Photographing whales in South Africa

dear all,

we will be travelling to Hermanus (South Africa) by the End of October.

Photo opportunities to shoot whales from the Coast and from a boat (Catamaran).

Do some of you have experience with that ? What’s the best focal length ?

I read on the boat too long a Lens is not usable? And from the Coast ?

Thanks for your input (since I sold my D500+80-400 I do not have any adapted equipment right now - this means I can be somewhat flexible :) )

Didier

I went to South Africa two years ago for a few days in the Cape Town area, but I didn't go whale watching on that trip. However, I have done a lot of whale watching on the East and West Coasts in the US. In these days I would use an FX Nikon body with the 80-400mm lens from a boat. Whales are huge so that a really long lens is often unnecessary, unless you photograph them from the shore. In that case you may need very long lenses due to the distance, and unless they are very close to the shore, quality of the images may suffer due to the distance.

The D500 with the 80-400 Vr and 16-85 Vr would be my Dx choice.

Full frame would be a gripped d850 with 70-200 and tc-1.4 and 24-70 Vr

Good hunting.