Alright

I've got an old canon 400d body, and I'm off on safari to kenya at the end of the month. I've currently got a 10-20mm, and a 18-200 IS lens, both Sigma.

I'm thinking I could probably do with something a little longer for the trip – maybe in the region of 400mm. I don't think I'll have the option to use a tripod much, which means I probably need something relatively fast – will this completely eliminate the option of using a teleconverter with the 18-200mm lens?

other options (on ebay) appear to be an old 200-400mm tamron, a 400mm sigma (which only works on manual, f5.6), and that's about it without breaking the bank. Has anyone got any experience with these lenses, or have I misses something off the list?

Hugh

i wouldn't worry about it being too fast for safari shots, you should have excellent light most of the time. i've seen great safari shots with the nikon 70-300 VR, do canon do an equivalent? even with a fast lens any more than 300mm is pretty hard to handle hand-held on an aps-c chip, i have a 300mm f4.5 lens without VR and it's not too easy to get a sharp shot in all but the best light. how about the sigma 80-400 EX OS?

I own a Canon 100-400L IS, and to be totally honest, i can get shots from the Sigma 120-400 that are as good as the Canon.

I wouldn't spend the money on the Canon 100-400 again when it is nearly twice the price of the Sigma.

The best lens i have is my Canon 70-200 2.8L IS, the image quality is brilliant.

You'll struggle with manual focus and not having VR will make life very hard at long focal lengths. You could always rent a lens for the trip.

It has been a while, but when I went on safari I had a 210mm max, with a roughly 1.5x video teleadapter screwed on the end. So I had a max of ~300mm. Which was generally fine. That was with film. Your 200mm is roughly the same onto an APS-C sensor. For anything further away you can always crop afterwards.

Over a few days you'll see most stuff up close so there isn't a need for a massive telephoto. Plus you'll not get a chance to use a tripod anyway. What you can try instead is a cushion which you can just whack on the roof and sit the camera on top of to steady a bit.

The only time I could really have done with more zoom was with a leopard at night but the real problem with that was getting any light from the flash to reach.

Can't help you with a lens, but if you are off on a vehicle safari perhaps one of these might be useful for steadying the camera.

I have one of these:

http://www.sigma-imaging-uk.com/lenses/telezoom/70-300mmAPO.htm

and it is pretty good. Sigma do a cheaper one (the non APO version) but that has poor image quality. With the 1.6 crop factor it is equivalent to a 480mm on film, so pretty adequate I would have thought.

I went earlier this year with a borrowed old 80-200 not sure of the speed and a 400d. I'd definately rather have had something longer. Ususally you stop in a van then you can rest the camera on the roof for stability, although going out later in the day you see more animals so the earlier comment on good light is a bit of a misnomer IMO.

Beg, borrow, maybe even rent (depending on the cost). As TBH it's not the sort of holiday you will go on often so just take the best equipment with you that you can.

Also if you have the option to go to the Ark (in the Aberdares), do so for a night as you won't need a zoom to get amazing shots of the Elephants there.

*Eco section: I didn't just go to 'shoot' the wildlife I went to work in a school building for most of the time, the safari's were my weekends off 🙂

rent a lens and teleconverter. If going on safari isn't something you're going to do every year, and you want the best photos you can I'd be prepared to lash out a couple of hundred or so on renting the best lens for the job, rather than be compromised by camera shake/low light focussing problems etc. Don't know canon lenses, but there's a 100-400 f4.5-5.6 IS or 300mm and 400mm f2.8's – pick one of those – the telephotos would be ideal for dusk and dawn, when you're best opportunities are going to be – with a teleconverter option for closeups, but the zoom would probably be usable a lot of the day, and takes the teleconverters as well.

For an opportunity like this, buying is wasting money, imo, unless you've got a lot of money to spare.

dont forget to take a portable string tripod!

string tied onto M5 bolt with a washer tied on the other end. Screw bolt into camera base, drop washer to floor, stand on it, pull up with the camera for a steadied shot. If you're in a wagon you could tie another washer mid way to put your foot on while sitting down, or use a loop and carabiner to attach it to your seat.

one other option I suppose I have is to buy a lens (maybe that sigma 100-400, or maybe the 150-500) and flog it when I get back – to be honest it'd be cheaper than renting (I think? probably only lose £50-100) and I get the option to play with it for longer if I want..

i'm a little wary of getting something very fast (f2.8) as at 400mm I think the depth of field would be so short as to be tricky to shoot with at full length (??) – Granted I can stop it down, but I then may as well get a slightly slower OS lens (right??) – the fast long lenses are also normally a bit of an armful (the 120-300 f2.8 is 2.5kg) – not sure if that'd be too much of a burden?

f2.8 is very shallow DOF even at 300mm, i struggle with focus on my (all be it manual) 300mm lens at f4.5

remember that 300mm on aps-c is the equivalent of 550mm on a 35mm, not even the steadiest pro would shoot 550mm without a monopod at the very least, lens is far too heavy and the shutter moves the camera enough to blur most shots even at fast speeds.

personally i'd take a monopod with me, i have a carbon fibre manfrotto monopod which is very light and helps a lot. not sure if the sigma long zooms have a tripod collar on the lens though, might be a bit un balanced on a monopod attached to the body

i like stoner's idea though it might look a bit pikey 🙂

I went on Safari last November as part of my honeymoon. I took my 20D with a 70-200 and 1.4x and 2x converters. I mainly used the 1.4x converter but on occasion the 2x was definitely useful. The main reason behind using the smaller converter was because the 2x gets a little soft but the additional length of the 2x was great and I reckon I could have really done with more zoom on occasions. Especially when we saw the Leopard as the drivers tend to stay further away from them. I'd definitely take your 10-20mm to get some wide shots as some of these were amazing.

On the whole the light was plenty bright enough to get away with shooting at f5.6 or even more. I definitely got some stuff at f8.0 and this was mainly with a circular polarizer fitted too.

Here are links to my galleries from the Safari:

Amboseli

Lakes Nakuru and Naivasha

Masai Mara

There should be some EXIF info available I think

Oh, and I took a jumper with a bag to act as a beanbag and also a couple of clamps but never really used any of them. The vans are too bouncy when moving to use anything other than hand held and even when they stop they roll around a fair bit when people move in them making anything where the camera sits on the van really awkward. I just didn't really feel they were necessary. Hand held with a decent shutter speed and it was all ok.

thanks for the tips. I've got a gorillapod, but might look to take my tripod as well

what does the collected think about this sort of option

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tamron-AF-200-400mm-f-5-6-LD-Canon-fit_W0QQitemZ180400414840QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CamerasPhoto_CameraAccessories_CameraLensesFilters_JN?hash=item2a00b3e078&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

its not got OS, so the speed would have to be a bit quicker (1/500 or so at max zoom), but otherwise it should be ok?

H

Plenty of good tips from people who have been there and done it.

In terms of buying…will you do any wildlife photography when you get back to the UK? There is still a lot of wildlife worth shooting on this little group of islands so you may get plenty of use out of a long lens.

As for the lens you linked to on ebay, I would check what sort of mount it has. I'm pretty certain Canon changed the lens mount when they started the EOS line of cameras. Might be wrong but worth checking. That could be why the lens is pretty cheap.

Edit: Just checked the wealth of knowledge that is wikipedia. EOS uses the EF lens mount which replaced the FD mount.

Edit no. 2: Ignore that lens mount comments. It should be fine.

just got back from my trip, thought I'd give an update

I got a tamron 200-400mm in the end – was about £100ish on ebay.

also a quick 'don't normally see that on a ride shot – but with a different lens – I'd highly reccomend bike safari to anyone who can. More pics @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/5lab/sets if anyone is bored. Thanks again for the help!

Nice shots! Love the one of the bird, he looks like a cheeky little thing! 🙂