Settings for African Safari Shooting

<p>So I'm about to head to South Africa for a two-week holiday that will include a week in the game parks. Before I head out, I'd like to get some guidance on the settings I am best off using on my gear; which exposure mode, metering mode, etc. do you recommend? I really want to maximize my potential on this trip!</p>

<p>A lot depends on the available light and the equipment you'll be taking. I would suggest starting with evaluative metering, ISO 400, and aperture priority, a couple of stops smaller than your lens' maximum. As the light diminishes, or if your subjects are moving too quickly for the automatically-set shutter speeds, you might move to ISO 800 and try some shutter-priority shots. Eventually you may feel comfortable enough to use manual metering, varying under and overexposure as the situation dictates.</p>

<p>"I am best off using on my gear; which exposure mode, metering mode, etc. do you recommend?<strong>"</strong><br /><strong>======================================</strong><br />No sure how things are in Africa but the criters usually only come out at dawn or dusk. You might get a quick glimpse of them during lunch time, but after that is virtually hit or miss. Meaning that you will be probably using very wide apertures. I would recomend a very fast lens f2.8 or wider. IS is not going to help you much with fast moving criters. A telephoto lens in the 300mm range would get you by, but preferably the longer the lens the better.<br />For small criters(birds, small mamals etc) you wiill need a lens that is at least 400mm and that's the minimum. If you will only be shooting nature and landscape shots then any lens will do. If this is a National Park, then some areas will be restricted to the public. This is what allot of people including myself don't realize is that the park rangers block off certain areas to avoid disturbing the animals during mating season, etc. That's why I say the longer and faster the lens the better. Don't forget to bring along some water proof gear because once it's starts raining out there, you might find yourself with absolutely no cover at all and this can last for hours.<br /><strong></strong><strong></strong></p>

I second Harry's opinion. The longer the better.

 

You will certainly need a 400mm (at least), a medium telephoto zoom and a wide angle lens for landscapes. 400 ISO is enough to shoot - under normal conditions - all the lenses handheld (for critical shots you can lean your lens on the roof of the car). I always shoot aperture priority and center-weighted exposure will help.

 

In my Africa trip back in 2007 (<a href="http://www.pbase.com/albertogreco">www.pbase.com\albertogreco</a>), I had an APS digital camera (always in combo with my Sigma 400 f/5.6 - this means 600mm equivalent), and two film bodies with a 70-200mm and a 17-40mm. All the situations were well covered (except for some shots in which I would have used a longer lens!).

 

Bring as many cards\rolls as you can. A trip in Africa is very special and you will be shooting so much more than what you think.

 

Have fun (I'm sure you will certainly have it)!

 

Alberto

<p>You will run into all kinds of situations: lion in deep shade under a tree, elephant in mid-day sun, antelope in dusk, zebra in darkness. So you need some degree of flexibility. It strikes me that the newer cameras' auto-ISO option could be useful, at least to begin with. I would then probably start out by shooting in aperture priority mode and hope that the camera lowers the ISO as the light permits it to. When I was last on safari this feature didn't exist so others might want to fill in on this suggestion.</p><p>Choosing lenses wasn't part of your question. Still, you are likely to hear lots of people suggest that you absolutely need a <em>really</em> long lens. While a long lens is indeed desirable, there will be plenty of situations where almost any telephoto lens will be <em>too long</em> for the simple reason that you're too close to the game. A 70-300 lens will do, particularly if you have 1.5x or 1.6x crop camera, unless of course you have specific purposes and ambitions. If the animals are too far away -- or if it's too dark, or whatever -- just put the camera down and enjoy with your own eyes. I've seen so many people miss the experience only to bring very mediocre shots home.</p>

<p>James, you're too good a photographer to get anything out of such a general question as this. Describing what equipment you're taking, explaining what, specifically, you're concerned about, and pointing people to your SmugMug site will yield answers that should be helpful. From my perspective, you need a bird identification book, but that's for after you return. (I don't think the bird you've labeled a "condor" is any more a condor than the golden brown, nicely basted one from your Thanksgiving photos.)</p>

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<p>I don't think the bird you've labeled a "condor" is any more a condor than the golden brown, nicely basted one from your Thanksgiving photos.</p>

 

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<p>Every one I can find (searching the whole site for "condor") <em>is</em> a condor.</p>

<p>I wouldn't borrow Hector's bird book, James...</p>

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<p>No sure how things are in Africa but the criters usually only come out at dawn or dusk. You might get a quick glimpse of them during lunch time, but after that is virtually hit or miss. Meaning that you will be probably using very wide apertures. I would recomend a very fast lens f2.8 or wider. IS is not going to help you much with fast moving criters. A telephoto lens in the 300mm range would get you by, but preferably the longer the lens the better.</p>

 

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<p>An awful lot of <em>speculation</em> there, Harry...</p>

<p>Something to think about: the Canon 100-400mm is nicknamed - <em>by people who actually do African safaris</em> - as <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22the+safari+lens%22">The Safari Lens</a> .</p>

<p><em>For good reason.</em></p>

<p>Not sure if this thread is still active and you may have gone off to Africa already...nevertheless, I live in South Africa and regularly go on safari. My two cent's worth is that long lenses for tourists can be counter productive for various reasons. First you tend to live your experience through the lens, which stops you appreciating the bigger picture. Secondly, close-ups of the main animals will be boring and so many postcards will do it better. Try limiting yourself for at least one day with a 50mm or a moderate telephoto such as an 80. Concentrate on landscapes and putting wildlife in perspective. Leave the close-ups to your binoculars! </p>

<p><em>Every one I can find (searching the whole site for "condor") <em>is</em> a condor.</em> <br /> <em>I wouldn't borrow Hector's bird book, James...</em></p>

<p>That's good Keith. I like that. The more important point is that James is a very capable photographer, and that a general question seems unlikely to give him something he doesn't know. Looking at his history on photo.net, it seems he already asked about equipment, and now he was asking about setting in a very general way. As far as the condor labels, I was born in Argentina, have had a chance to see Andean condors in the Andes, and now live near Santa Barbara, California, where I could sometimes see California condors when my knees were in better shape for hiking. Also, many years ago, I saw California condors at the Los Angeles zoo, when they had the captive breeding program there, and would sometimes let zoo subscribers have a very good look. A photo on James' site, marked as a condor, looked like some kind of hawk. I know the tails are similar, but the coloration and the head didn't look like any condors I've seen. If I'm wrong, good, maybe I'll learn something. Maybe it was a juvenile or something.</p>

<p>Check this one too.<br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/travel-photography-forum/00SnI5">http://www.photo.net/travel-photography-forum/00SnI5</a></p>

<p>What Andre said.</p>

<p>I don't know why I did not get these responses sent to me (I had clicked "Notify me of Responses" so sorry for taking so long to respond! Thanks for all the feedback, here is some of mine:<br>

First, thanks for referring to me as a capable photographer! I still consider myself pretty much to be a plodder, but it's nice to have positive feedback! Second, if I mislabled a hawk a condor, it's probably because I did a bulk keyword add in Lightroom and mistakenly included the wrong photo in there (but I was at a part of Peru where the point of being there was to shoot condors, so at least <em>most</em> of the birds there should have been condors). Third, the lenses I am bringing are pretty much all 2.8L lenses: 24-70, 70-200 IS, and 100-400 IS, along with a 15mm fisheye lens. <br>

The lens thing leads to two further questions: since I shoot with a 5DMkII, I have been debating getting a second camera with an APS sensor to add some reach to my shots, though I cannot decide a) whether to, or b) which to get if I decide to do so. My partner shoots with a 50D and a Tamron 18-270 lens, so he should get some good range, but when I think what my 100-400 could do on an APS camera, I get goosebumps. But then again, putting such a great lens on a Rebel xTi seems a bit silly to me...<br>

The other question is how the hell to schlep all these cameras and lenses with me, particularly on the plane! The 70-200 and 100-400 are not exactly compact, and they don't really fit that well into a camera bag. Ideas?</p>

<p>Oh, and I don't leave China for S Africa until May 13, so these responses are not at all too late! And Andre and Anders--since I'll be self-driving, I'm sure I won't be exclusively viewing my surroundings through my viewfinder, but I appreciate the advice very much!</p>