New camera/lens combo for under $1500 that will be adequate for African Safari!

[geoff_orbell]

Hi all,

 

I would appreciate any opinions and recommendations on a digital SLR I am looking to buy before a 2 1/2 month trip

in Africa leaving November. Although the main focus for the camera in Africa will be wildlife and landscapes, it will

have more general us when we get back home, but still plenty of landscapes and critters!

 

I was initially looking at a Nikon D80 with a 18-200mm lens which at about $1300 would fit nicely within our budget

and means we wouldn't have the hassle of changing lenses quickly in the dust and missing shots.

However from reading some of the posts here, 200mm wont be enough on safari so i thought about the standard

factory combo of the 18-55mm and 70mm-300mm for about the same price. Still could be better but would give us a

bit of extra distance.

 

I thought another option may be to get a cheaper camera, say the D60 and get a better telephoto or zoom lens. I

know it doesn't have a built-in focus drive motor but we don't have any old lenses that need it. Plus we want to get

lenses with VR or IS anyway which all seem to have their own AF.

 

Other options I do not have much experience with is a teleconverter with a faster lens or a Tamron/Sigma lens

combination although they seem a little slower.

 

I was only heading the Nikon way over Canon from reviews I had read so I do not have a problem with looking at a

Canon SLR/lens combo.

 

I obviously still have a lot to learn with the terminology as well as the discipline but I just want to make sure that we

arrive home after 10 weeks with something to show for it rather than trying to convince someone there is a leopard

sitting in that tree !

 

Cheers,

 

 

Geoff

[mohammed_abidally]

Why dont you consider buying a body/kit lens and rent a long lens just for the safari. Suggest a canon 40D with 18/55 and rent a 100-400L or better still a 500L f4

[john gettis]

How about a Olympus E510

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/486568 REG/Olympus_262070_Evolt_E_510_Digital_Camera.html

and a 70-300 (equivalant to 140-600

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/504906-REG/Olympus_261057_70_300mm_f_4_5_6_Zuiko_ED.html

Just a suggestion John

[eric_brody]

Whatever you get, and you certainly do have many choices, be certain to get it well enough ahead that you can really

run all the gear through its paces, and be certain everything is working and that you are comfortable working with it.

Practice making MANY images, under low light and bright light, with every lens, at every working distance. Consider

camera support, a beanbag and or a monopod-tripod depending upon how you will be traveling in the bush is important.

Get a system to back up your images, in the field, and or buy enough cards to back up at camp each night. Having TWO

backups for such an important trip is essential. You can use a laptop or one of the portable hard drive systems such as

the Wolverine or many others to do this. Factor such systems into your costs as well as the camera and lens(es). Cards

are not free either and have enough for a day or two's shooting. Consider carefully the size and type of card.

 

I've covered only a fraction of what you'll probably need to know. Perhaps others will have other camera-lens

suggestions. I like the two lens idea. I spent a month in South Africa in 2003 with film, a lot, and a 300mm lens as my

longest. I visited many game parks from Addo Elephant (elephants are large), to Kruger, where the birds are pretty big

but smaller than the rhinos and hippos. The 300 on a film camera is the equivalent of a 200 on a 1.5 crop camera such

as the Nikons. An extra 100mm might be nice, the 70-300 Nikon is a pretty useful reasonably priced lens and is the

equivalent of a 450 on a film camera.

 

You can peruse my African and other images at my website www.ericbrodyphoto.com, if you'd like to see what can be

done with the gear I had then.

 

Good luck.

 

Eric

[tommyinca]

2nd Olympus E510 plus 70-300. IMHO it is properly the cheapest quality long distant combo one could buy for now.

[acbeddoe]

Nikon D80 and 70-300mm VR lens. As someone else suggested, you might consider renting a longer lens, say 500mm or 600mm.<br>

However, the combination above will give you great results in a portable package. For even lighter weight, try a D40, D40x, or D60.<br>

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

Backup? What if you have a camera problem one week into your trip?

[eric_brody]

Robert, good point. When I traveled to Africa I did bring an extra body and never needed it. But I suspect Geoff will not want to do that. Failure, loss or theft are always a risk. Failure is unlikely in a camera that's been working for a while. That's why a thorough workout is so important. Theft or loss are unpredictable.

 

Eric

[geoff_orbell]

I have definitely found the right forum. Thank you very much for your quick replies!

 

I have looked at renting a lens. Two problems

1) We are heading home to Australia afterwards and wont be able to rent from here in the US.

Second, we will be over there for 10 weeks which at the rental rates I have seen equates to being able to buy a new

400-500mm lens new anyway! That includes renting it from South Africa when we arrive.

 

Another option someone from our photography department suggested yesterday was to get a second hand fixed

400mm manual focus lens for about $200 for the wildlife shots that are very distant. Seeing that most of that shooting

will probably be in excellent light and with leaning on the vehicle roof or a small tripod, camera shake may be

minimal. I know I said we would be using AF only but would manual focussing a 400mm lens be a real hassle for

those long shots?

 

Any thoughts?

[alex_lofquist]

I've spent several months in East Africa. I did bring an extra body, and I'm glad that I did. I didn't find that VR was terribly important, though desirable. Focal lengths of 400mm or more on full-frame 35mm format is highly recommended, though most of the time I used a 70-210.

[funkag]

The Rebel XSi with the pretty highly regarded 18-55 IS kit lens is reported to be selling for about $799 over at Amazon.com. You could add a new Tokina 80-400 AT-XD lens to that for $650 and come in just under budget. It is reportedly pretty sharp (I've never used it - search around for some reviews), and has a tripod ring which will come in handy. It is not optically stabilized, though.

 

The 70-300 IS/VR from either Canon or Nikon would also be a good choice, but never underestimate your need for a long lens. The shot below was taken with a 20d + Canon 100-300 racked all the way out (equ. to 480mm with the 1.6x crop) - the deer was closer to me than I would like a lion or leopard, and it still doesn't fill the frame.<div></div>

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

I, myself, would opt for two of the less-expensive bodies. But I'm a belt and suspenders guy when it comes to irreplacable shots. Perhaps a D40 and a D60. Or two D40's to have enough $$$ for lenses.

 

You'll definately need a solid tripod when shooting with long lenses. So add that into your budget, too.

[geoff_orbell]

Thanks Robert, I have a tripod and today I tried out handling the D80 and D60. I found the D60 too small for my right

hand especially which was cramping after about 15minutes holding it. It was fine for my wife as was the D80 but

made me feel like Bigfoot! I found the D80 very comforatable to handle. Didn't have the Olympus 510 there to try out.

 

We will also be taking a 10x Optical zoom PNS Olympus as a backup because one of us will have a video camera.

Obviously the Olympus is a pansy backup for an SLR but will be better than not havng a backup camera at all!

[doug herr]

"<I>would manual focussing a 400mm lens be a real hassle for those long shots?</I>"

<P>

This depends on your eyes, the camera's viewfinder, and allowing some time to practice using the combination. I focus manually.

<CENTER>

<IMG SRC="http://www.wildlightphoto.com/birds/trochilidae/ruhu01.jpg"><BR>

<B>Rufous Hummingbird</B> 280mm lens + 1.4x extender<BR>

<I>not under $1500</I>

</CENTER>

[Jerry_]

With a bit more than $800.00 added to your budget, you could find a clean, used AF 80-400mm VR Nikkor lens and that along with the small VR 18-55mm AF-S Nikkor, would give you a pair of lenses for your trip. The 80-400 lens, minus the tripod mount, weighs more than the VR 70-300mm Nikkor, but it reaches out to the 600mm range on a Nikon D80 body. One place to look is:

 

 

 

www.keh.com

 

 

 

and you get a 6-month warranty on a used lens from KEH.

 

 

 

You have a long trip planned, and if you want decent results, a larger investment in equipment might be in order.

[nick_baker]

1) Consder buying a camera or lens and selling it after your trip. So long as you don't have too much wear and tear, and it is not upgraded while you are away, you should get much of the money back on ebay. Some people think the Nikon 80-400VR might get upgraded soon, but no-one knows for sure.

 

2) D40, D60, D80 etc will not have auto-diaphragm control with older manual Nikon lenses. D200/D300 body will be needed. Since these lenses are not VR, you will be in tripod territory.

 

3) Olympus is the obvious answer, unless you don't like them for some reason.

[matthew_newton]

I use a 35mm film camera, so I have focus aids in the view finder. That being said I do have a 300mm f/5.6 lens that use on occasion. My microprism view finder focus aid goes dark with f/5.6 lenses (I still need to get one that can handle down to f/8 lenses)...so I have effectively no focus aids even under bright light with the lens. Focusing is certainly trickier, but it isn't to hard. It would be difficult to get sharp focus if I am trying to focus on something really close with the lens (say 30-40ft) since the plane of focus even on an f/5.6 lens of that focal length is fairly shallow (its doable, but it takes a lot longer then when I am shooting something say 100-150ft away).

 

I just recently acquired (okay it should be in the mail) a 400mm f/5.6 lens for my olympus film camera for a shade under $300...so it would be doable. Most prices I have seen on the really good 400mm f/5.6 manual focus lenses for Nikon and ones tend to run from about $170-500 depending on condition and how crazy an auction gets (most are around $250-300). It will deffinitely get you some focal length, and when combined with an 18-55 for some environmental shots, or an 18-200 super zoom that should have you mostly covered.

[JDMvW]

Unless things have changed a lot, the game safari vehicles get you amazingly close. Long time passing, I had a

70-210 lens on a film body together with a Tele-extender. Hardly had any cause to use anything over the 210. I

would NOT get a long prime lens or you will always have the wrong lens or will get large pictures of animal's

eyes, for example. With a crop body, the 200 range as top of the zoom should do OK, but look into something up to

300mm if you can get it with Image Stabilization (Canon) or "vibration reduction" (Nikon). Take a bean bag for

support on the roof of the safari minibus. A tripod won't be of much use for animal shots. Much of the time

you'll be using the lower half of the telephoto range.

[geoff_orbell]

I have looked into the Olympus 510 and 520 as a number of people have mentioned. The 510 certainly has had good reviews and the 520 looks to build on that slightly. With their 70-300mm lens which has also been well reviewed it could be a good combination for what I am wanting. I was interested to note that with the 520 the button colours have changes to suit colorblind people (I am colorblind!) and that they have underwater functions with a housing available soon ( I am an avid diver). Obviously not reasons to but the camera on its own but certainly bonus marks. We also have a few xD cards for out PNS Olympus which we have been happy with. I will try and find a shop with a 520 next week when I am down in Florida (or 510) and see how it handles.

I am also kindof hoping that Nikon are bringing out a D80 replacement soon which may make the current D80 a bit cheaper still.

Has anyone had experience with the Olympus 510/70-300mm combo for wildlife? Is the image stabilisation in the Olympus body as good as the Nikkor or Canon Lenses?

[JDMvW]

Just to re-emphasize, get the camera and do a lot of shooting with it BEFORE you go. A safari is not the place to learn how to use the camera. I think you can hardly go wrong with any of the marque suggestions here.<div></div>

[herman_hiel]

Also give some thought how you're going to back up your cards; unless you take a stack of CF cards, you'll need a system to back up your cards. Africa is not the place to look for this kinda stuff...Enjoy.

[john gettis]

If you wind up buying the Olympus, do yourself a favor and get some compact flash cards and use the XD- cards as backup. I leave one in my E-500 as a insurance against picking up the camera without a card in it. Xd cards are much slower then compact flash cards. Hope this helps John

[uncle git]

You could also buy the 500 F4 and resell it after - the loss is probably significantly less than the rental cost...

 

You will also be able to get surprisingly close to many large predators - though the 500mm was indispensable while I was there.

 

You can definitely get good solid creative images from less focal length - it's about the nut that holds the camera ;)

 

Some of my pics from Botswana last summer :

 

http://www.twistedcube.com/unclegit/Africa/

[geoff_orbell]

OK so this is what I am looking at so far. I have chosen not to go for an extra body or a fixed 400mm or 500mm lens

and resell it.

 

Olympus E-520 + 14-42mm and 70-300mm lens $999

Extra battery and DC charger - $60

SanDisk Extreme III 4MB Compactflash cards x 3 $150

Wolverine/Photosafe/Nexto 2700 $200

Hoya Super HMC UV filter $30

Hoya HMC circular polariser $50

Manfrotto monopod $100

 

Comes in at just under $1600

 

Still open to ideas especially on the portable photo storage devices. My wife is looking to buy an MP3 player so if

there is one of those that will transfer RAWs quickly, that'd be even better!

[geoff_orbell]

Another question

 

I have the option of picking up a second hand 14-54mm and an ex demo 50-200mm SWD for $800. That is about $350 more than the current planned combination. However I would need to get the 1.4x teleconverter which is about $350 also.

 

Does anyone have any experience with combining the 1.4x converter with either of these two lenses? Will the combination of the 50-200mm with the teleconverter be a significant steup in quality from the 70-300mm?

 

Cheers