Camera body
I would recommend carrying when possible 2 camera bodies, giving more flexibility when having several lenses and especially, if one break this ensures a back-up... So sad to be in a safari with the camera body that stops for unknown reasons... This happened to me already several times :(
My preferred set up is to have full frame bodies. Advantages is the low light performance, control of the depth of field and the dynamic range. Most importantly, it is a very robust body. It can survive low temperature (I got -26°C in Japan); resist to heavy rainfalls and humidity (survived easily 10 days in British Columbia!) or accidently falls. The cons is generally its weight.
Lenses
My recommendation would be to have a large focal length range in a safari:
- A wide angle lens for landscapes: Something between a 14 / 20mm (this also for night shots) up to 70mm
- Lens for wild life photography: depending on the country, I would recommend between 300 and 500mm, with a teleconvertor (x1.4 as for instance).
- ‘in between’ lens such as the 70-200mm for all the in between landscapes and animal portraits.
Tripod/monopod
Depending the trip, I will include a tripod and/or a monopod in my checked baggage. The monopod is better than nothing if an heavy lens is carried for hours, but I would prefer the tripod due to its stability. A bean bag can replace both if the safari is done from inside a 4 wheel car.
The camera bag
We could have endless discussions on the best camera bag to use. I guess everyone has already purchased many different camera bags without having the one to fit all. I would say I found mine! Quite expensive, but still cheaper than buying several bags that each fitting only a specific situation: the Ajna f-stop bag with the Pro large internal camera unit (ICU).
The Ajna bag has an internal capacity of 40L, I can fit the Nikon z6ii + grip mounted on a 500mm f/4 + APS-C body + wide angle lens + 70-200mm f/2.8. I can add a 1.5L water bottle with some food, the tripod and jacket. The weight of the bag then becomes the issue, not the capacity :).
The advantage is the Pro Large ICU can be taken out of the bag and carried using a cheap/light bag bought at Decathlon. The ICU can be carried as hand luggage in a plane. Even if the Ajna bag fit the maximum dimension for the hand luggage (ext dim 59.7 x x33 x 26.7 cm), keeping the ICU only reduce the bag weight by 1.7kg.
Accessories
After some years and several trips around the world, I built up a list of small accessories:
- Spare batteries + charger: minimum 2 batteries, ideally 3. In cold weather, the battery do not last long
- Memory cards: I generally carry for a capacity of 7000 images. I usually to not take more pics than this
- Laptop: always good to visualize the images on a 17 inches screen size. Might be necessary to adjust some settings for the next day. The laptop will also be used to back up the pics
- Power adaptor. I usually do not carry an electrical power strip, charging regularly will do it
- Screwdriver, the one that fit for the glasses is perfect, check the screws of the camera body or teleconvertor
- Hex key for the tripod
- Swiss knife for the ‘never-know’ situation
- Cleaning tissues and an air pear
- Water proof or ziplock bags
- A raincoat for the camera bag + a rain poncho to cover the camera/lens on tripod during rainfalls + rain poncho for myself.
Travelling and baggages
Preparing the luggages might become a nightmare for some destinations.
I always check the airlines website to know how much baggage I can take with me. Especially for domestic flights. For instance, AirFrance allows as hand baggage of 55 x 35 x 25 cm and 12kg in the Economy cabin while British Airways accepts 23 kg as hand baggage + 23kg for the checked baggage!! As a reminder, the weight of the coat is not checked. I therefore travel with a rain coat that has very big pockets. One pocket can 'hide' a wide angle lens and the second one the DSLR camera body :)
Almost all airlines will not accept the spare batteries in the checked baggage. Those will need to be carried in the hand luggage.
Source of inspiration
Several artists are worth spending some time watching their work. I regularly look for the latest pics of a couple of wildlife photographers: Vincent Munier (France), Paul Niklen (USA), Sergey Gorshkov (Siberia), Mogens Trolle (Denmark), Daisy Gilardini (Canada) and Marco Gaiotti (Italia) among others.
If you have any question or need specific details, fill free to send me a message, I will be happy to answer and potentially complete this section :)