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Tanzania Safari: Final (Almost) Camera/Lens Selection
- Thread starter kblaw
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Sanjeev Das
Senior Member
When I went to Tanzania last year this is what I took:
A7R2 + laea3 + Tamron 150-600
A7R2 + 27-70 GM
A7R + 70-200
The A7R2 with 150-600 did most of the wildlife. The A7R2 with 24-70 did all the environmental and people shots. A7R with 70-200 saw the least usage. If I were to do it again, I could leave the A7R and 70-200 at home.
If you use e-mount, why not stick to it instead of learning the a mount? I don't see why you need both 70-400 and 150-600 unless you want one for backup. If it is reach you want w/ the A6500, the A7R2 cropped does about 18MP, not too far from the A6500 24MP
Don't forget the bean bags. And some insect repellents. The Tsetse flies are mean. Lots of SD cards and batteries in case you are unable to charge. Most places will have only one outlet, get a portable power strip.
A7R2 + laea3 + Tamron 150-600
A7R2 + 27-70 GM
A7R + 70-200
The A7R2 with 150-600 did most of the wildlife. The A7R2 with 24-70 did all the environmental and people shots. A7R with 70-200 saw the least usage. If I were to do it again, I could leave the A7R and 70-200 at home.
If you use e-mount, why not stick to it instead of learning the a mount? I don't see why you need both 70-400 and 150-600 unless you want one for backup. If it is reach you want w/ the A6500, the A7R2 cropped does about 18MP, not too far from the A6500 24MP
Don't forget the bean bags. And some insect repellents. The Tsetse flies are mean. Lots of SD cards and batteries in case you are unable to charge. Most places will have only one outlet, get a portable power strip.
Sanjeev Das
Senior Member
Sanjeev Das
Senior Member
I don't have the distribution plotted, but I took lots between 400-600. The Serengeti is wide open, so the more reach you have, the better. You can check out the EXIFs here: http://www.sanjeevdas.photography/Galleries/Tanzania/
For AF, yes it was mostly good. You don't get PDAF, only CDAF. But it was fast and accurate. At 600, sometimes it would hunt which I would fix by zooming out a wee little from 600. I found it good enough for birds in Lake Manyara. If I were to go again, I wouldn't hesitate to take the same combo.
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You will see some beautiful vistas and will sometimes have the chance to compose carefully for a landscape pic. Rent a Voigtlander 12 or 15mm for those landscape moments. Not too big for the bag.
Even an early (non Sony E) Voigtlander 15 which has some corner issues would make for a great small lens whose pics can be cropped to give you the equiv of a 16 to 18mm shot on FF would be great and super small for the bag.
Even an early (non Sony E) Voigtlander 15 which has some corner issues would make for a great small lens whose pics can be cropped to give you the equiv of a 16 to 18mm shot on FF would be great and super small for the bag.
LesPickstock
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Surely one camera and lens too many?
if it was me I'd have camera with 24-70 (16-35 in bag) and second one with 70-400. Avoids weight, indecesiveness and 3different camer 'operations' to be confused with.
If me I'd stick with A7R2 and A6300 and not rent A99ii.
if it was me I'd have camera with 24-70 (16-35 in bag) and second one with 70-400. Avoids weight, indecesiveness and 3different camer 'operations' to be confused with.
If me I'd stick with A7R2 and A6300 and not rent A99ii.
Thanks. Something to consider.
I have the 16-35 F4, and brought it with me to Antarctica, but I used it for probably less than 15 shots.
Everythingis1
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RX10 III /endthread
Well, that certainly is an "Everythingis1" solution! I actually considered that, but I'd rather have the full-frame option.
JM Hoffman
Forum Enthusiast
I agree. It's a fine lens. My point is that it may not give you better close-ups, even at 600mm, then the Canon 100-400mm L Mark II will at 400mm. Some people choose the Tamron because they think it has more reach, and I think that's a mistake.
More generally, the reach of a lens is important only in conjunction with its sharpness. For example, the Canon 70-200mm L lens only goes to 200mm, but it will be better for wildlife than a consumer-grade 70-300mm lens.
Everythingis1
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I would imagine you'll be shooting in very bright sun light and the Full-frame option gives only marginal increase in picture quality (especially because all of the super zoom lenses for FF suck in comparison to the lens on the RX10 III). For me personally a massive full frame set-up would seriously hider my overall experience on a Safari, and if I wasn't using a high quality prime lens like a 500 F4 or better than I wouldn't even consider it as an option because those lenses are so bad at 600mm the RX10 iii will yield you basically the same pictures unless you are trying to make massive prints.
I would image that reach is the most important thing to have on safari which makes this a no brainer to me.
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I can only go by my experience in South Africa and Botswana (admittedly different terrain from Tanzania). Many of the safari shots were actually very close, and many were in relatively low light. The drives are generally done early in the morning, and late in the afternoon.
I did consider the RX10 very seriously. It doesn't afford nearly the same degree of flexibility to crop pictures (not necessarily for reach but for better composition).
Everythingis1
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Sorry, I was under the impression that you would be doing most of the shooting during bright daylight hours. You might consider having one as a back up camera then, or maybe even instead of the A6500 + tamron 150-600mm. The lens on the RX10 iii is just so much better than the superzooms.
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Thanks. It's a tough choice between the A6500/Tamron and the RX10 iii. I like to take video, too, so that's a huge advantage for the RX10. It also has a major size advantage, obviously. The primary advantage for the A6500/Tamron is significantly more reach (up to 900mm).
Sanjeev Das
Senior Member
PWPhotography
Forum Pro
It seems you have good lineup for the task. From what I heard Tanzania is similar to Kenya in eastern Africa in general. Animals could be in long distance in vast savanna. Even 400mm is not long enough. But your 42mp A99 II has room for cropping. And 150-600mm has reach although not a fast lens. But sometime certain animals could be pretty close. Usually game rides are in early morning or late afternoon and daylight could be dim sometime so fast-aperture lenses are very useful.
In my last Masai Mara trip , I carried 500L/4.0 IS on 5D III and 70-200L/2.8 IS II on 1D3 while leave 100-400L in home (as it's not long enough and not fast enough). In future I will look into e-mount lenses of Sigma 500G/4.0 OS Sport or forthcoming FE 400G/4.0 OSS, FE 70-200/2.8 GM and FE 100-400 GM if I replaced Canon DSLR with an A9 for wildlife and action photos.
Enjoy your trip.
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In my last Masai Mara trip , I carried 500L/4.0 IS on 5D III and 70-200L/2.8 IS II on 1D3 while leave 100-400L in home (as it's not long enough and not fast enough). In future I will look into e-mount lenses of Sigma 500G/4.0 OS Sport or forthcoming FE 400G/4.0 OSS, FE 70-200/2.8 GM and FE 100-400 GM if I replaced Canon DSLR with an A9 for wildlife and action photos.
Enjoy your trip.
--
https://www.flickr.com/photos/55485085@N04/albums
http://pwphotography.zenfolio.com
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This is a follow-up to my original post. I returned from Tanzania a few days ago and had a great time. (I went on a safari with Thomson Safaris). After much debating, I ended up going with the camera and lens selection noted in my original post.
The rented A99 ii with the 70-400mm lens was the workhouse and worked really well, even though most of the shots needed to be cropped. The only problem I encountered (which might be from my lack of knowledge about the camera) is that when shooting in aperture priority (as I did for the vast majority of shots), I often inadvertently turned the dial between shots and changed the aperture (and then ended up shooting a few shots before noticing that the aperture had changed). The A99 ii also worked great for video (shot in AF).
As expected, my A7r ii with the 24-70 GM performed great for people shots, but it didn't get much usage on the game drives.
I used the rented A6500 with my Tamron A Mount 150-650mm plus adapter only for very long shorts. Candidly, the focusing was awful, and the results were uninspiring.
I haven't edited the pictures yet, but here is the video:
The clips from the safari video (the first one above) were shot mostly with the A99 ii with a bean bag in the safari vehicle. I did no stabilization or color correction in post (except for very minor color correction on one clip). The other two videos were shot with the A7r ii.
I still have to edit the pictures, but I'm generally very pleased with the results.
Terry
The rented A99 ii with the 70-400mm lens was the workhouse and worked really well, even though most of the shots needed to be cropped. The only problem I encountered (which might be from my lack of knowledge about the camera) is that when shooting in aperture priority (as I did for the vast majority of shots), I often inadvertently turned the dial between shots and changed the aperture (and then ended up shooting a few shots before noticing that the aperture had changed). The A99 ii also worked great for video (shot in AF).
As expected, my A7r ii with the 24-70 GM performed great for people shots, but it didn't get much usage on the game drives.
I used the rented A6500 with my Tamron A Mount 150-650mm plus adapter only for very long shorts. Candidly, the focusing was awful, and the results were uninspiring.
I haven't edited the pictures yet, but here is the video:
The clips from the safari video (the first one above) were shot mostly with the A99 ii with a bean bag in the safari vehicle. I did no stabilization or color correction in post (except for very minor color correction on one clip). The other two videos were shot with the A7r ii.
I still have to edit the pictures, but I'm generally very pleased with the results.
Terry
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