Pixiq

Some people will dream of a 500mm or even bigger for going to Africa after the big five: lion, African elephant, cape buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros. Big, attracts BIG, I guess.Some people will say it's impossible to do some serious work with a 300mm.

Well let me tell you that it’s possible to survive an African safari with just 300mm as the longer lens you have. And to proof it I just collected some of my images taken with two lenses: Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 L IS USM and Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM.

I think the images do tell a story. For some more images, and examples more to my liking when I think of Africa, please look at my gallery http://www.pixiq.com/article/gallery, which shows what interested me more on this trip.

Still, I did take pictures of animals, and I did not have to use the longer focal length all the time. In fact, sometimes, lions and cheetahs were so close to the jeep that other photographers having chosen 500mm lenses to work with were having some trouble to get more than an extreme close-up of a lion’s nose, that is if they could focus…

So, while professional photographers might need the longer lenses, but do have the means to buy and carry them around, the tourist, even if he is a keen photographer, might be better of with a zoom. Something like a 70-300mm will do.

George Lepp, a photographer whose work I’ve followed for years, published here at Pixiq an article suggesting that the Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM might be A Nature Photographer's Most Useful Lens.

Either with a full frame sensor or using the crop from an APS-C camera, George Lepp states that this zoom lens is the “most important Canon lens in any serious nature photographer’s arsenal”.For an amateur that does not want to carry a lens as heavy as this one, and that does not want to spend too much money a regular 70-300mm zoom might do the trick. Or maybe the new series L 70-300mm, if you’re in a spending spree and do not want to go for the “old” 100-400mm. By the magic of APS-C, and considering the dimensions of a 35mm film, what you get is a crop that looks like a picture from a zoom with a variable focal length of 112-480mm, if you aim for prints of the same size.

Whatever you do, rest assured that even the 300mm focal length will be enough for a lot of things, as long as you’re travelling with a guide that understands the need of photographers and can take you close to the animals. Sometimes so close that you need the short-zoom 17-85mm I used to get things framed properly.

So, although a longer lens might be useful, sometimes, if you’re just travelling to have fun, don’t become a beast of burden. The best choice is a couple of zooms that cover from wide landscape to longer focals, maybe a teleconverter if you feel uncomfortable without one… and your lens can use it. And a normal lens, or a macro, for some low light or close-up work if there’s a chance.

Getting a good guide and travelling with people that has the same interests has you might be much more important than having a whole arsenal of long lenses. Having the patience to stay around hunting grounds to watch for action, being in synch with everybody else onboard the same rolling photo platform that a jeep represents (and do prefer a real jeep to those close vans, if you can choose) might be more important than a 500mm lens. Remember that when you go for a safari.