What lens for African safari?

[fastshot]

Seeking opinions from the buddies here on which lenses to bring along for a 4 weeks African trip. Places to visit include game parks in Botswana, Victoria Falls, Kalahari desert, Namibia sand dunes, and villages.

Got the following lenses for the 7D:

- Min AF 20mmF2.8
- Min AF 50mmF1.4
- Min AF 85mmF1.4 G
- Min AF 100mmF2.8 (D) Macro
- Min AF 200mmF2.8 G HS APO
- KM AF 17-35mm F2.8-4 (D)
- KM AF 28-75mm F2.8 (D)
- Min AF 80-200 F2.8 HS APO
- Tamron SP 200-500 F5-6.3 Di LD

Question is how to bring as few lenses as possible and yet able to cover as much potential opportunities as possible. My current picks are:
- Tamron 200-500 zoom
- 100mm Macro
- 28-75 zoom
- 20mm wide

Also thinking about packing a Bessa-T with Heliar 15mm superwide for some slides and b/w.

Decisions, decisions

[sulhan]

Lets see....


- Min AF 50mmF1.4
- KM AF 17-35mm F2.8-4 (D)
- KM AF 28-75mm F2.8 (D)
- Min 200 F2.8 HS APO
- Tamron SP 200-500 F5-6.3 Di LD

if really need longer then get a TC...2x or 1.4x

as above......


rgds,
sulhan

[TMC]

I would stick with primes in a sandy country.

so it would be

20
85
200
200-500 for wildlife

[Drudkh]

17-35
85
200-500

[yeocolin]

I'll carry 17-35 for landscape, 80-200 for the wildlife, 50 for the street shooting (the colourful markets etc).

[GENO]

Good cover for everything is..
17-35MM
100MM
200-500MM

To get the sharpest pics
20mm
50mm
85mm
200mm or 80-200mm

[fastshot]

Looks like everyone has their own favorites. The 50F1.4 and 85F1.4 got voted by a few people. I feel the 50mm can be covered by the 28-75F2.8 zoom, and that the 100macro is probably more useful than the 85 because of macro potential. I worry about having to bring both the 80-200 zoom and 200-500 zoom - both heavy beasts weight about 1.5kg each

[Drudkh]

i would say forget the 80-200, for wildlife animals, it is quite unlikely you'll go very close or you may not be able to go close most of the time. 200-500 should be the choice and further more, you bought the lens just for this trip.

[Caussway]

That's not enought Get a 18-200, plus your 200-500 is enough to cover everything

[sulhan]

Originally Posted by Drudkh i would say forget the 80-200, for wildlife animals, it is quite unlikely you'll go very close or you may not be able to go close most of the time. 200-500 should be the choice and further more, you bought the lens just for this trip.

Wild life safari shot is not only about going real close. Working with thw 120-300mm f2.8 FOV gives you an opportunity to take great animals with backgroung images. Why going too close for all shots after spending $$ on a safari trip...

End up ppl will ask you...if its taken at the local zoo...

African landscape shots with animals in it is really great... one optimal solution is to have two camera bodies....one with the 80-200/70-210 and the other with the longer reach lens.....

One Fellow KM user....http://rosswarner.com/tech_info.html with minolta setup...
Used on his Safaris...

his pics...http://rosswarner.com/safari.shtml

Have fun brader!!!

rgds,
sulhan

[Agetan]

Before you think what you want to bring... ask yourself what you want to shoot and what you really enjoy shooting...

Sometime it is good to plan ahead and not to be too greedy...

Hart

[TME]

I dun know about being too greedy but being Singaporean, we always want a buffet... if I were fastshot, I would also carry as many lenses that can cover as much focal length as possible.

For me:

17-35mm (wider if possible)
28-75mm (street photography, mid-distance shots)
100mm macro
200-500mm

I would carry two bodies. One with the 200-500mm and the other with the 17-35mm... the other two lenses are insurance in case I need them...

The downside is weight... I remember carrying a Dynax 7, 100-400mm APO, 17-35mm, 24-135mm + 5600 all on a a slingbag for > 6 hours... trekking on broken gravel a trail up Mount Cook.... almost died of the shoulder ache after that... but worth it cos, when an avalanche happened some distance away, I could switch to my 100-400mm to capture it close up whereas most others around were stuck with P&S or wide angle lenses.... insurance for that "it" moment as I call it... others may differ...

Tough decision fastshot, but a pleasurable one, no? Wahhh... going for a looonnnggg and probably well-deserved holiday during your sabbatical....

[sulhan]

Originally Posted by Agetan Before you think what you want to bring... ask yourself what you want to shoot and what you really enjoy shooting... Sometime it is good to plan ahead and not to be too greedy... Hart

Agree on Harts points...

Was thinking a while ago...that you ought to maybe test frame by guestimaitng the size of animals that you would should and use the different lens....

Maybe try out things like cars in place of antelope/cows, Lamp posts in place of giraffes....
or pillow in place of little lion cats etc.... this will help you have a feel on what coverage or framing you gonna get with your setup....

Well....all in all...don't make yourself too stressed up....do little planning ahead..and then leave the surprises and excitement to your actual trip..

rgds,
sulhan

[fastshot]

Many thanks for all the suggestions from the brudders here.

Yes I do plan for the picture opportunities before deciding what equipment to bring. The problem is that I got about 21 cameras and 37 interchangeable lens ranging from compacts such as Minolta TC-1 through Mamiya RZ And they all want to go on photo shoots!!
I had similar experience as TME on my Nepal trek where I brought Mamiya C330, Contax G2 and Minolta TC-1 and assortment of lenses and carbon fibre tripod. The photo backpack weigh about 10 kgs. Being reluctant to let the porter handle the photo gears, I carried it for as long as I could, up to about 4700m then surrended. But the photo opportunities were great and I did come back with some nice pictures. And every piece of equipment was well used.

Sulhan, thanks for the Ross Warner link, nice pixs and I hope to cover similar range of subjects.

OK, so the probable selection in order of priority is now:
- die die must go: 200-500 zoom
- general purpose shooting: 28-75 zoom
- landscape shooting: 17-35 zoom
- macro & portraits: 100 macro

The 80-200 HS APO is not happy being left out. Unfortunately, this version min focus is 1.8m. But it will be a nice lens to have if we are able to get to about 10-20m of the wildlife and remain in the vehicle.

The other risk is I got only 1 Minolta body (7D). I never had a camera failing while on a trip, so I hope this one will hold up all the way. I would love to have a second body, but this has to be a "9D" rather than a 5D.

So should the backup body be perhaps a good, used, cheap Minolta film body? Anyone has one to offer or loan?

Or should the backup be a digital compact such as Panasonic LC1 (28-90mm zoom) ?

[UY79]

Originally Posted by fastshot OK, so the probable selection in order of priority is now: - die die must go: 200-500 zoom - general purpose shooting: 28-75 zoom - landscape shooting: 17-35 zoom - macro & portraits: 100 macro

You've got your focal range covered. But what about your aperture range? Not shooting any photos in low light?

[TME]

U're missing the mid telephoto range... that's the 70-200mm range. But u can't have everything... I think bringing a Dynax 7 would be good... but u might have to load up on film first... it's frightfully expensive overseas. Again there is the dilemma that follows me whenever I have to bring a film backup - how may rolls and which type of film to bring along?! And if the digital body works, what am I going to do with 50 odd rolls of film?!

[GENO]

Originally Posted by TME U're missing the mid telephoto range... that's the 70-200mm range. But u can't have everything... I think bringing a Dynax 7 would be good... but u might have to load up on film first... it's frightfully expensive overseas. Again there is the dilemma that follows me whenever I have to bring a film backup - how may rolls and which type of film to bring along?! And if the digital body works, what am I going to do with 50 odd rolls of film?!

NPS is great ...10 rolls ? Reala another 10 rolls , cant go wrong!

[fastshot]

Originally Posted by GENO NPS is great ...10 rolls ? Reala another 10 rolls , cant go wrong!

I agree the Reala is a fabulous negative film - best color even under weird lighting. I've only used NPS for MF.
My plan is to bring max 5 rolls of Velvia 100 and 5 rolls of Fuji ACROS100 b/w and shoot them in Voigtlander Bessa R2 + 15mm Heliar.

[TME]

Hooo.... slide... tricky huh? Especially when shooting under unpredictable conditions... if that is the case I prefer 3 bodies. One digital + 2 film. One film for negative and the other for slide... cos I'm not experienced with shooting slides... easy to mess up and with little room for error...

[fastshot]

Originally Posted by TME Hooo.... slide... tricky huh? Especially when shooting under unpredictable conditions... if that is the case I prefer 3 bodies. One digital + 2 film. One film for negative and the other for slide... cos I'm not experienced with shooting slides... easy to mess up and with little room for error...

With slide films, I usually check lighting with a pocket incident light meter, unless it is sunny 16 condition. Gossen makes a very handy and compact meter called Digiflash.
The 2nd film body is likely to be Minolta TC-1 compact with fixed 28mm lens. This cam can get pictures nearly equal to Contax G2 with 28mm Biogon.