Photography for Safari in South Africa

In the effort to replace what was lost with my first blog, I’m going to do an in-depth on the photography equipment that is going with me to SA (South Africa).  I’m becoming a self-diagnosed photography nut.  It’s really all Jen’s fault.  We had a perfectly good Kodak point and shoot and it takes fairly decent pictures.  Well, some friends upgraded to DSLR and we started looking into going that route.  I must admit, being the cheapskate that I am, I was against the endeavor. 

After some prodding, we purchased a Canon Rebel XTi kit with the included 18-55 f3.5-4.5 lens.  It took better pictures than the Kodak, but a new lens was in order to realize its full potential.  After tons of research, I decided what I wanted and Jen and my dad went in together on the Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens.  What an absolutely fun lens!  You can take amazing close-ups (think insects/flowers) and it also works great as a portrait lens.  I had my first taste of what a really good lens could do on the XTi body and there was no turning back.

 

My Christmas present from Jen was a Canon 24-105 f4 IS L lens.  I did so much research on this lens that I thought Jen was going to turn off our internet.  The payoff has been incredible.  I took it to Ireland in April and even with my limited photography skills I managed to capture simply stunning photos.  With some practice under my belt, my sights turned towards the SA trip.

 

If Jen didn’t like the research before, she really didn’t like it this time.  I frequent a few photography related message boards, which she has affectionately dubbed the “stupid website.”  Fair enough given the time that I’m on them, I’ll take my licks.  In reading the boards and doing research, I very quickly realized that, despite its greatness in Ireland, the 24-105 wouldn’t be enough for SA.  Almost everything I read stated that you need something in the 300-400mm range of lens to get pictures of the big 5.  I started looking at lens prices and when you get into that range, we’re talking serious money, money equivalent to some serious down payments on a nice car.  There was one lens that kept coming up in discussions involving folks that had been to SA. 

 

The lens they all talked about was the Canon 100-400 f3.5-5.6 IS L lens.  Compared to other IS (image stabilized) lenses, the 100-400 is actually reasonably priced (understand that everything is relative, my reasonable might not be your reasonable).  Canon employs a push/pull zoom on this lens.  So instead of having all sorts of internal gearing to zoom the lens, you do it the old fashion way, just push and pull.  This allows for some significant cost saving, but the optics are top notch.  It’s not an extremely fast lens, but if used in daylight or with the appropriate camera body, that shouldn’t be an issue.  Having a zoom lens is also incredibly helpful when animals are walking towards you.  Often times, 400mm is too far to capture animals that might end up closer to the Land Rover than you might expect.  And evidently in SA, they can get quite close.

 

Knowing that nobody had one of these lenses that I could borrow, I bit the bullet and bought one.  My intent right now is to sell it upon my return, I could have rented, but it would have cost 20% of the total purchase price to rent one for 3 weeks, so purchase and sell is the best way for me.  One thing the 100-400 really needs is a good auto-focus system on the camera body it’s mated with.  Next, I set off to upgrade my camera body.  The XTi is a great camera and I highly recommend it for those looking to make the jump to DSLR (the newer XSi is great, too).  I needed something that has faster auto-focus and a higher frame capture rate.  I heard rumors that Canon would be introducing a new XXD camera in September.  With that, I started looking at the 40D, knowing that it would soon no longer be the top of its class.  Sure enough, 40D prices started coming down and I found someone selling locally, so I snapped one up.  With my primary lens and camera body in place, I could start begging/borrowing for some more gear.

 

All of the research also showed that changing lens while on safari is a BAD idea.  The dust and dirt that can end up on your sensor and in your lens can cause some expensive repair bills.  Jen and I have a good friend, Kristen, who graciously allowed me to borrow her Canon 30D.  Now I had a camera body for my 100-400 and my 24-105.  This idea of 2 cameras makes perfect sense to me, as one can easily switch between the two depending on the shot.  If an elephant comes charging at you, you can grab the camera with the shorter lens to get better up-close picture while running away, or you can be trampled while you change lenses.  I’ll take option one any day of the week.

 

My sister-in-law owns a Canon XT and she has that equipped with another telephoto lens.  I also rented a wide angle for the panoramic shots that I hope to encounter while on safari.  Between us, I think we’re covered for photo gear.  For those nerds out there (or those that just like photography), here is the full run down of photo equipment.  I’ll try to build the links bag into the post when I have a chance so you can check out any of these lenses/bodies for yourself.  Bodies are followed by the lens they’ll primarily be equipped with.

 

Canon 40D

Canon 100-400 f3.5-5.6 IS L

Canon 30D

Canon 24-105 f4 IS L

Canon XT

Canon 10-22 f3.5-4.5 EF-S or Canon 70-300 f3.5-4.5

Canon 50mm f1.8 (for night shots and indoor tourist stuff)

B&W Circular Polarizing Filter (reduces glare)

1 – 4GB CF Card, 2 – 2 GB CF Cards, 2 – 1 GB CF Cards

Kinesis Safari Bag

3 Canon batteries

3 in 1 battery charger (works in the Land Rover!)

500 cleaning wipes

Cool cleaning pen (for heavy smudges)

Lowepro CompuTrekker camera bag

Mac Book 13”

Maxtor 200GB Firewire hard drive

Card Reader