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| One of Us |
My buddy and I have a Buff hunt booked for October. I'm not so sure I want to hump around with my Canon 30D and the weighty 100-400 lens. I'm considering one of the more compact mid size camera's that offer significant zoom. I note Lumix have one with 60x , image stabilizer and quality video capabilities. Predominantly I want to zoom in on wildlife and video my buddy stalking his Buff as well as snap shots of camp, scenery, people etc. Can those of you with experience in these units please advise on and recommend a camera ? Thanks for your help. | ||
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| Administrator |
First off, forget any camera that has a 60x zoom. The photos at that zoom range will be rather soft, and many will be blurry. The Panasonic FZ200 is a very good camera. It has a 24x zoom, and takes reasonably good video as well. | |||
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| One of Us |
With a 24x zoom you Nead a beenbag to .I Will go with the Canon D30 and the 100-400mm. Hunt safe wisent | |||
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One of Us |
I think you have to go to Africa to photograph game or shoot game. I'm a believer (probably of one) that you cannot do a proper job of both at the same time. I have carried a full set of SLR body and lenses back when luggage was not a problem but actually found little actual time to use it as I could not carry all that equipment in the field. So I switched to Canon Elph's when they first came out for 2 reasons - they were small and actualy fit in my shirt pocket and took APS cartridges which held lots of frames on a small roll. I could put several dozen rolls in a couple of small plastic fishing hook box with separations. Batteries were as easily carried. This meant you were never without your camera when ANYTHING took place. You were prepared to document it. I would think a current point and shoot with a disc would actually be even better. The zoom on the ELPH was more than adequate for most things. With todays luggage requirements and carry on limitations it would preclude a full size DSLR with a decent long lense being carried for me. I did once try to carry a topline outfit consisting of 2 Leica M6 bodies with a short,regular and 85mm lense, all of which were fast lenses precluding need for flash. I still was limited in my use of them and still did more shooting with the ELPH's. It's really a frustrating problem when your major hobbies are the hunting AND the photography. The sheer logistics of a full size outfit with long lenses and tripod and strobe present a problem I could never satisfactorily solve. SCI Life Member NRA Patron Life Member DRSS | |||
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I agree and figured this out some time back. Separate the two into different segments of your trip. I'm not saying I've never taken a decent photo while on a hunting trip, and I always have some sort of photo gear with me, but it's not the same mind-set and one of the two activities will suffer. _________________________________ AR, where the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history become the nattering nabobs of negativisim. | |||
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| One of Us |
I went to Zim this summer and brought two cameras - a 70D with a 100-400 and a canon G16. Was happy I did. Used the G16 when on a stalk or around camp, or when traveling and then kept the 70D in the safari truck and used the 100-400 to get shots of the animals. Didn't plan it that way, just worked out. Almost all my good wildlife shots came from the 100-400 taken from the truck and the cool candids, day to day life on safari were with the G16. Having both ends of the spectrum was really useful. I doubt there is a small camera that will come close to compensating for the canon SLR and 100-400. | |||
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| Administrator |
Well, I normally go to extremes by the look of it! I take at least 3 cameras, sometimes more, on safari. Some are taken to test. For this year, I am taking a Panasonic TZ40, a Panasonic FZ1000 and. Nikon SLR with some fast zoom lenses. Generally, I have the TZ40 in my pocket all the time, and take photos and video clips continuously while out. The FZ1000 and SLR are carried in the truck, and used when opportunity allows. The FZ1000 is the replacement of my favorite bridge camera, the FZ200. It also has 4K video capability, and as we are using 4K video cameras this year, this feature will come in handy. | |||
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| One of Us |
My advice - just note I suck at taking pictures but I like to take pictures on safari. Take an DSLR and leave in the truck. Also in Zim the PH are pretty good at taking trophy pictures ect. Having your camera in addition to PH gives 2 x the pictures and is a back up. I assume you know how to use your DSLR unlike me who bought it at Costco on the way to airport. Get a nikon aw110 - i think they have aw120. its a good solid all weather camera and built like a ak47. I left in the bush for 2 days in Burkina and then found it. Still use it nearly every week - it my pool camera. Been dropped over 50 times and works. You can carry this or give it to tracker ect when you go on a stalk. I have had great pictures with an old canon sx all in one. The new ones have gotten much better I have a sony than i should use more. I would take a all in one and drop it in the bag with the DSLR - they are simple to use and you can give it to someone to take pictures as you leave the truck - ie the driver. Also smart phones and a tablet work well - I have used an ipad mini to take great hd video at a water hole in botswana. Take extra batteries. Mike | |||
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| Administrator |
iPhone and iPad photos are not as good as cheap pocket cameras. I was amazed a couple of months ago on a photo safari in South Africa, when I kept seeing people using their iPads and iPhones to take photos of animals. Otters were actually asleep on the back of their trucks!!?? Why bother go on safari then? | |||
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| One of Us |
Thanks guys - this has really got me thinking. This hunt is not going to involve a lot of truck time and the few tracks are apparently fairly rudimentary. We're hunting 2:1 so I figure the video/portability aspect becomes important as one of us will be able to run the camera on any given stalk. When I look at the room and weight my Canon set up requires I'm thinking of upgrading my pocket unit and just taking that ! There's lot's to like with the TZ40. My Leica D Lux 3 has been great but now that I've started to play with digiscoping the lack of any remote or even cable shutter control is a bitch. The other issue with the Leica is the card size limit. I can't use more than 4 gb cards. The TZ appears to have good internal storage. What additional cards would be practical ? We don't plan on any MGM epic? | |||
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| One of Us |
Buy a good small camera - if it is a 2 by 1 hunt you will get a lot of good filming opp. Also video will eat up the card - so I would upgrade the camera to make sure you can use 32 gb cards. Relative to the cost of the trip over the camera is cheap and you will also enjoy the video and photos. Mike | |||
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| One of Us |
Looking forward to seeing how FZ1000 performs. I may get one. MIke | |||
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| Administrator |
The camera just arrived. I will try it soon and let you all know its performance. | |||
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| Administrator |
Tried it, and I like it a lot. But, I still prefer the FZ 200 because of is longer zoom range. This one has 12X the other has 24X. | |||
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| one of us |
Are you using the FZ100 as a video camera as well as a still camera? I like my cannon with zoom lenses but the idea of having one camera that does both could mean leaving the slr and the video camera home and losing some weight and bulk. | |||
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| Administrator |
No, I like to use a dedicated video camera for videos. I use the video function on still camera for taking videos of opportunity and short clips. Despite all the advertising BS you read, there is no still camera that can take video as good as a dedicated video camera. And the same is true the other way round. There is no video camera that can take as good still as a still camera. | |||
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| one of us |
Thanks for the advice | |||
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For our June PG hunt my wife and I used a pair of Nikon Coolpix S9700 Pocket size camera with a rechargeable battery 16 megapixels 30 power optical zoom 1080 HD one button video The performed flawlessly ________________________________________________ Maker of The Frankenstud Sling Keeper Proudly made in the USA Acepting all forms of payment | |||
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