Having never taken a digital camera on safari until next week , I have a question for those of you that have. How big a memory chip do you take and do you take any backups of lithium batteries or is one fresh new one ok?
I will be taking a Nikon Coolpix 8800. Appreciate your input. Hugh

I took two digital cameras, a smaller one with an extra fresh set of batteries and two chips (only enough for a couple of hundred pictures) and a larger digital SLR with a 4 gig microdrive (good for about 2-3 thousand pictures), a rechargeable battery, and a set of back-up non-rechargeable batteries. I ended up with 900 or so pictures, of which 200-300 are decent. You will use less memory space if you review and delete the bad pictures, but that will use up more battery capacity.

Hugh,

Definately extra batteries...also take an extra mem card or stick..I would take a 1 gig
and shoot on medium setting, better for printing when you get home...When you shoot your trophy pics shoot with a flash will take shadows off face...

Mike

Definitely take more batteries than you think you need.

also, you'll find the best prices on camera/flash/compact memory at crucial... have the make and model of you camera handy for identifying what your camera takes.

http://www.crucial.com

its either spare batteries or a 12v charger. We usually take the charger & plug it into the vehicle when we're out

If you want the pictures only to put up on the Internet you can probably get away with low res and one set of extra battereies.

If you want to print your photos you will need to shoot at higher resolution, and you can expect to need a couple of memory chips/sticks and additional batteries.

Your 8800 is an 8 megapixel camera, and one reviewer got 240 photos per one charge of the batteries (he was using the rechargeable). Check your photo habits, and scale accordingly.

Good hunting...jim

Hugh, definately take the higher res photos, you never know if you are going to want a special blowup print. I'm taking 2 (512mb) cards for my camera and 2 batteries as well as a 12 volt auto charger. I'm also taking a 3 pack of the high res disposable cameras (36 pics each). I'll take a few trophy shots with these in addition to a bunch of digitals. This is my cheap safeguard against a total digital camera meltdown. Have fun.

1 gig memory card for sure, I took a Digital nikon, Coolplix camera for the first time this past May. plus my F100 35mm Nikon film camera, next trip I'll have a Nikon D100 Digital, no more film on trips. I shoot on the average of 1600 pictures on a 12 day safari, so I'll be packing a couple of 1 gig cards.

rechargeable batteries is the way to go, I took extra batteries with me, digital feeds on batteries heavy!

I like to take photo's on the highest resolution, much better photo's, you don't get as many photo's on a card but the quility is much better! I'd rather take an extra card or two them sacrifice quility!!

Hugh,

You need more memory and a spare battery, especially if you are not taking a computer.

Personally, I believe in taking photos on the hiest resolution - you can always resize them for the web.

The Nikon 8800 is a great camera, but I have found that it is far too slow in saving to the memory card if one takes hi-resolution photos.

I'd bring some method of making a back up of the camera media. I work in the semiconductor test field and I may be a bit parniod, but these things do fail.

I brought my laptop, card reader, and a couple of flash drives. Every night or so, I'd update my daily journal on the laptop and dump my pictures onto the laptop and a USB flash drive.

A plus with the laptop is movies of my choice on the plane.

Just a thought.

-Steve

The 8800 is a great camera. Just got back from from using it in Zambia on a month long trip. Ten days on Safari. You will need more than on one battery. you can recharge one at night while the generator is on. Don't mess with extra sticks because you will never use again and the price continues to drop. I purchased a Transend 20 gb. photo drive and loved it. I downloaded every night. Worked great but is very criptic to learn. Nikon has just come out with a new external drive for about 300.00. You can also play MP3's on it as well. If you buy the transend, pm me and I will help you use it.

Learn how to use the "scene" mode on the Coolpix 8800. Take your sunsets and sunrises on the different modes. You will love it.

Bullsprig

Used a Coolpix 5700 and took 865 high res shots in 21 days. Took two, 1 gig CF drives, five batteries and a 12V charger. Still use them today. Take all your shots in high res, you never know when that shot of a lifetime will present itself.

My second digital camera is a Fuji S5000 which I selected for two reasons: it uses rechargeable AA batteries and it has 10x optical zoom. (I take a car charger, a multivoltage AC charger, and this time a solar charger which never was unpacked.) It also has a stabliszation system which is a nice feature. Its lensing is effectively 28-280mm.

I have been using a 256 chip in it; however, before the Tanzanian adventure, I picked up a 512 chip. I shoot at 2megs, which gives me all the detail I need for printing up to 5x6 (even 9x12) prints. I downloaded about 350 pics from the small chip and over 500 from the larger one which was not full. If it is interesting to me or moves, I'll take a picture of it. Digital i the way to fly. I get the camera, a spare chip, and a package of spare batteries in the bag is use to carry just my old Nikon 35mm. Kudude

I use an Olympus C-740 3.2 megapixel. I shoot at the 2nd highest resolution (2048 x 1636) which is a photo 28"W X 24"H actual size. This gives me 165 pics on a 128 mb card. I usually take 3 cards for a 7-10 day trip. I like the smaller cards because they're cheap, they don't take up any space, and if one gets screwed up somehow, I don't loose a Gig of pictures and the price of the card. The pictures are absolutely beautiful and usually we have to get them reduced and cropped for 17 X 11 framing.
Oh, yeah. Take lots and lots and lots of batteries.
Dave