A world of discussion on this topic. My contribution is on my blog: www.fridaycoffee.blogspot.com
I also took a small digital voice recorder on our two trips and recorded quite a few sounds that I used in later video programs, including, for example, driver conversations, night sounds outside our tent, etc.
We’ve been to Botswana and Tanzania, and in my opinion, camera choice depends somewhat on where you are going. In Botswana there were severe weight restrictions because of the many flights on small planes. I came home from each trip with thousands of images. If I was going back to either of those places, my go to camera would be my Nikon P900, with backup a Canon SX710 (or a newer version of that Canon line). Both are light, have extensive zoom capacity, and easy to use. The P900 provides excellent video and extreme flexibility without having to change lenses. You may give up a little bit on image quality with those cameras compared to one of the higher end mirrorless, but the flexibility under uncertain shooting conditions is what you will get. You will have very little control over the shooting conditions, so that flexibility, especially when some of your subjects will be far off, is important. Take plenty of SD cards, extra batteries, and your chargers. Be sure to format your cards before you leave and number them so you can keep track of them. Good luck!
Get an extra battery and a couple of extra cards and just go out and start shooting. Work on the kind of artist you want to be and just play with the equipment until you’ve figured out how to satisfy yourself. All those other equipment ideas will eventually come to mind, but with this camera, you’re well equipped to have some satisfying artistic results.
My go to camera in these situations is a Canon SX710 and I’m happy with it. There are some newer versions, which have a longer optical zoom.
I had that same problem and did a google search on it, found a correction, and it worked. Didn’t write down the instructions and can’t remember them, but they were pretty easy and worked.
Do a google search on the problem. I had that same problem after an update and found the solution via google. I don’t remember exactly what it was but it involved preferences and the graphics card setting.
From an artistic perspective, I find the flexibility of zoom lenses to be the overriding positive aspect.
Great opening points. Looking forward to an interesting discussion.
On our trips where baggage was very limited and I was not in control of much, I went seriously light and flexible: Nikon P900 and Canon SX710 backup (Alaska, Galapagos, Costa Rica, etc.), lots of SD cards and extra batteries plus chargers.
I use an Epson 550, scanning them at 1200 ppi. It only does four at a time but I’m happy with the results. There’s a newer version of the 550. Price is reasonable and I use it for a lot of things in addition to the slides.
I have that camera and lens, but not a lot of bird in flight experience. I don’t use back button focus. The few times I’ve had a chance to shoot birds in flight against the sky, the lens has focused okay. I do have it set on 3m to infinity.