What gear would you bring...to Africa/Dubai

firedancing4life · May 16, 2012

Hi Dgrinners,

I m trying to get all my photo gear sorted out for Africa/Dubai. I am going on two Safaris....one in Chobe National Park and one at a private reserve on the East Cape. I am going Great White Shark diving and Shark Breaching at False Bay. Dubai will be the typical architectural and touristy photos.

The thing is...I want the reach for the Safaris and I want the flexibility of a walk around lenses. I am also thinking about the underwater aspect. Given the wide range of senarios and thing to photograph, I find myself battling on what to bring. ...or if I should just bring it all. :rofl

I know I am bring the following:
Canon 5D ii
Canon 50mm 1.2L
Canon 70-200mm 2.8L IS

I am torn on bringing the following:
Canon 40D
Canon 16-35mm 2.8 ii - more on this later. I know i Need a wide...but was considering a "walk-around" lens.

I am considering renting the following from borrow lenses for about <$200:
Canon 24-105mm 4L
or
Canon 24-70mm 2.8L
...should I even entertain renting something 400mm? in lieu of buying a 2x tele?

I am considering buying the following:
Canon Tele 2X ~$500 - make my 70-200 a poor mans 400.

Canon S100 ~$380 with Canon S100 underwater housing ~$250
or
A cheapo Underwater Dicapack for SLR. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/547694-REG/DiCAPac_WPS10_WP_S10_Waterproof_Case.html

If you have made it this far...what combination of items would you buy/rent? How would you get the most bang for your buck?

-Kevin

ziggy53 · May 16, 2012

These are some great photographic opportunities.

What is the "purpose" of the trip?
What priority is photography for the trip?
What level of image quality are you after? (Personal, commercial, etc.)
How experienced are you at skin diving?
Approximately what budget for the rentals?

Zerodog · May 16, 2012

Canon has an 18-200 right? That might be your perfect do it all lens. But you don't own one. Of what you have I would go for the 16-35 and the 70-200. The 16-35 would be your walk around lens. For most situations walking around that wide angle will be really nice. The only thing that the 70-200 would really be needed for is animals. If you got a 2x teleconverter it will give you reach. But, this comes with the price of worse AF performance too. Of course a tripod will help tons. Another item to consider is a Canon D500 closeup lens. It will screw onto your 70-200 making it a macro lens on a budget. It think they are $150? I own one and wonder sometimes why I also own a macro lens. It really works that good.

I own an s90 and the waterproof case. That is a sweet setup. My s90 pretty much lives in that case when I am on vacation. IQ is not the best underwater. But that is what it is. I don't think you get better underwater till you step up to a DSLR and some lights. That is huge money and also huge. For me, I love the s90 on vacation. The canon case is worth the money. It is really nice to have all your controls available on the outside of the case. This is also why you can just leave the camera in it. It seems pretty tough too. I have had it down to 40ish feet and I have gone surfing with it. The little bags? I think they would be a pain to use in and out of the water.

firedancing4life · May 16, 2012

ziggy53 wrote: »

These are some great photographic opportunities.

What is the "purpose" of the trip?
What priority is photography for the trip?
What level of image quality are you after? (Personal, commercial, etc.)
How experienced are you at skin diving?
Approximately what budget for the rentals?

Hi Zig,

I'm going for pure pleasure. I consider myself advanced hobbyist/part time photographer. I prefer the pro quality gear...that way if I get some great shots out of this, I have the option of some monetary gain.

The White Shark diving will be in a cage with a snorkel. 10-15 min max.
I probably wouldn't want to spend over $500 in rental. Think about that 100-400 now....

I've revised my thoughts slightly...at least for the Safari and walk around.

Canon 5D ii
Canon 40D
Canon 100-400 rented
Canon 16-35
Canon 24-105 rented..not sure if I can buy...or want to buy.

Still debating on the underwater gear. The real pro housings are too much to purchase or rent for 1 month. Borrow lenses requires full deposit for shipping out of the Country to a hotel. lol Not risking that.

I leave June 6th! !!!!!

-Kevin

firedancing4life · May 16, 2012

Zerodog wrote: »

I own an s90 and the waterproof case. That is a sweet setup. My s90 pretty much lives in that case when I am on vacation. IQ is not the best underwater. But that is what it is. I don't think you get better underwater till you step up to a DSLR and some lights. That is huge money and also huge. For me, I love the s90 on vacation. The canon case is worth the money. It is really nice to have all your controls available on the outside of the case. This is also why you can just leave the camera in it. It seems pretty tough too. I have had it down to 40ish feet and I have gone surfing with it. The little bags? I think they would be a pain to use in and out of the water.

Can you link me to the waterproof case you have?

Do you have any sample shots in a gallery I could see?

Thanks for the tip.

ziggy53 · May 17, 2012

firedancing4life wrote: »

...
I've revised my thoughts slightly...at least for the Safari and walk around.

Canon 5D ii
Canon 40D
Canon 100-400 rented
Canon 16-35
Canon 24-105 rented..not sure if I can buy...or want to buy.

...

That matches up fairly well with Andy's kit for Africa:

http://blog.moonriverphotography.com/2012/05/back-on-safari-south-africa-june-2012.html

firedancing4life wrote: »

...

Still debating on the underwater gear. The real pro housings are too much to purchase or rent for 1 month. Borrow lenses requires full deposit for shipping out of the Country to a hotel. lol Not risking that.

...

KEH has a used Sealife DC800 (camera, housing and external flash) for $200USD. I'm honestly not too sure of the value of the flash in a cage environment, but for free swimming and snorkeling I think that it would be nice:

http://www.keh.com/camera/Miscellaneous-Digital-Point-and-Shoots/1/sku-DG059991243670?r=FE

http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/19004/waterproof-camera/

http://vimeo.com/8429811

This is from the Lets Go Digital site and is included in their review of the DC800:

If you decided not to keep it after the trip you could probably sell it for what you have in it.

Manfr3d · May 24, 2012

I would bring a Sigma 12-24 EX II and a Canon 28-300 L IS, especially for Dubai ... a set of TS-lenses would be even more awesome there. Good luck picking lenses, there is soo much to photograph there.

NeilCerullo · May 25, 2012

i was in ghana and dubai, among other places, in the past 3 months.

id stay away from anything under 2.8 unless its a wide, especially with the low-light ability of the 5DII.
not sure what to say about 15 minutes of cage diving. ive been doing underwater photog for about 10 years now and 15 minutes isnt worth much trouble unless its a commercial shoot. since its hobby and possibly profit, you have a rather large weights on each end - price and passion/profit. if u have the cash and the *space* to rent and travel with a housing and full lighting gear, then go for it. honestly, id get a GOPRO HD2 with a flat front port and get the 15 mins of video there. the sill captures from the video are really awesome. its hard to bet getting some truly stellar shots with 15 mins. unless there is other diving planned, the gopro would just be hella fun and extremely versatile.

ive lived in the middle east (qatar and abu dhabi and been to dubai many times). no place on earth moves as fast - vertically - as qatar or the united arab emirates. having said that, the architecture and skyline is.... just "wow" inspiring. they have a lot of stuff there that just sprawls the skyline or reaches so damn high its almost physically unbelievable. shooting the khalifa is challenging and fun. down near the fountain there are countless angles and perspectives to get equally stunning shots. *the fountain starts at 6pm i believe and has a show every half hour until 9 or 10 i beleive*. getting the fountain and the tip of the khalifa in the same frame requires either fisheye or extremely wide angle - i used a sigma 8-16. only problem with that was the /4.5.
if you want to go up the khalifa you *need* (should, really) book online, at least 2 days in advance. i really missed out and wasn't able to go up as i landed and departed withing 16 hours.
a guided car tour is actually worth it. i paid 70 british pounds for 4 hours of very thorough adventuring. even tho the fuel there hardly consumes the 70 pounds, it was well worth it as i got to very quickly go from place to place and learn new things.
the public rail system there is gorgeous. the terminals are beautiful and the cost is amazingly affordable. definitely go for the business class cabin if you have gear, not for security reasons at all, but your more likely to have space to place your things or secure your things. only concern here is time; yeah, it moves quite fast, but there are quite a few stops. its fun as hell though and really puts you in an interesting perspective in between the skyscapers. keep business hours in mind. when that train gets busy, it gets absolutely packed.

/end ramble XD

all the best and happy - and safe - travels mate
-neil

What gear would you bring...to Africa/Dubai

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