How close are you getting to this wildlife?
When we were in Sri Lanka on honeymoon we went on a safari drive through one of the national parks and even though we were quite close to the animals there were times when I wanted more zoom than my 70-300VR lens provides. On my D80 that is the equivalent to 450mm zoom by 35mm equivalent.
Here's an elephant pic from the safari:
[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7437/10090486444_720566792d_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7437/10090486444_720566792d_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/gnEo5d ]13-06-29 DSC_6806[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/91882170@N06/ ]STW stumpy01[/url], on Flickr
A heron that landed in the pool:
[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7327/10161360443_679a739eaa_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7327/10161360443_679a739eaa_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/gtVCrH ]13-07-06 DSC_7217[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/91882170@N06/ ]STW stumpy01[/url], on Flickr
Hermit crab on the beach - this was getting as close as I could without it hiding in it's shell; perhaps 6 foot:
[url= https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2808/10298568173_474a7302fe_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2808/10298568173_474a7302fe_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/gG3Rwe ]13-07-07 DSC_7370[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/91882170@N06/ ]STW stumpy01[/url], on Flickr
Years ago I had a Konica Minolta DImage Z3 that had a 12x optical zoom, which I think was the largest optical zoom in a bridge camera available at the time. It took great pictures, was 'only 4Mp' and had a pretty noisy sensor compared to the latest cameras (I think I bought that camera in 2004).
I wouldn't discount a decent 'superzoom'.
there were times when I wanted more zoom than my 70-300VR lens provides.
You ALWAYS want more zoom. I have equivalent to 600mm zoom on mine and it's not nearly enough, unless you are either lucky or the animals are habituated to people and hence prepared to get a little closer. However even then it's about the limit of what you can hand-hold with IS.
Nice pics~~~~~
Get yourself on eBay and get a DSLR and a decent zoom. You can always sell it when you get back.
Mob have a Canon 10d for £50 and a tamron 70-300 for £50/60 better than a compact.
Well, in the end I picked up a Nikon D3200 18-55mm kit for the equivalent of GBP320, not massively cheaper than if I'd dug around online for delivery from the UK but with the advantage of not being likely to be "disappeared" out of the mail bags by the baggage handlers at Jomo Kenyatta Intl Airport, as seems to happen with lots of other expensive/attractive items being sent out to us.
Now got a 55-300mm lens inbound and out to the Nairobi National Park again for a safari drive on Saturday to try everything out...
Great. Should be a good buy that. Post up your results. 🙂
Doubt they'll be quite as good as anything else displayed on here yet, got to learn my craft...!