What to take on Safari to Africa

I will be going to Tanzania, Africa next spring. Safari in the Serengeti, Ngororo Crater, Oldavi Gorge cool animals and local people. Will my 70-300mm VR be enough of a zoom or do I need a longer lens for my D5100? Looked online at the Sigma 150-500mm but it's a big lens hand holding may be challenging and not sure of the quality or practicality. If the 70-300mm is good then I'm a happy camper.

A lens the size of the 150-500 would definitely require the use of a tripod, or a hefty monopod at least. I think you'll be fine with the 70-300.

Might I also suggest your mother in law? They make for fantastic bait!

Just a thought.

Hmmm lure the lions closer. then the 300mm will work just fine....

Even an inexpensive teleconverter might be a good idea. Light and small and stretch that 300 to a 600, manual focus and slow glass gets slower but still fine for daylight outdoors shooting.

Is there a teleconverter that maintains the autofocus?

I think some of the Nikon ones do, they make a 1.4, 1.7 and a 2.0. Many of the reviews I've read say the 1.7 is optically a good unit. The reviews also stated that the image quality suffered the most when wide open but above say f8 it was very good.

LOTS of gear (and me to help you carry it)

Yibel said:

Even an inexpensive teleconverter might be a good idea. Light and small and stretch that 300 to a 600, manual focus and slow glass gets slower but still fine for daylight outdoors shooting.

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According to the manual (page 22 in English), this lens is incompatible with all teleconverters. I remember reading it when I purchased the lens.

Now that doesn't mean it won't work. . . .

Thanks it would be sad to get it and find out it doesn't work.

Eduard said:

According to the manual (page 22 in English), this lens is incompatible with all teleconverters. I remember reading it when I purchased the lens.

Now that doesn't mean it won't work. . . .

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Eduard you are correct, I use the 70-300 ed so my mistake. This is what Hogan says:

"I'm sure that some are going to be disappointed that Nikon says that all TCs are incompatible with this lens. The primary reason is that you'd be beyond AF working range with almost any teleconverter. Moreover, you're at the optically weakest focal length (300mm--otherwise why do you need a TC?), and you're adding to the vignetting, sharpness, and chromatic aberration issues I find at that setting. I'm sure that some will pop TCs on this lens and pronounce it acceptable. Don't believe those folks. It's not. I often have a hard time working at an acceptable ISO value shooting with the 200-400mm f/4 wide open--a 420mm f/8 or 600mm f/11 is just going to make that problem worse. At some point I'll have a full look at the telephoto decisionmaking process in terms of image optimization, but suffice it to say that anything that gets you beyond f/5.6 and increases the visibility of optical flaws is ade-optimization. If you have to shoot at ISO 1600 and f/8 at effective 420mm with a TC with a D80, you're even at a disadvantage to someone shooting with a D2x in Hi-speed crop mode with a 70-200mm at 200mm and f/2.8 with no teleconverter. (If you doubt that last statement, note that they'll be shooting at ISO 200 while you're at ISO 1600 to get the same shutter speed. Their AF works snappily. Yours may not work at all. While they only have ~7mp and would need to crop some more to get to the 420mm equivalent you're at, they also have nothing interferring with acuity; you do. It all adds up. I'd rather have a highly optimized 7mp even at a shorter focal length than a significantly degraded 10mp.)"

This statement makes me wonder if using manual focus would still work.

Rick,

I took the same trip last October! It was absolutely fantastic. I took my D3100 with a 18-55 and a 55-300 lens. The 55-300 was used 90% of the time but the 18-55 was nice for wide landscape shots and when the animals were right next to the truck (really, an elephant brushed the front bumper of the truck and a lion took a nap against a tire in Ngorongoro!). I took about 3000 shots. You can take a look here: Facebook

The 55-300 worked great and was comfortable to carry. I saw some guys with 3' long, 500mm, F2 lenses - lugging that round was no vacation!

The best accessory I took was a monopod. I set it for about 24" and could steady the camera on the roof of the truck or even tuck it in my belt to steady the camera. Helped a lot and was easy to carry. A few times I wished I had a tripod but I had to balance that with lugging more gear around.

If you would like to talk further, feel free to write me at bdmann *at* gmail.com.

Brian

Here's a suggestion, I have thought about going on a safari also. If and when I do I will be renting a Nikon 200-400 f/4
This may be a once in a lifetime trip so don't skimp on the few hundred dollars to rent it.