Best Camera for Africa?
 

I'm going on a safari this summer and would like to get a new, easy to use, SLR camera with a zoom. The Nikon N65 has been recommended to me along with the 75-300 zoom lens. Does anyone know anything about this camera and if it's the easiest to use for a novice? It's not too expensive either so I'm hoping someone has comments to make. Thanks for all advice!

The N65 is a fine camera. The one I have will be 2 years old in May and it has always worked flawlessly. The camera has both fully automatic and manual operation. Controls are quite intuitive, and easy to learn. In fact, I used it as a beginner also; so, I think you’ll be pleased. I have several different lenses, so I can’t specifically comment on the 75-300mm you mention. You might want to check out bhphotovideo.com to see if you can find a deal on a lens of this type. Bottom Line: Nikon SLRs are top quality, and I have never heard anything but praise from other users.

One last tip, you should consider purchasing clear (UV) filters to protect your new lens. Any camera shop will be able to help you out. That way if your camera gets into a sticky situation the cheap filer will (hopefully) save your lens from damage.

Good luck and enjoy your trip to Africa!

My advice when traveling to Africa is to take along a back-up camera. My Nikon N70's shutter froze as we were ascending in a hot air balloon. Fortunately, I had my trusty old little Leica rangefinder as a back-up.

This is good advise in general. If you are taking a "once-in-a-lifetime" type trip or photo op, then having a second camera along if possible is a good idea.

I recently took a special trip to Las Vegas and brought two cameras everywhere I went. I was fortunate enough to hitch a ride on the Fujifilm Blimp over the Las Vegas strip. The batteries in one of the camera died just I began taking pictures. My spare batteries were in my backpack down on "planet earth". Thankfully, the second camera worked great. I got some amazing pictures.



------------------
Michael Steinberg
Editor
BizTrip
www.biztrip.com

You might get a small pocketable digital for your second camera. If you're like many folks, you will start using the digital more and more and the bulky SLR less and less.

Even an inexpensive 1.3 megapixel will (IIRC) provide all the resolution that can be used on a normal computer monitor (1280x1024 = 1,310,720 pixels).

------------------
Middle_Seat


[This message has been edited by Middle_Seat (edited 03-09-2003).]

Good advice from all. If you go with the Nikon, then consider getting another Nikon as the backup so the all the lens, flash, etc and the rest will still fit. Ebay is a good place for used equipment at the basic level for a backup, it's where all my backup stuff comes from.

You may also want to consider a small monopod or tripod, a zoom at 300 may be a bit too much to handhold and still get sharp pictures.

You need the filter for the lens, be it skylight, polarizing, or UV. Think about it, one scratch will either ruin a filter costing less then $10, or a lens costing way more then that.

Where in Africa will you be going?

I take it you aren't really interested in spending a lot of dollars on high end equipment. Depending on your budget, I would recommend either Canon or Nikon. My sense is that:
1. Canon has some nice lenses at the low end - particularly ones that have image stabilization.
2. Nikon has some good mid-range lenses
3. Both have excellent high-end glass, with Canon having more lenses with image stabilization.
4. Arguably, Nikon seems to have slightly better light metering and flash metering systems.

Anyway, I would recommend getting the Canon 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 EF Image Stabilizer lens, a wide angle to short tele lens to round out your focal length coverage, and whatever Canon body you can afford. As a rough guide, you will shoot most of your wildlife photos in the early morning and late afternoon at 300mm wide open with ISO 400 film. Bring at least a couple of rolls of film for each day of your trip. As others have mentioned, you should think about bringing along a second cheap body as a backup. If you are going to East Africa - Kenya or Tanzania, I believe they use pop-top 4wd vans or land rovers so you should take along a photo beanbag on which to rest your lens - I just brought a small utility zippered mesh sack and filled it with beans purchased at a local market.

I also recommend going to the zoo with your new camera and practicing taking some pictures and seeing how the come out.

My Olympus D400 1.3 had a resolution of 1280*960. But your numbers were close enough.

If you ever intend to make prints from your digital photos, I'd recommend 2 or 3 megapixels minimum. You can get an 8 x 10 print from a 1.3, but you have to do some editing on good software (Photoshop) to get it to come out looking good.



[This message has been edited by pdhenry (edited 03-10-2003).]

Thanks for all the great advice. I'm going to Botswana in August(the dry season) and definitely will take a back up camera after hearing many stories re:failures. The vehicles are all open, not pop top, so that should make it easier to shoot. I don't want to take a tripod or too many extras because we are extremely limited as to weight since small aircraft are used to get from camp to camp. I definitely will start practicing and the zoo is a good idea, as opposed to my local squirrels.

My recommendation for a small, capable digital for this purpose would be the Olympus C-730 with 10x optical zoom, 3.2Mpixel. 11.1oz/310g w/o batteries, but no built in lens cap.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bh3.sph/...ID=F411225B220
Rich