Shooting Kilimanjaro Safari

[sdshutterbug]

All great advice! I'm not sure if I'll have time to ride it twice, but I had the same fears about the prime as Groucho stated. The other reason I was leaning toward the zoom was because I was hoping to grab some wide vistas as well. We'll see though...I doubt I'll really have my mind made up until I actually get on the ride!

 

[Snappy in OK]

I used my 70 - 300 Tamron lens on KS in September, and got some great pics. I enjoyed having the zoom available, and the shutter speed was a minimal issue since it was a sunny day. I would have to agree with Groucho that you may wind up with the subject(s) in the DoF area.

Have a great trip!
Melissa

 

[C&B Young]

Now, if you are able to make everything come together, I would suspect that you could get some pretty great shots with the 100mm, but a lot fewer of them overall. Best solution is to ride it twice, once with each lens! (And try to sit on the left side!)

+1 for the left side. Also, see if they'll give you the back row. On our last trip we had 2 DSLR's with us, and the Cast Member working the safari queue gave the 2 of us the back row all to ourselves! We had a 55-250, and 28-135 zoom with us, and the 55-250 definitely yielded the better results. Shoot bursts, and ride it twice if you can. Hopefully out of the hundreds of shots you'll get a few keepers!

 

[jfinke]

I would use your fastest focusing lens. I watched my mom struggle with her kit lens vs. my L.

I wouldn't worry about the prime being inflexible because you can always crop. Like someone mentioned above, shutter speeds will not be a problem due the available light.