Best Photography Gear for an Epic Safari Adventure in Africa

The Gear Dilemma

My adventure – 28 days in Kruger National Park on a self drive tour where we were not permitted to exit the car.

As this was my first African adventure, the biggest question was: which photo gear to bring? How close will I be to the wildlife? Will I be able to see the sunrise? Will I have time to switch camera bodies? How many batteries and how much memory should I have?

I researched some wildlife photographers and found many of them used big prime lenses. As a professional portrait photographer it makes sense that I have the best equipment for the job. It is my livelihood. Wildlife photography, however, is a new hobby for me and I don’t own expensive gear like the 600mm prime lens, nor can I justify the $23K price tag for one – that’s more than my car is worth!

I’m a firm believer in making the most of the gear you already have and in the end opted for my 100-400mm for my Canon R5 camera giving me flexibility as well as a little range.

I was also fortunate that Fujifilm loaned me the X-S20 and two lenses for the trip. These lenses covered what the Canon didn’t so they made the perfect compliment. It was also a handy backup camera when the Canon didn’t work and vice versa.

(I was very impressed with it as a travel and wildlife camera and will write about that soon. Stay tuned.)

We spent 28 days in Kruger and in that time, we went on over 50 drives, and shot almost 50,000 images. I can now share with fair authority what worked and what didn’t.

My Packing Checklist

Canon Camera Gear

General Photo Equipment

Fujifilm Camera Gear

General Electronic

One Body or Two?

Imagine if you are mid-safari and your camera fails. You are now stuck using your smart phone for wildlife photos.

Whilst the cameras these days are fairly rugged, they are not infallible. The heat was relentless with many days over 40 degrees. One of my cameras overheated and one of them just stopped working. A second camera was a life saver.

Having two cameras also allowed me to have lens options covering situations where the lens on my main camera is was inadequate.

Which Lens?

Prime lens or Telephoto? – I think this was the most difficult decision for me as I have the 300mm prime and the 100-400mm lenses. In the end I believe I made the correct choice by taking the 100-400mm. The 300mm would not have given me the distance I needed or the flexibility to shoot anything closer.

Extender – I tried the 1.4x extender but it degraded the images so much that in the end I put it away. I wouldn’t take it with me on another trip.

Internal electronic extender – the R5 has an internal 1.6x crop sensor that I often used without too much reduction in quality.

Wider Angle Lenses? – There were also many times where the 100-400mm was too long. Many animals come very close to the cars like this Wildebeest, shot at 94mm.

Memory Cards

Working on the system of downloading each day, backing up and clearing my card, 128GB was just the right size for a day shooting. I also had a 64GB backup card, which I didn’t need.

I don’t recommend memory cards with more storage than 128GB. If the memory card melts or ceases in the African heat, everything would be lost.

Read/Write speeds are super important with wildlife photography. I went for the fastest card I had.

Batteries and more batteries!

Due to the heat and the constant shooting, I found that five batteries was sufficient for a day of shooting with my Canon and two batteries for the Fujifilm.

Whilst there are battery saving settings on the camera, such as turning off continuous focus, WIFI and GPS, I wasn’t willing to sacrifice them.

Recharching

We were re-charging constantly, in-between safari drives and overnight after our sunset drive so doing this efficiently is vital. A dual battery charger was incredibly useful.

Another essential part of our equipment list is a universal travel kit. I used the Bauhn kit from Aldi, which I have used in over 15 countries though on this trip, I could have used additional power sockets so next time, I will bring a power board with four sockets and USB ports.

South African Power Adaptor

There is much conflicting information out there but let me tell you, the traditional plug is the only power adaptor used in Kruger National Park.

The hotels in Johannesburg used the more general European adaptors but no here. It is safest to bring at least one.

Tripod

I planned on doing star trail and sunrise photography on this trip so a tripod was necessary for me.

In reviewing the video since the trip, I realised that I should have used the tripod or mono pod when filming. I thought I’d held the camera reasonably steady but in review I really could have used some help with preventing camera shake.

Backing up

Two Hard drives – I highly recommend bringing two hard drives on the trip. I was shooting between 1500 to 2000 images per day so 4TB was sufficient.

Download before Delete – I downloaded my cards after each drive and only deleted the images from the card once they were backed up onto the second drive.

Backup – A fellow photographer on our trip got complacent and didn’t back up 5 days of shooting and his main drive failed. Therefore he lost 5 days or around 7,500 images.

Internet Access and SSD Drives – There is no time to process and there is extremely limited internet access so an SSD drive wasn’t really necessary but if you are purchasing a drive anyway, I would recommend one if you can afford it.

Cleaning

In 28 days, it rained once. The roads were dry and dusty. Travelling with the windows down, this dirt got into everything.

Not only did the lenses need cleaning but the cameras themselves. I used cotton buds and alcohol wipes to clean the nooks and crannies of the camera bodies.

Last but not least..

A towel came in extremely handy to protect the equipment and ourselves from the intense hot sun and to rest against the window when using it as a tripod. We also had a little cooler in the back with ice blocks to keep our extra water cool.

Conclusion

I was happy with the gear I had. With a fixed prime, I would have missed a ton of shots. Whilst a second camera is great for backup, wildlife encounters happen quickly and changing gear or lenses is sometimes not an option.

I guess the results speak for themselves. I urge you to take a look through my images and decide for yourself.

Meanwhile, happy adventuring.

N x