[btnapa]

Africa trip discussion. Packing decisions.

On a recent trip, although I had five lenses with me, I used a wide zoom and a long zoom almost exclusively. You can bring primes but you will not have the time to change lenses too much as you are on the go and things happen fast. I would be tempted to bring the Sigma 50-500 but if weight is of concern the 55-300 plus the extender would be my second choice. On trips like this you want the longest lens you can bring. You are going to be in dusty environments, so you want the least number of lens changes possible. Bring a fast prime just in case you do some low light or night photography. Your tripod and the rest of the kit look good. Remember to bring extra batteries and SD cards. BTW, I had a light tripod and ND and polarizer filters with me on my trip. I did not use any of them even once! Pack as light as you can. Again, extra batteries and SD cards are a must.

[Theov39]

I have been to South Africa quite a few times. For street photography I found a wide angle (DA 21 ore 15) most useful. For safari, I found a zoom lens more useful as the distance of the animals continually varies. In KNP the animals will often only be a few meters from your car and are moving so a zoom is best. The 55-300 PLM is perfect for that. Not sure if I would take the bigma just for holiday photos. It depends on where you are going in South Africa/ Really long lenses are only needed on vast open flat grasslands or deserts.

In Cape Town, it is really worth visiting the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. Lots of SA native flowers and a really nice way to spend a day:

https://www.sanbi.org/gardens/kirstenbosch/