D3300 Settings for South African safari??

K

kipley1110

New member
Hi all, so I am a total newbie to DSLRs and photography in general. I bought a Nikon D3300 with 18-55mm DX VRII & 55-200mm DX VRII lenses. I haven't had much time to practice with these and am pretty overwhelmed by all of the info. So of course I am going on an African Safari and thought I should rent a Nikon AF-S 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens for the trip. I won't be getting it until the day before we leave for our trip.

I'm hoping someone on here could do me a solid and suggest how to set a few settings on the camera to work with the different types of conditions I will be shooting - moving wildlife, animals far away, landscapes, etc. I literally have no idea where to begin. We are also going to shark diving and to see the penguins and mountains in Cape Town, so any recommendations on how to shoot those would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thank you in advance!
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
kipley1110 said:
Hi all, so I am a total newbie to DSLRs and photography in general. I bought a Nikon D3300 with 18-55mm DX VRII & 55-200mm DX VRII lenses. I haven't had much time to practice with these and am pretty overwhelmed by all of the info. So of course I am going on an African Safari and thought I should rent a Nikon AF-S 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens for the trip. I won't be getting it until the day before we leave for our trip.

I'm hoping someone on here could do me a solid and suggest how to set a few settings on the camera to work with the different types of conditions I will be shooting - moving wildlife, animals far away, landscapes, etc. I literally have no idea where to begin. We are also going to shark diving and to see the penguins and mountains in Cape Town, so any recommendations on how to shoot those would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thank you in advance!
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Sounds to me like you need a Crash Course in digital photography. To that end I suggest you get your hands on a copy of The D3300 Digital Field Guide by Dennis Thomas. This book will get you up to speed quickly on the features of your camera and how to use them in various situations with good results. It's not meant to be totally comprehensive, or super in-depth; but it will get you up and running with the basics really quickly, which I think is what you need right now. There are other books I could suggest that go into far more detail but this is the book I suggest you start with.
 
Z

Zeke_M

Senior Member
Get an off camera flash. You'll need it for fill flash in high contrast situations.
Get a prime lens. 35mm 1.8 DX or the 50mm 1.8 DX.
Keep the dust and crud out of your camera. D3xxx cameras aren't weather sealed and don't like dust.
Extra batteries and a charger that works in South Africa.

And post lots of pics.
 
R

ryan20fun

Senior Member
Try to keep the shutter speed 1.5 times the lens focal length to avout blur from camera shake.
And don't forget to shoot RAW+JPeg as you may want the RAW files later, I know I do :)

Zeke_M said:
Extra batteries and a charger that works in South Africa.
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Incase your not from around here.
We use a 220 volt AC and the three pin plug is most common and a two pin adapter is probably needed.

Good luck.
 
L

Lawrence

Senior Member
With so many variables that you will be facing the best advice is practice the hell out of your camera before you go to know i's capabilities.

Take the advice given by [MENTION=13090]Horoscope Fish[/MENTION] above and learn your camera back to front.
 
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