Has anyone ever taken an instant camera to take pics of the trackers, skinners, etc.? I thought I might take one to take pictures to hand out to the African staff.

Would they even care or be interested?

Note: the pictures would not take the place of a tip.

That would be well appreciated. I've only met one tracker, driver, skinner, whatever that did not like mugging for the camera and then seeing their image played back on the screen.

Mark

We take a small printer with us, and print photos for the camp staff.

They absolutely LOVE this.

We find this is better than a Polroid or any instant camera, as we can print photos taken by anyone, rather than have only the ones taken by one particular camera.

On one of my Safaris, the game scout would always close his eyes when I took his picture.

He believed that if I took his picture with his eyes open, the camera would "steal" his soul...

The Canon Selphy 810 is a very good and small size printer, which can also run on the optional rechargeable batteries. It can read several kinds of memory cards or be hooked up directly to certain cameras. This allows you to choose the best photos for printing. An excellent idea for producing photos in camp.

Take a look at the Polaroid POGO printer. It's about the size of a deck of cards, prints full-color photos 2" x 3". It's so easy to travel with and you can use any camera you want since it's a printer only. And it's inexpensive - some can be found for under $50.

We've taken one with us to Africa a few times, and printed photos of our trackers or guides - they LOVE having a hardcopy photo so much more than just viewing it on your camera or ipad. I think most locals there are very rarely given a picture of themselves.

I took a Polaroid two years ago and like Saeed said, they loved it. I remember one incident that was very touching. One of the game scouts actually got all dressed up and when we dropped him off at the Parks office he had his entire family dressed up so that we could take a picture of them and give it to them. For something as simple as a Polaroid photo, it was a major event. If you can spare the weight, take the camera and some film, you will not regret it.