If one goes to the trouble of packing a good digital slr and lens on their safari how much opportunity do you have during the course of the day when they are on the track of game to take pictures??? will it distract you from the chore at hand. or is it part of the safari experience to stop and take a picture of a horn bill when Mzee. Nyati is right around the corner??

I have always lived by the rule that you can be a good photographer or an involved participant, but never both. Meaning of course you will never have the proper gear in your hands in a split second (rifle or camera) when you need the respective tool.

If you have an observer with you, give them the camera.

My 2 cents.

On both of my safaris, I had an SLR in my pack and a point-and-shoot in my shirt pocket. I think the only time I ever used the SLR was for trophy pictures after a successful stalk. I shot thousands of pictures with my p&s though, both during stalks, after kills, while walking to whiz, while driving, sitting in camp, etc. I think if I go again, I'll just skip the SLR and take a good digital p&s and call it good.

When I'm really hunting, that is on foot and carrying my rifle, I don't have a DSLR with me. But there are a lot of opportunities if you drive during the course of your vacation, so I always have it in the truck.

Sometimes I will have a tracker put it in a backpack so that it will be on the spot for trophy pictures, but make sure it is well wrapped for protection from shocks and/or the elements.

Well,

I love taking photos almost as much as I love hunting.

Lately, I have been taking 3 seperate cameras on safari.

An SLR with at least two lenses, a short zoom and a long zoom.

I also take one of the so called "bridge" cameras. My current favourite is the Panasonic FZ100. This has a long zoom, as well as can take decent HD video.

Both of these stay in the truck, the TZ100 is used for taking quick pictures of anything of interest we might encounter, and the SLR is used for serious picture taking if we get the opportunity. Like by a water hole for instance.

In addition, I carry a small pocket camera - currently a Canon SX230HS in my pocket all the time. Even when out hunting.

It does not take much time to get it out of the pocklet and snap a few pictures while following game.

If you look at my Hunt Report on the African Hunting Forum, you will see many pictures taken by all 3 cameras.

I have had several consuming passions over the years - Photography,Firearms,Hunting Africa, Birding. I am (or was with film)a fairly accompolished photographer and have and do have a rather complete camera outfit of pro quality,I went to gunsmith school and have built rifles for over 50 years, I have made 8 safaris in Africa and have watched birds all over the world. I have found with photography you can either do it or not but you cannot combine it with another serious hobby and do either justice unless you have unlimited time and dollars which I never have had. When hunting in Africa after my first safari (when I carried a full pro slr outfit) I limited my self to a pocket Canon Elph as it fit in my shirt pocket,had a nice zoom and strobe and used a film size that was high capacity. I swtiched to the digital Elph when it came out. Took many pictures of most anything that interested me and was completely satisfied with it and the documentation it gave me. It's size meant I could literally have it at hand from rising in the morn to bed at night. Equipment has improved greatly since then and I'm sure I would be pleased with those small point and shoots of today for the same purpose.When my wife and I used to go on vacations they almost always revolved around birding as we would pick one bird we wanted to see and travel to see it. On these trips whether to Belize to see the Jabiru stork,to Hawaii to see the rare goose we would dedicate one day to view birds and one day for photography and alternate for the entire trip. My wife was not as avid a photographer as I but went along with this program. Sometimes this entailed going to the same place twice,such as the Corkscrew Sanctuary in Florida where we saw so much we had to go back the next day for photography. You have to set the priorities within your own rules. Those were mine and I was and am satisfied with them. With luggage requirements of today I find it hard to take all my photo equipment on a visit to my daughters in Nashville if I travel by air to try to do this for a safari would be a daunting task.

Many thanks for the sound advice. Since my wife will be joining me I will hang on her neck an SLR and I will probably sport a point and shoot. When we have some down time I hope she will let me have some trigger time on the SLR...
Thanks again