BootsnAll Travel Community

Now that we are all clued in on footwear for our Tanzania/Kenya safari (thanks all) the next query concerns photography and camera choice. I would rather not try to carry all my old 35mm camera gear, lenses, extenders, tripods, etc. but still want to try for some really good photos. I am looking at the Olympus digital that has an optical zoom of 18x and image stabilization. I would appreciate any comments and reports of successes or failures with the digital approach.

Forget tripod - the animals will never stand still enough. I'd worry most about shutter lag, startup time, and the zoom.

I purchased the Cannon SI3 for the trip (12X zoom and image stabilization). It blew me away with how well it worked for our trip. Do splurge on the memory cards. I got two 2GB cards and filled them up - half with photos and half with videos.

Here's what a 12x zoom get's you:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/newyorklenny/sets/72157600233595572/

Most importantly, keep reminding yourself to look more at the animals and less at the screen as you go on the game drives.

Enjoy!

I bought the exact same camera and it also blew me away...
You just have to go with a digital camera. The animals move fast and you really never know what shot you're going to get. And so if you take e.g. 14 pictures of the same animal while it's moving, you are bound to have one that looks straight out of the National Geographic! but then, you might have 10 that are completly useless...

With digital, you can erase, erase, erase! Hurray for digital!