Some advice on suitable equipment to get that unique photograph while travelling to East Africa on wildlife photography safaris

Advice on Suitable Photographic Equipment

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	Compact Film Cameras Safariing is usually a once-in-a-lifetime experience ( well that’s what we thought the first time we went ) and so you may want to record the event for posterity. Spotting animals is challenging enough, but if you want to get a photograph to impress your friends back home then you need to plan ahead. The simple instamatic camera is pretty much worthless for recording anything other than wide-angle landscapes, with perhaps a sunrise or sunset thrown-in for good measure.
	Film Cameras with Zoom Lenses Over the years Alison has graduated from a Pentax Compact Zoom with built-in 28-170mm auto-focus zoom lens, through a Canon EOS SLR camera with interchangeable 28-75mm and 50-300mm zoom lenses, adding a x2 converter to this. It became cumbersome continually changing lenses and missing shots, so the lens was replaced with a Sigma 50-500mm lens compatible with the Canon EOS body, rather than buying a second body.

	Digital Cameras I eventually decided I wanted more to do on safari than spotting and bought my first camera - a digital. I chose the Sony Mavica MVC-FD7 because : it had a x10 zoom lens ; it saved directly to floppy disk, which could be easily read by any PC.
The VGA format ( 640x480 = 307,200 pixels ) and the high compression used to save a reasonable amount of images on a single disk seriously limited the picture quality. I struggled on until I found a camera that offered the correct balance between zoom and resolution i.e. a camera offering the largest effective optical zoom ( digital zoom is not a requirement of the camera as this can always be provided by image editing software ). Although there were higher resolution cameras available I again opted for the Sony Mavica CD1000 with a 2 million pixel resolution and x10 zoom lens. This saves images directly to mini-CDs that can again be read by PC CD drives. It also offers multi-program functions, steady-shot and flash functions similar to SLR cameras.
	Alison finally 'went digital' in the Summer of 2005 - well she had to taking up to twenty 36 exposure films on every safari and throwing 75% of them away! She adopted the Canon EOS300D - a whopping 6.5 mega-pixel camera ( it was then )! The functions and controls are similar to the film version and it takes the same lenses. She started by taking the camera and the 75-300mm zoom lens ( equivalent to 120-480mm ), as the combination isn't so bulky and is much lighter to use. Of course this has inevitably pushed us to carry a laptop to regularly transfer and review the images ( rather than risk losing a memory card ). We carefully selected a Compaq Evo N400 sub-notebook to reduce weight ( not as generous on local transfer fights ) as we don't need to carry the CD drive. This also requires mains power, which isn't always available in the smaller less permanent lodges we favour.
I finally gave my Sony CD1000 camera away to a friend at the end of our last South African safari. I had exhausted my stock of mini-CDs and had been thinking of upgrading to an SLR for some time. However, Alison decided to buy a Sigma 28-300mm lens, so she didn't have to carry two lenses and keep swapping. It then seemed a waste for me to purchase the Sony Alpha camera I had been considering with its own family of lenses, when we had 3 perfectly good ones lying around. I tracked down a very reasonable second-hand Canon EOS 350 camera, with its 8.5 mega pixels. I now intend using this with the Sigma 50-500mm lens Alison no longer uses ( too heavy ) but this depends on how successful my tests are. I hope to practice every weekend, before our next safari at Christmas - only 3 months to go!

Accessories Of course the longer the shot the more difficult it is to frame and focus so you may need a rest of one form or another. Tripods are O.K. in the open with plenty of space, but are impractical in a crowded mini-bus or 4-wheel drive. Monopods aren't much better and only provide a single point rest. Beanbags are probably the best as they can be moulded to the available support - window frame or sun-roof. Blow-up bags, although less stable also help and reduce packing, especially if you use the free-issue neck supports often handed out on international airlines. Don’t forget to take a lot of film ( or memory cards ). You can get film at the lodges but it is expensive. Alison has been known to use over a film on a single pride of lions! In these digital days of course you may wish to carry a laptop to download your images daily and recycle the memory cards. You obviously have to balance the added security risk, power availability and added baggage. Reminders You may not have a readily available power source to recharge your batteries - check with your operator beforehand! In a safari bus you may have 6 or 7 people all trying to manoeuvre to get the best shot of the same animal. You obviously have to be patient and considerate ( otherwise sparks will fly before the end of your once-in-a-lifetime safari )! Be wary of taking photographs of the locals, especially in the countryside. Some cultures believe a photograph somehow steals their soul. You should ask permission beforehand, otherwise you could face a confrontation. One of our friends was asked to hand over her videotape when she took a pan around the hotel lobby and caught a local woman in the shot. In the end she settled for it to be erased. Video cameras have to be declared at customs on entering the country and an additional fee must be paid in many of the parks for videoing. One of the biggest problems with getting the very best award winning shot is your fellow traveller. The old hard-of-hearing or excitable young woman or child will jump up at the first siting extolling their luck at seeing such a rare animal at the top of their voice, only to startle the animal. All you’ll get then is a shot of their rump as they disappear into the bush. So a quiet word with your party on the first evening pointing out good ‘safari etiquette’ may ( but unlikely ) afford you some of the better shots.