Pretty much everyone who goes on safari will take photographs and the camera gear that they use ranges from cell phones, at the one extreme, to high end digital SLR’s with huge telephoto lenses, at the other extreme.

If your interest is more the safari experience and you are not overly driven to have high quality photos of the animals you see, then a good cell phone camera  or point and shoot camera will work pretty well. Just bear in mind that, even though you may get great landscape shots, these cameras might not have enough zoom capability to truly isolate animals that are not immediately close to the vehicle.

If you want to return from safari with truly impressive photos of the animals and scenery, it is possible to purchase a good quality SLR type digital camera (either Canon or Nikon) with a very versatile 70-300mm zoom lens (with image stabilization or vibration reduction) for under us$1000. If you have the technical skill to operate such a camera, we highly advise that you do this – you will absolutely love the results and the memories that you can keep for a lifetime.

And if you are the advanced amateur/professional photographer, you probably have all the camera gear that you need. Our only recommendation is that you bring the longest telephoto lens you have (or can afford) – 300mm is marginal, and 600mm or even the newer 800mm lenses are ideal for many circumstances. Also, bring a bean bag – the Fila team knows all the places to get the best rice to fill it with. A tripod is not likely to be used on game drives, but may come in handy for sunset shots or even star trails at the lodge.

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