The photographer is usually the most important factor in a good photo, but on safari good gear is also critical. This is what you need.

In three articles we will look at what you need to take good travel photos on safari:

• Camera gear
• Camera technique
• Settings and configuration of gear

Safari in Southern Africa is one of our best travel memories and the prints on our wall are a constant reminder of this. When on a safari it is actually quite crucial to have the right gear in order to get the best photos (however, right gear does not always mean expensive gear).

Reach

When travelling through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe we learned one important lesson about wildlife photography: You need all the reach your camera can give you. There are many factors that determine how good a photo turns out, but even the most expensive gear in the world will do you no good if the animals are so far away that they only appear as a small spot in the photo. If you are to only remember one thing from this article, remember this: Reach is critical!

So, how much reach is good reach? It does of course depend on what you are going to photograph, but in general we recommend at least 600 mm. What does 600 mm really mean, can you only take pictures at 60 cm distance? Of course not. The focal length of a lens (that is the proper name of its reach) says something about how much “zoom” it has, for instance: 100 mm is the same as 50 mm zoomed in at 200 %. But how much is this practically speaking? 50 mm looks roughly the same as how your eyes see it. This is very simplified and excludes numerous factors, but at least it gives you a basic idea of what 600 mm really means. It is also important to understand that all cameras have something called a crop factor that says something about the size of the camera sensor. This affects how close something appears. Full format cameras have a crop factor of 1x, which is the base that everything else is measured against. Most cameras from Nikon and Canon has a crop factor of respectively 1.5x and 1.6x, meaning that a 100 mm lens will look the same as a 150 and 160 mm lens respectively on a full frame camera.

Other factors

Good autofocus and good battery life are two other key factors on safari. It is very common to have to wait for a long time to catch that perfect moment of an animal appearing or doing something interesting. If the camera drains loads of battery while being powered on you will quickly find yourself looking at a black screen. It is also common to lack charging facilities, making it even more important to save as much power as you can.

Animals are usually most interesting when moving. To capture this a good autofocus is key. If the camera can take multiple photos in a short time and have a large buffer it is also a big advantage.

The cheap option

If a low budget is a priority the so-called superzooms are excellent options. A DSLR with a large lens can be incredibly expensive, whereas a superzoom can be bought for well below $1000. Nikon Coolpix P900 is a good superzoom with 83x magnification (24-2000 mm). This wide range of focal lengths enables the camera to take pictures of everything from big landscapes to tiny animals hiding far out on the savannah. The camera costs around $560, but if you really want to save some money you can pick up a used one for even less.

A camera that can take photos at “all” distances and still have a decent price tag does of course come with its fair share of disadvantages. The battery life is not very good, the focus is slow and the image quality is mediocre (but very good for being a superzoom). Especially in low light the image quality is limited due to the small sensor. These disadvantages are quite common for most superzoom cameras, but each model does of course have its own pros and cons. One advantage of the P900 is that it has image stabilisation, making long distance photos far easier when hand-holding the camera. But be aware that it can only shoot in JPEG, not RAW.

The good option

DSLRs do in general feature a good autofocus, substantially better battery life than superzoom and interchangeable lenses. Cameras like Nikon D5500/D5600 and Canon 70D/80D are good options for safaris.

Cameras often come with kit lenses that will not work well on safaris. They may be great for close-ups, but not when there is a good distance between you and the subject. Two lenses that does a good job is the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary and Tamron AF SP 150-600 f/5-6.3 Di VC USD. They will give a reach of 900 mm with Nikon and 960 mm with Canon, which should be enough for most cases. Tamron has also produced a second generation of their telephoto lens supporting a 2.4x teleconverter with autofocus (on cameras that support autofocus at f8). It is quite a lot more expensive than the first generation and not necessarily worth it unless you really need this additional reach.

The best option

Do you have a fair amount of money to spend on camera gear? Nikon D500 is one of the best camera bodies for safaris at the moment. It has a good reach with a 1.5x crop factor, a large buffer (200 photos in RAW) and a frame rate of 10 frames per second. The battery life is good and the autofocus is excellent (possibly the best there is).

The Tamron and Sigma lenses mentioned above are good options on this came, the Nikon 200-500 f5.6 is also a good option. D500 can use the autofocus at f8 and Tamron’s new lens with a 1.4x teleconverter can therefore be utilised. If you have a plethora of money and good luggage space Nikon has many good prime lenses, such as 600 mm f4 or 400 mm f2.8, but these are large and very expensive. If you are looking at this kind of gear your photography skills are probably already well above what this guide provides.

Our gear

So, what have we used ourselves on safari? This year we brought a Nikon D7000 and Sigma 150-600 mm. The body was a bit out of date and would benefit from an upgrade, but the lens worked very well. If you are looking for something a bit more advanced than Nikon D5600/Canon 80D the successors of our camera are good choices: D7100 and D7200 (plus D7500 that was just announced). If you are a Canon shooter the Canon 7D Mark II, being a huge improvement over the previous generation, is a very good option too.

We also brought a Sigma 70-200 mm f2.8 that is great for portraits, but not very good at a far distance.

Teleconverter

Most camera manufacturers make this magical thing called a teleconverter. You place it between the camera and the lens and it provides more reach. They usually come in three levels of magnification: 1.4x, 1.7x and 2x. That will turn a 100 mm lens into a 140 mm, 170 mm or 200 mm. Teleconverters have mainly two disadvantages: The available light for the camera is reduced and the image turns out softer. In addition they do of course cost money, making it cheaper to buy a longer lens than a shorter with a teleconverter in some cases. The exception is when there are no longer lenses within a realistic price range, such as Tamron’s 150-600. Another exception is if you already own a lens and would rather buy a teleconverter instead of selling your current lens and buy a new one.

It’s also worth knowing that teleconverters usually only work with specific lenses. If you have a Canon lens and a Sigma lens you may need two different teleconverters although they both have a Canon mount. There are even some cases where different converters are needed for different lenses from the same manufacturer.

Tripod

A tripod can be a very good accessory on safaris, but a monopod will also go a long way in providing stability. A monopod is also faster to deploy and easier to carry around.

When shooting from a car the window and a bean bag is a simple way to get steadier shots. A bean bag is good to have in general, as it can be used on fences, rocks and anything else that works as support for your camera.

When choosing a tripod it is useful to pick one with a  ball head or gimbal, allowing the camera to move to track the animals while still providing stability.

Existing gear

Can you use your existing gear? Of course! All camera gear is better than nothing, and you may even have something that is well suited for safaris. Sometimes you might also be lucky enough for the animals to get close enough for a super mega telezoom to be unnecessary. As mentioned above a teleconverter might also be a simple solution to extend the reach of your existing gear.

Some technical jargon

Are you unsure what autofucus at f8 or Di VC USD means? Here are some short geeky clarifications:

F-stop: The aperture of a lens says something about how much light it lets in and how great the depth of field is. A lens with f3.8 lens in more light than one with f4, but a higher f-stop number also means greater depth of field (more in focus). Cameras are also limited to how small the aperture can be while still maintaining autofocus (it is the maximum aperture of the lens that decides this, not what you step it down to). Many cheaper cameras are limited to f5.6, meaning that lenses with a maximum aperture of f8 will not work with autofocus. Cameras like the Nikon D500 are capable of focusing all the way down to f8 and can therefore autofocus with most lenses.

Di VC USD, DG OS HSM and all that stuff: Lens manufacturers likes to add plethoras of letters to the their product names. In short it means that these lenses are made for full frame cameras has image stabilisation and the autofocus is faster and more quiet than on previous models.

Zoom vs mm: Most serious lenses are specified in number of millimeters (focal length), while some “amateur gear” is specified in x-times zoom. There is a link between these two, but they are not the same. The focal length refers as stated above to how close or far away the image is perceived as, while x-times zoom is the ration between the most zoomed in and out the lens can do. For instance a 150-600mm lens is 4x zoom, but so will a 100-400mm lens be. The focal length is therefore more accurate than x-times zoom and it is easy to calculate the zoom multiplier from the focal lengths.