SANParks.org Forums

Hello! First post.

My family and I willl be visiting SA at the end of December, beginning of January.

The visit includes three days in the KNP where I hope t take a lot of pics.

I will be taking a mid range and a wide angle zoom for general photography but am a bit undecided about telephoto lenses for wild life.

I have a 70-200 f2.8 zoom, 300 f4 prime, 1.4TC and a 1.7TC.

My current camera is a Nikon D300 but I also have a D70 in honourable retirement.

Considering the time of the year, should I go the whole hog and take the D70, 300 f4 and the TC's as well and shoot with two cameras or could I take a minimalist approach and just take the telephoto zoom and a TC and still get close enough?

Can I expect a big dust problem?

Thanks in advance for shareing your experience(s).

Philip

Hi Philip and welcome to the forums!

Personally I would bring the whole lot. The D70 as backup, with corrugated roads, dust and normal mishaps it is very possible a camera does go down.

I would put the 70-200 on the D70, and the 300 on the D300, that way you do not need to change lenses, which means you can grab the correct lens for the situation in a second. And saves you the chance of dust on your sensor.

The wide angle lens you can put on either camera, in no hurry, landscapes don't run away. the light does change very quickly though if you're looking for golden light landscapes!

December / January you can expect quite a bit of dust yes. So sneak into the bathroom and steal two bathing caps from the wife. They are easy to fit around the camera while the lens can peek through the opening. Works like a charm, yet is quick to remove.

I agree with DuQues ....
We have a 70-200 f:4 on a 40D and a 300mm f:4 on a 350D with a TC 1x4 .
Last year my son took most of the pics with the 300 mm .
This year he took the pics with the 300mm and the TC always on , and looking at his pics think now the 300mm alone ( without TC on ) would have been enough for mammals ( not for birds ) .
Often 200mm is not enough , so you would have to keep the TC on the zoom most of the time , but if the lions come quickly very close to the car as it was the case several times for us last february you may loose shoots while getting off the TC from the 70-200, so it's better to take the two camera and all the lenses with you
My older son loosed some shoots like that while we haved the pics with the 70-200
But i see you only stay 3 days in the park , so i would ask me , if i want to take also birds , and surely you will want ( better to have the 300mm with TC in that case )
An other solution could be to take only the 70-200 , let TC on , and have a little compact camera if you are surprise and not enough time to get off the TC from the zoom ?
Hope this help a little

Have a good trip you and your family

A little blower for cleaning the lenses.
And keep the lenses covered while driving with closed windows
Open and closing doors does let dust in
After a few days in Kruger even the inside of the car will be covered in a fine layer of dust

Welcome to the forum, one thing you should note is you never have enough cards unless you have a backup device.

I took my 2nd camera last trip which my SO used for the first time, some of her shots made me question whether I should allow her again as they were excellent so it's a good idea to have as much kit as you can reasonably carry.(airport restrictions)

have a great trip.

Thank you all for your kind and informative replies.

I will bring the works!

Any thoughts on the teleconverters??

I can get fl. ~500mm with the 1.7TC on the 300 F4 and ~100-280 with the 1.4TC on the 70-200 F2.8.

Overkill or not??

I don't fancy adding or removing the TC's in the field and I don't have time to experiment.

Philip

No time to experiment! You still have 2 months!

I would bring them. They don't weigh much, and can make the difference! Especially with birds.
Your glass is fast enough, so the cameras will still use autofocus.

As for the chance of dust, you can limit that by:
- closing windows before starting. Mind that the car will need a running engine for that..
- switch off the camera before taking off the lens. That will kill any static that may attract dust.
- keep the camera pointing down.

You can clean the sensor in the field if you need to. Don't bother with 1 spec, Lightroom will take care of that very neatly. Just take a shot of blue sky from time to time to check, and don't forget that the sensor is upside down.. Spec in the top right corner? Clean the bottom left corner!

So thats why i could not get rid of that stubborn spot, that was glued on and would not come off no matter what i tried at least i know now

Digital does tend to make one forget the basics.

Hi

I am a Wild Life Photographer with over 100 trips to Kruger under my belt. If you are staying in a camp like Tsendze/Balule with no electricity take 4-5 plus batteries though the D300 is much better in chewing up power(Saving that is) than my old D200.
Take only 1 body (Save space and weight) the D300 is reliable pro spec and has dust vibration removal. Take the 70-200 f.8 for 90% of your Kruger shots and use a convertor 1.4x and 1.7x if you have both but at 1.5x crop factor you will have plenty fire power for Kruger if you approach animals carefully and properly...just be careful in your approach to ellies in musth there as they are more temperemental these days through overpopulation but even then switch off and you will be OK with your 300 f2.8 (70-200 f2.8 x 1.5x) I used a full frame D700 last month (Even though I took my D200 it never got used once which proves my point that with a good camera like you have a spare is not required.) Always drive with your windows open ...thats how you hear whats going on and thats how I pick up 90% of my sightings to take pics with. On Guiding drives in an open vehicle I have my D700 and 70-200 plus 1.4 x which sits on the seat next to me...very dusty and I havent the time to protect this rig all the time from dust as I am busy negotiating off road tricky situations but like your kit its pro speced and dust proof...enjoy and oh yes take plenty cards...lap tops and the like also chew space for overseas tourists and you need charging facilities which arent there where I go especially. You are lucky as you are going in rainy season too so there will be far less dust than in August as rain settles the dust big time in Kruger...one of the advantages of going in Summer

Well thank you all again for your advice.

I ended up just taking just the 70-200 f2.8 for wildlife.

This decision was more or less forced on me by weight restrictions on the airlines and in retrospect the range worked well.
Missed a few for reach problems but....that was hardly surprising.

Unfortunately the autofocus on the lens was only working intermittently, which rather limited the number of keepers.
The problem was fixed on goodwill by Nikon on my return home but that unfortunately dosen't give me my pics back.

I am now scheeming on how to return next year, , for a two week self drive to get my revenge.

Would November be OK?

Sorry for the late response.

Post edited to remove image URL's that were not displayed!!

Unintentional rule violation???

Phil

OK new try to post images:











OK it's working now.
Previous try was posting from a private gallery!
Thought they would display sice I have access.

Eh... I can't see the photos, not even when copying the link to smugmug?

Sorry DuQues! My bad!

Hi - I'm fairly new on the forums so just saw your posts now.

My advice would have been .... bring as much equipment as you can (cull the additional clothing, shoes, etc) - I wear maybe two pairs of pants on a 10 day trip to KNP in summer, washing them on alternate days and three pairs of underpants (the extra pair is for cleaning lenses in emergencies... ).

Seriously though - I don't care how reliable your kit is... if you have a backup, take it ...... even Toyotas break down in Africa and even if you've had 100 trouble-free trips, 101 might present that award winning shot just as your mirror hangs or a PC contact loses contact ....

November is a great time - some of the first rains might have fallen by then, so you will probably have a bit more greenery than in Winter, but animals will still be congregating at waterholes as the rivers will not yet be in full flood (I think this is going to be a wet year though, so this standard rule might not be so applicable)... And you will be ahead of the local school holiday rush .....

Having said that, you will note that on someone's signature there is the very true statement that " a bad day in Africa's bush beats any great day in the office" (sorry for the slight misquote), so even if you miss the shots, you will still be able to relax and ENJOY.

GREAT SHOTS from the last trip

Oh, and if you don't have time to practise at home, bring the kit and practise in camp after the gates close, or at midday when viewing is not as good