Safari photography - article on Luminous Landscape

I don't do nature, but I know a lot of the contributors to this forum are nature photographers. This article on the Luminous Landscape site is worth reading, both by those interested in going on safaris, or otherwise shooting in Africa. Some interesting notes with respect to the multiplier effect on the Nikons as opposed to the full-frame Canons (the author is a Canon user, not out to diss either.)

I must admit I can't understand why, if the multiplier were so important, he couldn't just buy one of the cheaper Canon 1.6x bodies... I suspect 5fps would be sufficient; it's faster than the 1Ds anyway. He should have had at least one 30d with him IMO.

Same as reaction as Lan....also this guy is traveling around with gear worth USD 30.000+ and arranges for his private safari car, drivers etc... All rather exclusive.

pretty hardcore

The 16MP of the D1 mkII should allow for some cropping, no?

I can see that the D2X is better for high speed with its MP-crop factor but then, but then what you expect from a camera optimized for hioghspeed and another optimized for image quality?

He seems to focus a little lot on one particular issue, doesn't compare high-ASA performance even if low light shooting seemingly was very important too.

Would love to have all that money to splash around...
*****

I Agree with #2.

I'd love to be able to afford a 600mm f4 lens!!! let alone take it to Africa.
I find a 300mm lens on a 1.5x crop camera to be long enough to get pretty decent wildlife shots.

love to see an article about safari shooting for amateurs.

Some of the stuff does apply to amateurs; bean bags are pretty affordable things afterall. A monopod is not out of the ordinary either.

Unfortunately for us the best kit for wildlife tends to be expensive. Wimberley heads are pretty much the standard for wildlife shooters, as their gimbal motion is uniquely useful for that style of shooting. There is no real substitute for focal length either, short of going for a different style of photography instead.

At the end of the day going on Safari isn't cheap anyway, so often hiring better kit is often the best option if you're serious.

That said, I'm eyeing a four-thirds CCD-shift body like the Olympus E510 and the Bigma (Sigma 50-500), with the 2x fov crop that makes an effective 100-1000 IS :) Wish someone would publish some results of using the CCD-shift systems with long lenses though; theoretically it's not ideal, the question is, how far from ideal...