Originally posted by WPRESTO For safari (Africa?) you get pretty close to the mammals so 200mm max will serve, but if you want to capture images of the smaller birds, and there are many, it's a problem.You might consider a 200mm f4 SMCA manual focus. Good IQ and can be had for maybe $100 in very good to excellent condition.
The M 200 was going to be my suggestion. KEH has those for between $41-69. I have had mine for quite a while and gotten very nice results with it. It now sits on the Sony A6000, where it does much better than the Sony Zoom in that range.
It seems to me that one would not lose much putting the prime on the camera just for the trips out to see the animals and using other lenses for the times you need wide. Stop the M200 down a couple, and you can crop it to an even tighter FOV. Below is a very significant crop from that lens using the 10mp K10d at close to wide open (F/4). Limiting factor is DOF with the eye and bill the point of focus. Also, the bee is a 50% crop with the K5.
One other suggestion is, as long as the light is good, the 50-200, which is often available used at sub-$100. It is not great wide open, but I have gotten good results at F/7 on, and you get compact size and autofocus.