SANParks.org Forums

Use Olympus E1. Check out Olympus E1 for more info. Several pages to go through, so look out for the "Continue on to Page Two" sign.

Mostly used 200mm lens with 1.4mm teleconverter during my recent KNP trip. Olympus digital lenses use a x2 factor so actual zoom is 2 x 200 x 1.4 = 560mm.

CAMERA
Olympus E1 (5.0 Megapixel)

LENSES
14-54mm f2.8-3.5 (28mm - 108mm equiv. for 35mm)
50-200mm f2.8-3.5 (100mm - 400mm equiv. for 35mm)
50mm f2.0 1:2 Macro (100mm Macro equiv. for 35mm)
TC14 1.4X Teleconverter (1.4X - 1 stop equiv. for 35mm)

FLASH
FL-50 Flash

BATTERY
Lithium-ion rechargeable battery and charger (2 pieces)

BACK-UP
Nikon Coolwalker (30 GB)

MEMORY CARDS
512 MB
1 GB

OTHERS
Lowe Pro Phototrekker bag
Inexpensive Tripod (came with video camera)

VIDEO CAMERA
Digital Sony Video Camera (sorry, can't remember model)

Cheers,

Clever Dog

Hi CD:

thanks for posting your complete kit here. I know the info will be very helpful to many members, myself included! The details about DSLR lens equivalents to SLR lenses is especially helpful. The Nikon Coolwalker or similar storage device seems to me a great alternative to carrying a laptop.

many thanks!! arks

Hi arks,

Most welcome. The Nikon Coolwalker was great to carry along as I can carry it in my side pocket and quickly take it out and download the photos while on the run. And it has a nice LCD screen to watch the photos afterwards as well. However, there are newer models on the market now that might be a better buy (but also more expensive of course).

BUT BE SURE TO TEST THE DOWNLOADING FROM YOUR CF CARD BEFORE YOU GO! My 1 GB card would not let me download to the Nikon Coolwalker (maybe as it was not formatted???), but luckily the 512 MB would. Imagine my scare for a moment there after only 2 days in the park

Clever Dog

Arks

The factor varies somewhat - whilst Clever Dog's Olympus has a factor of 2.0, my Canon EOS-300D (Digital Rebel) has a factor of 1.6.

I must admit that I'm having a bit of a problem with this - after 35 years of using SLRs I'm so used to the "normal" focal lengths that I tend to forget that my 300mm lens is now a 480mm lens. As a result, I have lost a lot of potentially good images due to camera shake

I'm seriously thinking of "downgrading" to a zoom with a maximum focal length of 200mm (320mm on my Canon) to eliminate the problem

Of course I could go for IS, but I'm not sure that my budget will stretch to that at the moment.

The focal lenght isn't the problem, you handholding the camera is. If you take a picture while handholding the camera you will always introduce camera shake and although IS will help it still isn't a miracle cure for all your camera shake troubles

I use a 300mm f/2.8 with IS and still take 95% of my pics using a beanbag and a remote shutter release. When using this setup you don't have to touch your camera to take a picture and all the pictures will come out sharp, even at shutterspeeds of 1/30 sec.

In addition to the beanbag i always take my tripod with me.
For birding pics at camps and landscaping. Fits nicely in my
suitcase. Always wrap it in a big towel. The towel i use at the
pool again.

On most cameras u find the miror lockup timer. On Canon
u can determine for how long the mirror stays open. This also helps to get your subject real sharp. When the camera records the picturen there is no fibration which occurs when the mirror closes again.Even use it while resting the lens on the beanbag. Mind u, the animal must stand deadstill.

And this combination is best done with remote shutter release.

Thanks Madach

The problem for me is that most of my photography is of subjects moving at 200-300 Km/Hour or faster. In general, I have no camera shake troubles - it's only when I am using the longer focal lengths which I am not used to. I automatically zoom as I am panning and shooting. With a maximum 200mm zoom (effective 320mm) I would be able so stay within my known comfortable range. I would never ewxpect IS to be a miracle cure - it might help, though.

Formula1 or MotoGP racing?



That makes a lot of sense. I'd go for the 70-200mm f/2.8 IS then. For your kind of photography that should be an awesome lens. The IS even has a panning mode which will be of huge value for you.

Thanks, Simon!!

This information and discussion is especially helpful to me because I am leaning towards buying the 300D (good prices since release of 350D and choosing the earlier model will allow me more funds for extras). I'll definitely now consider the tradeoffs between a 300mm and a 200mm zoom, another factor being that the 200mm would allow me perhaps a larger low aperture?

@Madach: What's IS?? And thanks for letting me know that f2.8 is obtainable on the 70-200mm. My current zoom is an f2.8 70-210mm and I'm used to having that low light capability (my fixed 50mm lens is f1.8) and it looked like I was going to have to sacrific that. I'm also quite steady with hand-held shots (up to a full minute), but don't have any experience with AF lenses and that may change things?

Thanks to everyone for the extremely helpful imput and discussions here and elsewhere in this forum. It's been a HUGE help to me in deciding what new gear I will be buying!

cheers, arks

IS = Image Stabilisation. It works the same as the Anti-shake on most video camera's.

Although the 70-200 is available in an f/2.8 version you might want to check the price In Holland a non-IS version is around 1100 euro and the IS version is 1650 euro I bought a mint second hand non-IS version and I love it. One day (soon) I'll sell it and buy the IS version (as soon as I've convinced my SO)

Thanks for clarifying. I've had great success with 2nd hand SLRs and lenses, so I'll keep my eyes open for finding one. I haven't really started pricing lenses new as yet, just looking to see what is availalbe for Canon, Sigma and Tamron lenses. Do you think that the Canon lenses are significantly better than Sigma and Tamron? The 70-210mm that I use with my Olympus OM-2S is a Vivitar lens and it's been just fine. Don't even know if the Vivitar company still exists, as I've had the lens for over 15 years!!

Have held off posting my camera equipment as I think I'm not worthy of it, but heck....whatever!

Canon Eos 20D. Bought specifically for our wedding last year as the photos were being taken by the son of my best friend (who is an accomplished wildlife photographer), but had a broken camera. Chose digital because we wanted to be able to use the camera ourselves afterwards and liked the idea of the "immediacy" of digital. To aid matters, my mother and father-in-law offered to purchase the camera for us as a wedding present.

Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-something lens (came with camera - wanted body only, but not available at the time within our timescales). OK lens, but not very bright and images can be a bit dull. This will be the next replacement we make to our set-up. In the UK these lenses sell second-hand for around £50. If anyone is interested, let me know
Also have polarising filter for this.

Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro DI. Bought this second hand from a camera shop with 1 yrs warranty a couple of weeks before the last trip. The lens has not been on the market long so I have no idea why someone decided to change it so soon. I love this lens. It's light, bright and very colourful. Also got about £100 off list price by buying second hand.

Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8. Heavy and a huge chunk of lens to carry round but if you have something to steady yourself against, it delivers some cracking results. I could see my pics improving day on day as I was getting used to using it. Not easy to change for another lens whilst in a moving (or even stationary!) car due to its size and weight, so I tended to leave it on all the time and used the camcorder for closer stills.

Sigma 1.4x converter.

Velbon Tripod

Canon Shutter release (can't remember which model, but it's not the one with the timer)

2xBatteries. One Canon, one not. No appreciable difference in performance between them. BIG difference in price!

2.2GB and 2x 512mb CF cards. Only used the 2.2gb on this trip although it started playing up on the last day in the park and it looks like it will need formatting. Still under warranty, so not overly concerned. 512mbs will cope comfortably as backup

USB card reader

Multiplate car charger. Could only find a car charger which would work for both my Panasonic MiniDV camcorder AND the Canon in SA. Best investment made so far. Also has plug for indoor use.

2x 2-into-1 12v adaptor sockets. Maybe a bit overkill but nice to be able to use the GPS/PDA as well as being able to charge batteries

Lowe Pro Phototrekker bag. Keeps everything snug and secure. Kit in total weighs 9.5kg and nearly got us into trouble at Jan Smuts on Monday evening. When we explained it was camera equipment which could not be checked in, we were told that there was no problem with us taking it on board.

Toshiba Satellite laptop for transfer of pics. We do this daily and wipe the CF card. Laptop fearsomely heavy and not overly petite neither. If we had realised when we bought it that this was what we would end up using it for, we would have bought something like a Sony Vaio. Laptop bag handluggage with cables and associated other peripherals weighed in at 11kg (yikes!) but when we told the check-in staff it was computer equipment, they waved us through with no further questions.

I'm not listing the beanbag as part of my equipment as I make my own when I get over to SA. A pair of ladies tights and a bag of lentils or rice does the job nicely with the added bonus that you can eat it (less the tights) at the end of the holiday!

As I said at the beginning, all this equipment is well beyond my capabilities, but I am learning and enjoying myself at the same time.

OK, time to redress the balance in favour of those of us with "simpler" kit.*

I have a Canon Powershot S1 IS (the IS stands for Image stabilizer). This is a 3.2MP with a 10x zoom (38-380mm in film terms, I understand).

Media - I have 1 generic 256mb, 1 Viking 128mb, 1 Jessops 128mb, 1 Canon 32mb (came with camera and next to useless but carried in case of emergency) compact flash cards.

Batteries - I have 1 set of Jessops 2000mAh and 1 set of 1300mAh.

Case - Lowepro D-res 25AW

No extra lenses or filters (yet).

I'm very new to photography and I have a lot to learn. When the time came to upgrade I looked at spending a lot on a dSLR but I was wary - I didn't want to get a camera that I would be too scared of to use properly.

The S1 gives me auto mode if I need it, a number of scene settings but also gives me Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and full manual control. It gives me enough to learn with, and when I save enough I can buy a dSLR and use it with more confidence than I would have if I'd bought one straight away.

The IS feature is fantastic. I have a friend who bought a Fuji with the same zoom range but more MPs but without IS. When we take pictures of the same thing with full zoom his pictures can come out a little fuzzy - he has to work a little bit harder to get the same results.

*Thanks to Arks for prompting me to write this - I was overwhelmed by the pro kit on display so I was reluctant to mention what I was using in public.

Ok, I already got quite a few Cameras .

I have started with a

Canon AE 1
I bought that one as a used Camera around 1988.

Lenses: Canon Zoom Lens FD 75-200 mm/ 1:4,5
Canon Zoom Lens FD 35-70 mm /1: 3,5-4,5
Canon Lens FD 28 mm/ 1:2.8
Canon Lens FD 50 mm/ 1:1,4 S.S.C.
Canon Speedlite 155A

Still got that one and still love it very much , as it was my first SLR Camera.
But travelling to Namibia and starting with Wildlife photography made me think that the Camera was not the right Camera anymore.

So I bought ( after our Namibia holiday November 2002) a :

Minolta Dynax 5

Lenses: Minolta AF Zoom A 28-80 mm / 3,5-5,6 D
Minolta AF Zoom A 75-300 MM / 4,5-5,6 D
( I just sold that one a couple of months ago)

Quite shortly after that I had a :

Nikon F 80 , a very nice and well build Camera.

Lenses: Nikon AF Nikkor 28-80 mm/ 1:3,3-5,6 G
Nikon Af Nikkor 70-300 mm/ 1: 4-5,6 G

After discovering that I just did use toooooo many films I switched ( very recent) to the :

Nikon D 70 DSLR which is quite similar to the F80.

I use it with the same lenses as the F80.I still travel with the F 80 because I just do not feel very confortable while travelling with just one camera ( and at the moment I cannot afford a second DSLR Body ).(One of my AE 1 bodies just broke down on a perfect day on 90 mile Beach in New Zealand ).
I am still surprised about the results I got with the new DSLR.
I have got two 2 GB Compact Flash Cards and use a Vosonic
X-drive Pro 3310 80 GB ,as backup during my travels.
I am using a Vanguard VT-432 Tripod and just made a Beanbag for Kruger….
Moreover I always carry my Steiner Safari Binoculars 10x 26.
The last two Cameras are the ones I travel with.I already used them during our holidays in Namibia , Botswana and Zimbabwe November 2004 and in South Africa May 2005.
You can see the results on my flickr page ( the pics of May 2005 will come shortly, Addo already arrived,also see forum sightings and Public Picture Gallery)

I hope this will be of use .
So enjoy wildlife and Photography.

Canon EOS10
Canon 24-85mm Ultrasonic
Canon 75-300mm Ultrasonic
and some lenses

Chinon CP-9AF
Chinon 28-70mm AF
Vivitar 75-300mm MF
Soligor Tele-Converter PK 2X Auto
Chinon AF-S280 TTL-Flash

And Digital for Snapshots
Concord Aye-Q 3340z 3.1 Megapixels, 3x optical Zoom, 4x digital Zoom

Enough?