Fuji What to bring to Africa

that 55-200 is a great lens. a little too short I think for what you are asking to do, but you can crop quite a bit on that Fuji sensor. That might be the way I'd go. Or a superzoom and the X-T1 with your fave normal prime.
 
Ray the reviews of the XC lens are great. Thing looks perfect for this...

- Lighter
- Smaller
- Has OIS too
- A stop or so slower, but AFRICA, so LIGHT, and at night who cares I have the primes
- CHEAP. My god, I think I can find these new for less than $300.

For a lens I will only use here and there for specific reasons, and always in good light, this makes total sense.
 
Ray the reviews of the XC lens are great. Thing looks perfect for this...

- Lighter
- Smaller
- Has OIS too
- A stop or so slower, but AFRICA, so LIGHT, and at night who cares I have the primes
- CHEAP. My god, I think I can find these new for less than $300.

For a lens I will only use here and there for specific reasons, and always in good light, this makes total sense.
That was kind of my conclusion when I was shooting with Fuji gear. The 55-200 is a relative tank and I didn't like carrying it much, while the 50-230, IIRC, was a little more than half the weight, slightly smaller, and more range. I had both for a while before I sold or returned the 55-200 and couldn't find a downside to the 50-230. Not as tough a lens, but basically as good. If you shoot a lot of telephoto, the tougher and slightly faster 55-200 might make more sense. Then again, if you shoot a lot of telephoto, you're probably not shooting Fuji, at least at this point. Maybe someday that'll be a more developed part of their system...

Sounds like a lot of fun, whatever you take. Something like that is on my bucket list, although it's pretty deep in the bucket, so I don't know if I'll get to it or not...

-Ray
 
DX DSLR - a used D7100 and 70 300 zoom will give you 450mm at f5.6 ...... VR ..... in good light ..........cheap, light weight, good IQ - a no brainer ....... DSLR is the way to go
Take a manual focus 50mm Nikkor 1.8E and you will not notice the size or weight and you'll come back with marvellous shots

anything other than a DSLR will not "hack it" ............

sell the kit when you get back and you will only be down a few hundred $'s max
 
I'm taking the Fuji, and I'm probably never going to buy (or buy-then-sell) a Nikon or Canon DSLR, as long as they're like they are now. I've used them, and they're NOT my thing. The animal shots are a small part of what I want to capture, albeit an important enough one to ask these questions. If I come back with 5 interesting shots of animals and 95 shots of us / the locals / the scenery / landscapes, I'll be thrilled. I can't take better shots of animals than the 14,000 other pros who go every year have already taken, and I'm only mildly interested in trying. The XC zoom will give me a fighting chance of filling more of the frame with "animal," and it won't mean the kind of lifestyle change that a DSLR rig would mean. With us (wife, and friends we travel with) the camera is background, not central. Being very "present" and experiencing it is key, and my role has evolved over the years into stealthily documenting it all. I need to be small, light, and sneaky. We never make decisions about "where" or "what" based on the camera. The camera and all the lenses I bring need to fit into one tiny green Domke bag, and sit there quietly until I snatch them out / rattle off a few shots / stash them again.

Just my thoughts. I'm VERY grateful for all the advice, and I mean ALL of it.
 
I think a two-camera solution is best to minimize lens swapping and to have as backup in case something goes wrong. If you don't want to bring a tripod, a monopod will give an extra stop and is easier to deploy and store.

I know a couple that goes to Africa nearly every year. He's a bit of a photo buff and brings the Canon DSLR with long lens. She's not at all and snaps photos with a point-and-shoot with limited zoom range. Her photos are always more interesting. So maybe use that long lens once in a while but work on capturing the context of your trip. Remember...tell the story.

Enjoy!
 
I think a two-camera solution is best to minimize lens swapping and to have as backup in case something goes wrong. If you don't want to bring a tripod, a monopod will give an extra stop and is easier to deploy and store.

I know a couple that goes to Africa nearly every year. He's a bit of a photo buff and brings the Canon DSLR with long lens. She's not at all and snaps photos with a point-and-shoot with limited zoom range. Her photos are always more interesting. So maybe use that long lens once in a while but work on capturing the context of your trip. Remember...tell the story.

Enjoy!

I thought about this as I perused "African Safari" blogs and photos yesterday. A shot of a zebra can be arresting, but there are SOOOO many of them, all better than what I'd get. I enjoyed the people and place shots much more. I think I'm going to toss the 50-230 lens on once we get out to each spot in the vehicle, but leave the 18-55 on otherwise until it gets dark, at which point the 35 comes out. "Tell the story" is exactly right.
 
I thought about this as I perused "African Safari" blogs and photos yesterday. A shot of a zebra can be arresting, but there are SOOOO many of them, all better than what I'd get. I enjoyed the people and place shots much more. I think I'm going to toss the 50-230 lens on once we get out to each spot in the vehicle, but leave the 18-55 on otherwise until it gets dark, at which point the 35 comes out. "Tell the story" is exactly right.

I thought that you were going on Safari - on the ones that I have been on I never saw a single person "running" around in the bush ...... the odd sign of "poachers" - who carry AK47's, but you would not want to meet them ....... but never your "typical" African tribes person!!

Game drives are very exhausting ........ up at 05:30 for the first ...... back at 9 or 09:30 and then off again late afternoon for a few hours ....... two days together are enough for most people and three days together can be quite uncomfortable.

David duChemin has a blog and download on Travel in N Kenya ...... he used 2 x XT-1's exclusively
 
My family went on Safari to Tanzania and Kenya in 2000. I had a Pentax 35 mm film camera, the 40 mm 2.8, and a 70-300 zoom. It was a reasonable kit, but if I could have had a longer reach, maybe 450 or so, that would have been nice on many occasions. Giraffe will be closer, but cheetahs are usually off in the distance. A monopod could also work if you don't mind bringing it along. IS of some kind since you're not going to be setting up any tripods. A bean bag to put on the side of the truck/van to rest the lens is also effective.

Summary: long (at least 300 equiv) zoom, reasonably fast moderate wide angle, and as much stabilization as you can manage.

Also, a spare body in the suitcase is nice since that was the only time my cameras actually broke on a trip. The whole film advance mechanism just broke apart.
 
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I would get the 55-200 anything shorter will be disappointing on safari, I am going to South Africa for work next month and I will throw mine in the bag just in case we have some time for animal stuff.
 
Expensive trip = rent gear if you must, even buy used, but do not omit gear out of wanting to save a little more money. That's not where I'd be frugal. Worst case scenario, you can always sell what you don't want when you get home. The whole point is to create memories and hopefully capture them. Active Safari time will likely be in a vehicle so no worries over carrying one more lens. That and I think of it as your Daughter will be 5 only once (and mostly not remember this later), don't miss capturing those memories. I wish I could have afforded a camera when my kids were little. Our vacations were modest, few and far between, so I'm for capturing and keeping what you can. I'd also carry something as backup, even if it's a little pocket compact.
 
Pondering borrowing a Konica 200 f4 lens from a friend for the XT1. Will borrow it this week, take samples, and see how the files look. If they're not up to par, or the user experience doesn't seem workable enough, I'll get the XC lens and have 230 available at the long end (and blessed OIS). Perhaps I should borrow an XE1 or an XE2 as well, if one of those guys will loan me theirs for 2 weeks.
 
And having read about both the Konica and Minolta long primes, I am 99% sure I will be ordering the XC 50-230 lens. The ability to rack it back to 50 if something good is happening close to me, alone, would be incredibly helpful. Plus OIS. Plus AF.
 
Manual focus lenses are something that I might mess around with at home, not while travelling. In fact I'm away from home at the moment and with a couple of high quality zooms at my disposal this time even the prime lenses that I bought have mostly been dead weights.
 
This might help. Samyang 300mm and other long choices for Fuji X series - Macfilos
...personally if I was going on safari now I'd lug that Tokina I refer to in the article. I last went 25 years ago. I was using Pentax LX bodies in those days but for light weight (I was touring south Africa for a month) I took a 500mm mirror lens on that occasion. Today I would take the Tokina tele and a good beanbag or monopod.
 
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