Camera insurance for Safari holiday

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DannyRuby

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Danny
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Hi All,

I'm looking to rent a Nikon D500 and lens for 15days to go on safari in Kenya.
I've looked at the insurance the ren site offers and seems like the cover is £70 + a £500 deposit excess fee... so if it's returned fine then £500 given back.
Maybe someone could reccommend a rent site?

It's a little steep, so looking at the possibility of buying camera and lens insurance seperate from the rent. Not sure if this is possible? --- Also, if it is possible, I'm not sure what companies offer this as it seems like majority of companies I've seen are for annual insurance.

As you can see ^^, in need of a little advice

Thanks
 
Not sure who you have been in touch with but @StewartR is Lenses for Hire and now includes bodies

Here http://www.lensesforhire.co.uk/search?body_type=Nikon

He is widely used & relied upon by a wide range of customers so will IMO always be fair in his business and help.

PS sorry nearly forgot ~ welcome to TP :)
 
Thanks for your quick response and the kind welcome :)
I haven't came across the site before and it's awesome... thanks a lot!

Do you think a Nikon D500 would be a good choice for a safari? Also, could you lend some advise on lenses? - I'll be in a vehicle on safari but the action won't be withina few feet so will need a good lens... just not sure exactly what I should be looking for

Thanks
 
DannyRuby said:
Thanks for your quick response and the kind welcome :)
I haven't came across the site before and it's awesome... thanks a lot!

Do you think a Nikon D500 would be a good choice for a safari? Also, could you lend some advise on lenses? - I'll be in a vehicle on safari but the action won't be withina few feet so will need a good lens... just not sure exactly what I should be looking for

Thanks
Click to expand...

No idea about Nikon as I am Canon user.

There are plenty of threads here and elsewhere talking about wildlife & safari photography.

Broadly speaking a crop body (is the D500 a crop or full frame???) will give you more reach but the smaller sensors can be more prone to noise at higher ISO. What times of day are your 'drives', by that I mean will the sun be fully up when you expect to get the photographs....think along the lines of keeping ISO under 800 as guide with shutter speeds in excess of 1/250 IMO.

Lens(es) ~ what lens were you thinking of hiring and how close is the tour company & guides saying they will get you to the animals. FWIW I have not done much by way of safaris but I have been as close as 15ft to White Rhino and Cheetahs as far away as 100yards from Elephants. On that trip I took a 100-300mm zoon on a crop body. Now if I was going again I have a full frame body and my 100-400mm zoom but might consider hiring a 500mm as not too heavy (for me) to handhold for prolonged periods but long enough as a prime lens to get some good stuff.

I would also consider hiring a UWA zoom such the 16-35mm as it is not all about the frame fillers but the inclusion of the landscape and the environment ;)


PS this was from South Africa https://500px.com/photo/4998779/cheetah-cub-by-laurence-berle?ctx_page=2&from=user&user_id=577812 I think this is slight crop of the full sized image?

Edit ~ just double checked - not cropped and it was the much shorter lens I took as I recall now the 100-300mm was delayed getting into the UK so took the 55-200mm. Back then this lens was described as the "pocket rocket", a consumer grade lens that was so sharp you could cut you finger on it :LOL: So I was seriously lacking in lens reach but the drives and the guides were great at getting us quite close to the various species. Oh and I used the very humble Canon 350D, my first serious(?) dSLR................my how time has flown!

PPS this one is approx 2/3 of the full sized image area at 187mm (no idea why I was not 200mm ? https://500px.com/photo/4998777/mal...nce-berle?ctx_page=2&from=user&user_id=577812
 
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Obviously i don't know the exact area you are going to bu painting with a wide brush bt with Kenya you are more likely to have big wide open vista with good viewing distance as opposed to say South African Bush.

With that in mind i would probably look to add somehting longer than 300 even on a crop body. Cheapest/smallest and easist options would be the sigma or tamron 150-600's. You of course have other options and depending on budget its worth considering somehting like a 500f4. Bear in mind these are big and cumbersome and can be difficult to travel with on aircraft and in a full vehicle. i would echo the suggestion of taking a normal/wider range lens aswell. On occasion ive been within a few feet of the wildlife and a long lens will only be useful for detail shots of paws/ears etc in those circumstances.

D500 is a wonderful choice and is most often my second body on trips like this.
 
Box Brownie said:
No idea about Nikon as I am Canon user.

There are plenty of threads here and elsewhere talking about wildlife & safari photography.

Broadly speaking a crop body (is the D500 a crop or full frame???) will give you more reach but the smaller sensors can be more prone to noise at higher ISO. What times of day are your 'drives', by that I mean will the sun be fully up when you expect to get the photographs....think along the lines of keeping ISO under 800 as guide with shutter speeds in excess of 1/250 IMO.

Lens(es) ~ what lens were you thinking of hiring and how close is the tour company & guides saying they will get you to the animals. FWIW I have not done much by way of safaris but I have been as close as 15ft to White Rhino and Cheetahs as far away as 100yards from Elephants. On that trip I took a 100-300mm zoon on a crop body. Now if I was going again I have a full frame body and my 100-400mm zoom but might consider hiring a 500mm as not too heavy (for me) to handhold for prolonged periods but long enough as a prime lens to get some good stuff.

I would also consider hiring a UWA zoom such the 16-35mm as it is not all about the frame fillers but the inclusion of the landscape and the environment ;)


PS this was from South Africa https://500px.com/photo/4998779/cheetah-cub-by-laurence-berle?ctx_page=2&from=user&user_id=577812 I think this is slight crop of the full sized image?

Edit ~ just double checked - not cropped and it was the much shorter lens I took as I recall now the 100-300mm was delayed getting into the UK so took the 55-200mm. Back then this lens was described as the "pocket rocket", a consumer grade lens that was so sharp you could cut you finger on it :LOL: So I was seriously lacking in lens reach but the drives and the guides were great at getting us quite close to the various species. Oh and I used the very humble Canon 350D, my first serious(?) dSLR................my how time has flown!

PPS this one is approx 2/3 of the full sized image area at 187mm (no idea why I was not 200mm ? https://500px.com/photo/4998777/mal...nce-berle?ctx_page=2&from=user&user_id=577812
Click to expand...

zeameth said:
Obviously i don't know the exact area you are going to bu painting with a wide brush bt with Kenya you are more likely to have big wide open vista with good viewing distance as opposed to say South African Bush.

With that in mind i would probably look to add somehting longer than 300 even on a crop body. Cheapest/smallest and easist options would be the sigma or tamron 150-600's. You of course have other options and depending on budget its worth considering somehting like a 500f4. Bear in mind these are big and cumbersome and can be difficult to travel with on aircraft and in a full vehicle. i would echo the suggestion of taking a normal/wider range lens aswell. On occasion ive been within a few feet of the wildlife and a long lens will only be useful for detail shots of paws/ears etc in those circumstances.

D500 is a wonderful choice and is most often my second body on trips like this.
Click to expand...

Really cool pictures, Box Brownie! I'm hoping to be in the position to take great pictures like those.

My drives will be in several different parks, Daphne Sheldrick's orphanage, Ambroseli, Lake Nakuru, Mara and will be from 6am and 8pm... but the lodges I'm in also overlook the landscape so a good zoom will be cool for that and for while out and about.

When it comes to lenes, I become clueless....
I would like something that's going to be great but also something that I can have a long zoom... the 150-600mm seems good and has some great reviews
Sigma (Nikon fit) 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports

I have to take into consideration the weight+ my luggage. On light aircraft in Kenya there is a 15kg baggage limit... so taking 3 lenses might be too much
I was also thinking about the stuff closer to the vehicle, so I have also this lens below, in my basket

Nikon AF-S 16-35mm f/4 G ED VR7

With the Nikon D500 as the camera choice and 32GB memory card ....how many pictures/ video can I expect to be able to take with 32GB storage?

With all this equipment in the basket, I still have another £120 budget ish... saving that money for other things is an option... and also bearing in mind weight.... anything else you'd reccommend to take?
 
Most safari's I've been on can get you quite close to the animals. They are used to the vehicles now. The biggest issue is sometimes all the other tour vehicles jostling for position.
Last time I went (canon user) I took a wide angle 14mm, my 25-105 as walkabout and my 100-400 with 1.4 teleconvertor for extra reach. Only used the TC for a couple of bird shots, shot a lot of the larger animals with the 24-105.
 
Oh and worth getting a water bladder like a camelback and perhaps a small beanbag to rest the longer lens on against the vehicle bodywork
 
Byker28i said:
Most safari's I've been on can get you quite close to the animals. They are used to the vehicles now. The biggest issue is sometimes all the other tour vehicles jostling for position.
Last time I went (canon user) I took a wide angle 14mm, my 25-105 as walkabout and my 100-400 with 1.4 teleconvertor for extra reach. Only used the TC for a couple of bird shots, shot a lot of the larger animals with the 24-105.
Click to expand...

So would you reccommend gettin the
Sigma (Nikon fit) APO Tele Converter 1.4x EX DG
aswell?

I wont be on a walking safari so thats why the 150-600mm and 16-35mm lenses... would you not reccommend a 150-600 lens?

Great idea for the beanbag! And my camelback is definitely coming with me
 
Danny, I've just come back from Pumba Lodge near Grahamstown in South Africa after 4 days on Safari at the end of our 3.5 week trip to Zimbabwe and SA.
I used a Nikon D750 and just a 24-70 and 70-200 Tamron f2.8 to take these shots while we were there. There was a few times I could have done with the extra reach but I reasonably pleased with what I captured.
 
Box Brownie said:
Not sure who you have been in touch with but @StewartR is Lenses for Hire and now includes bodies
Click to expand...
Cheers Laurence. Should I have received some sort of notification when you tagged me in your post? I would have thought so, but I didn't - I found this thread by accident. I'll take that up with the admin team.

Anyway, yeah, @DannyRuby - happy to help. All our stuff is fully insured for overseas use so you don't need to worry about that. The D500 is an awesome camera - check out the D500 thread here on TP - and is definitely well suited to wildlife photography. But I'm always a bit nervous when somebody wants to hire a high-end SLR because there can be a bit of a steep learning curve. What equipment do you have currently? And when are you going on safari?
 
I was on safari in september in tanzania. I had a d500 and d810 with me. Most of the shots were on the d500 with 120-300 and 1.4tc so 400 long end on crop sensor.

This was fine most of the time and too long at times.

If going back i would think about the d500 with 150-5/600 and the d810 with a 70-200.

If only taking the d500 then i’d think of pairing the 150-5/600 with a 24-120.

For landscapes take a few shots and panorama them in ps or lr
 
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