some want to take a great number of lenses, large, small, tripods, etc. etc. It takes time to set up tripods, change and adjust lenses, cameras, for that great shot. I am sure some can take simple hand held shots too. A 150-600mm is no small lens. Is photography time totally unlimited to tourists on these Safari/Vacations?

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Note: Benno lightens the backpack to 15K for onboard storage. He keeps the most important items in the backpack and puts the rest in his suitcase. In all his travels he has only had to store his backpack with his luggage once, and he sweated bullets on that occasion, but it came through safely. Benno shoots not only large wildlife, but insects, flowers, etc. Good selection of four lenses.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

Take TWO camera bodies. Put the 150-600 on one and the 70-200 on the other. I did it with Nikon D300 and D5000 models. Both are not full frame. I took a Sigma 10-20 WA and never took it out of the bag. The Rangers will get you close to the animals in their Range Rover but WA shots don't develop from our experience. Also, I never saw anything that you would want a Macro lens for. I had the Sigma 150-500 and a Tamron 18-270 and I don't think I ever used the WA end of the Tamron except maybe for dinner group shots. I took a monopod but never used it. Tripods are out of the question - no room in the Rover to spread the legs and NO opportunity to exit the vehicle. Stick to higher ISOs and shorter shutter speeds and you will be fine. Auto focus works for this since you usually have little time to frame up the shots let alone manually focus accurately. If you are inexperienced working with your autofocus a zone focus approach might work but the small apertures required work against the ISO/shutter speed approach. Good luck. You will get some unforgettable shots, I know.

philo Loc: philo, ca

get yourself a roller bag; they are great for travel and will fit in the overhead.

wcuster Loc: The Sea Ranch, CA

Experiences vary depending on locations, guides, vehicles, camera & lens technology and fellow travelers.
I used my 600 mm f/4 a lot (with & without extenders) and almost always on a beanbag.
I used my 28-300 often (animals close to vehicle, large or groups of animals, landscapes, people, etc).
I used a 80-400 when hand holding was the only option but a longer reach was desired.
We now have a Sigma 150-600 which I see as value for hand holding.
Our first trip to Tanzania in 2011 was with a Nikon D300. It was a good camera for its time but by today's standards it is limited in high-ISO usage due to noise. Newer cameras have much more high-ISO/noise latitude - allowing much faster shutter speeds without a tripod. Hence shooting a long lens without a camera support and getting sharp photos is much easier.

In all of our Africa trips we were able to exit the vehicles (after checking for predators). Picnics, "sun downers", bio breaks, rock climbing and general sightseeing were allowed in areas where the guides felt it was safe.

I agree that having two bodies - one with a long and the other with a wider (zoom) lens is good.

I have been to Tanzania (including Ngorongoro Crater & the Serengetti), Botswana (including the Chobe river area and the Kalahari desert), Zimbabwe with Victoria falls, S Africa including Sabi Sands and Namibia and its Etosha area. The vehicles varied a lot by region (open tops with a roof perimeter for beanbags in Tanzania to 3-tier bench seating with no easy camera supports in other countries). However in all places I was VERY happy to have both a very long lens and also a wide angle.

This August we are headed to the Masai Mara area of Kenya and also back to the Chobe river in Botswana.

As I posted earlier I think you should get the trip details BEFORE going including pictures of vehicles to see seat configeration, number of people/vehicle, planned itinerary, etc.

It is also my experience that photographers should go on trips dedicated to photography. A mixture of birders and sightseers and photographers can be toxic. Birders often want to maximize their "life list", taking a brief photo and moving quickly to the next species. Photographers by contrast are willing to wait quite a while for the perfect shot, are concerned with proper light, etc.

sharonmblais

When I was on safari a few months ago, we had open type vehicles so we could not have used a bean bag, could not use monopods, forget tripods, and my 400 MM lens was not nearly long enough. Some of the animals were very far away and the birds were mostly very small. I wished I had had at least a 600MM lens. We were not allowed to stand or move around in the vehicles very much for safety reasons. We were told that when the vehicles are open types (eg southern Africa), the animals see the vehicle as a very large animal. You don't want them to see you individually (thus not standing or moving around). We saw a kill (2 lionesses killed an antelope) that happened right behind our vehicle. I couldn't believe how fast it happened! If it had been one of us, I don't see how anyone with a gun could have stopped it. It was way too fast.

guligian Loc: Louisville KY

Take two like bodies for two lenses. Changing lenses in that environment is not a good idea!

jimward Loc: Perth, Western Australia

I have just returned from a short safari in Africa. My experience may be of some help to Hoggers trying to do this on a budget.

An African safari had always been on my wife™s bucket list, so we took a four-day field trip in South Africa to coincide with her 60th birthday. We had a great time, and all I have to do now is repay the loan(!).

I work as a PR consultant/photo-journalist, so I have some serviceable gear, but my longest lens is a Tamron 18-270, which I figured would no™t cut it. I have two camera bodies, Canon 450D and 650D (not sure what Rebel numbers they are),so you can see than I a™m not into full frame up-market gear.

I could no™t afford to buy a big telephoto, so I made enquiries about renting, at the same time checking out second hand gear on the web.

I stumbled on a near-new Sigma 150-500 which I got for $480, which was roughly what I had been quoted to hire a similar lens, because there was a minimum hiring period of four weeks. I figured if I bought the second-hand lens and then resold it when I got back I could pretty well break even on the deal. Time will tell.

The Sigma lens looks pretty sexy at full extension and with the lens hood deployed “ I thought it made me look like a œreal photographer, but it i™s pretty heavy. I took it to the local park to practice taking pictures of ducks and dog-walkers, hand-held, and quickly realized this would no™t work, so I splashed out another $80 on a Manfrotto monopod. If I had done my homework I could have saved that money, because all photography had to be done from the safari jeep, and you were not allowed to stand up. I had visions of me leaping down, setting up the monopod, and shooting big game from ground level. No way!

The answer, of course, is a bean bag, and the pro photographer at the safari camp lent me one. He did n™ot have one available on day one, so I took along a bath towel rolled into a tube and that worked pretty well. That is worth bearing in mind, because a bean bag is bulky and heavy, and takes up a lot of your baggage allowance.

So my gear for the trip was two camera bodies, the all-purpose Tamron and the Sigma Big Bertha which, bearing in mind my cameras are crop sensor, gave me an effective range of 800mm. The lenses I use for work I left behind, because I did not have the room. I took two fully charged batteries and two fully charged spares (only had to swap one). I had two Sandisk Extreme Pro cards which handled bursts well, but my back-ups, Sandisk Extreme, “ were no™t so good. Should have bought some more Extreme Pros, but I figured I was already in deep enough.

My smartest decision was to take two camera bodies. I had though of taking just one, to save on space/weight, but changing lenses with lions wandering through the trees 20 yards away was not a proposition.

I am just going through my images now. A lot of them were shot œon the fly, so the ratio of rejects to keepers is higher than I would normally hope to achieve. All the same, I am pretty happy with a lot of them although there i™s a lot of noise, particulary in the lion shots, which were mostly taken at dusk. I should probably have asked for advice but I thought asking the camp pro for help when he had already loaned me a bean-bag might have been pushing the friendship, and there was nothing in the budget for the paid short course he was offering.

With the Sigma I was conscious of the danger of movement blur, particularly with the lens fully extended, so I shot in manual, left the shutter wide open at all times (5.6), tried to keep shutter speed above 750, and used ISO adjustment to get the right exposure balance. This is a bit hit-and-miss, especially when you are shooting a moving target. The gear all worked pretty well up to ISO 400, but at 800 there was more noise than I would have expected, and for some of the dusk shots I went as high as 3200 on the 650D (the 450D only goes to 1600), which produced very noisy results. The choice was sometime between a noisy image or no image.

If anyone has ideas and how I could have done it better please dont tell me because, at age 79, I wont be going back! (Just digging. I would appreciate feedback in case I win Lotto).

I ha™ve attached a few images. I do no™t have any BIF skills or experience, so where birds were concerned I stuck with BIT (birds in trees) and two new genres that could become popular, BOR and BOB ( Birds on Rhinos and Birds on Buffalo, because these animals host small birds that pick off all the bugs.)

If you have read right to the end of this, many thanks for your patience. Hope it will be of some help to future low-budget explorers.

(Download)

sharonmblais

Love your photos!

Pkfish Loc: Wilson Wy

The think tank airport roller bag was great when we went. A big hit with us was the Panasonic fz200 bridge camera. Big zoom lenses if you don't have the room or can't afford a big prime. Would like to go again soon to see the gorillas. Have fun ,I'm jealous!

wcuster Loc: The Sea Ranch, CA

At the risk of being considered too promotional take a look at:
www.coetzernaturephotography.com

Look at the boat and land vehicle on the first web page. Both are custom designed for photography. Each photographer has a seat that rotates 360 degrees with an attached height-adjustable tripod and Wimberley head. Loaner 400mm and 600mm lenses are provided. Shooting from these is a far cry from the commonly used 3 bench vehicles that are often crowded and have limited viewing access and no chance to use a tripods.

Many of the challenges discussed in this thread above go away with the accessibility these vehicles allow.

My point is there are a variety of tour operators, some with better equipment than others for photographers.

I am not affiliated with Coetzer Nature Photography in any way but I have gotten some nice photos on its tours.

See:
https://waltc.smugmug.com/Travel/Botswana-2011/
https://waltc.smugmug.com/Travel/Botswana-Kalahari-2011/
https://waltc.smugmug.com/Travel/Africa2013/

Walt Custer

frangeo Loc: Texas

The longest lens you can afford to stay as far away from things that can kill you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

philo Loc: philo, ca

the trip I took a couple of years ago most of the people on the trip were using cell phones. I wonder if they were happy with the results?

Look at your few shots I think you did good.