It’s the bucket list adventure of a lifetime. However, the African Safari comes with its fair share of photography challenges. You will likely encounter weight restrictions, limited access to power and dusty conditions that can be brutal on your cameras. Not to worry, you just have to be smart about it. We’re going to share our strategy for packing light and efficiently, and how we were able to pack a lot of professional photography gear into a small carry-on for our recent African Safari in Zambia.
You Will Likely Be Very Weight Restricted if You’re Flying to Your African Safari Destination
For most African Safaris, you’ll initially land in the primary international airport of the country where your safari is, where you’ll clear customs and immigration. From there, you’ll transfer onto a domestic flight out to where your safari starts. Domestic flights in many African countries are a vastly different beast than domestic flights in places like Canada and the United States.
Because the planes are so small, you will likely be very weight restricted. Both our checked and carry-on gear had to be packed in small, soft bags with a maximum combined weight of 23 kg (50 lbs). My photography gear alone took up roughly 20-25% of that weight allowance. The rest was just clothes and toiletries.
Packing and Photography Gear Strategy for Your African Safari
When packing for your African Safari, follow the golden rule of “less is more”. You don’t want to bring anything more than you absolutely have to. Not only is traveling light just so much easier than lugging tons of gear around, you won’t have to worry about being up against weight restrictions on the flights.
Packing photography gear for an African Safari may seem daunting at first. However, when done right you can bring a lot of camera equipment in a very lightweight package. Indeed, all the photography gear I brought on the African Safari in Zambia fit into a small backpack that easily fit under the seat in front of you on those tiny planes.
I don’t have one of those huge telephoto lenses that’s the size of a howitzer. Instead, my telephoto lens weighs less than 1.5 pounds and still zooms to 400 mm. Heck, I didn’t even bring a full-size tripod to Zambia, and the photos still turned out amazing!
Furthermore, the run and gun style of photography and videography I adopted during my storm chasing days was perfect for an African Safari. Much like a storm chase, things can happen fast when you’re on safari. You don’t want to miss your shot lugging around bulky camera gear. You also don’t want to be constantly swapping out lenses in such a dusty environment.
A Word on Camera Batteries: USB Charging is King
Many of the accommodations on your African Safari will be completely solar powered. As a result, they have limited power/charging capabilities. There are no outlets in the rooms, and instead have a power strip in the common area for you to charge your gear. If you’re staying somewhere that doesn’t have power 24 hours a day, it can be even more of a challenge to keep your gear charged!
Don’t worry, though. There is an easy way to get around that restriction: bring your own solar charging bricks. They usually come with 2-4 USB ports for charging. I brought two of them with me to Zambia and had zero issues keeping my gear charged, both at South Luangwa and Kasanka National Parks.
Plug the power bricks into the charging station in the common area when you leave for the morning game drives. They’ll be fully charged when you return. Use them to top up the charge on your gear overnight in your room, and you’ll start each day with full batteries. Repeat the process each day. It’s so much easier than having to rely on plugging chargers into wall outlets.
With the exception of my secondary mirrorless camera, I can charge every piece of gear I brought on the African Safari, including my phone and tablet, via USB from the solar charging bricks.
DSLR or Mirrorless Camera Bodies
If you’re at all serious about photography and/or videography on your African Safari, you’ll need a DSLR or mirrorless camera. Modern cameras take phenomenal pictures and come in varieties to suit every skill level and budget. At the time of publication, you can find mirrorless camera bodies for less then $500.
Two Camera Bodies are Better Than One
One of the challenges of African Safari photography is that you’ll want to be taking both close-up shots of the wildlife, as well as wide-angle shots of the landscapes, activities, sunsets, and more. Yet at the same time, you don’t want to be constantly swapping out lenses. African Safaris are often hot and dusty, so any lens swap is asking for dust to get in.
Having a second camera body will save you so much headache on your African Safari. Put the telephoto lens on your primary camera to get those incredible wildlife shots. Attach a standard or wide-angle lens to your secondary camera to capture those beautiful African landscapes. If you don’t want to carry around a second camera body, use your smartphone camera to get those wide angle shots. You’ll come home with a wonderful balance of close-up shots of the wildlife, as well as wide-angle shots of the beautiful landscapes and those breathtaking African sunsets.
Lenses
While you can bring as many or as few lenses as you’d like on your African Safari, you’ll need a telephoto lens and a standard zoom lens at the very least. I also travel with two small prime lenses. While I don’t use them very often, they’re incredibly valuable tools to have when I do need them. They don’t take up much room in your bag, either. Here are the lenses I brought on the African Safari in Zambia.
- Telephoto Lens (100-400 mm)
- Standard Zoom Lens (24-105 mm)
- 50 mm Prime Lens. Its f/1.8 aperture made it a phenomenal lens for the night drives.
- 16 mm Prime Lens. Good for the wide open landscape/establishing shots and getting “people” shots of our group. Its f/2.8 aperture makes it a good tool for night and low-light photography as well.
Filters
I always travel with two types of filters: neutral density (ND) and circular polarizer (CPL). Even if you don’t use them much, they’re still really nice to have in you bag. You can easily write an entire post about filters, but here’s the quick and dirty version.
Neutral density filters are like sunglasses for your camera. They reduce the amount of light coming into your camera. With a variable ND filter, you can adjust how much light is getting in. For landscape, wildlife, and travel photography, they’re invaluable tools for reducing depth of field, creating motion blur (especially when there’s flowing water in your photo), and more. You can also use an ND filter shooting video to capture perfect cinematic shots using the 180-degree shutter rule.
Likewise, circular polarizers reduce and eliminate glare from your photos. They also enhance colors that often get washed out when you’re shooting in harsh, bright sunlight. You will encounter plenty of harsh lighting conditions in the bright sunlight on your African Safari. At the very least, a circular polarizer reduces the amount of touch-up you’ll need to do in post-production.
Action Camera: GoPro
I brought the GoPro Hero 10 to Zambia and it did not disappoint! On your African safari, you’ll be bouncing around on dusty and bumpy dirt roads in the Jeeps and Land Rovers. The new GoPro’s have amazing image stabilization and horizon leveling that can give you buttery smooth action shots even when you’re being tossed around in the back of the safari vehicle. Additionally, I film of all of the shots of me talking to the camera with the GoPro.
Pro Tip: Invest in some ND filters for your GoPro too. They cost less than $100 and the colors come out so much better!
Cell Phone Camera
Even way out in the African bush, miles from any cell service or WiFi, you’ll still probably have your phone on you most of, if not all the time. Most smartphone cameras these days can compete with low-end DSLR and mirrorless cameras, so they’re another great tool to keep in your arsenal. You never know when you may want to get a shot when you don’t have your other cameras around.
GorillaPod Tripod
I love the GorillaPod tripods because they’re small, lightweight, and can be mounted to anything. In fact, I love them so much I actually travel with two of them: one for the mirrorless cameras and one for the GoPro. On just our African Safari alone, I mounted them to vehicles, railings, trees, and more. I also carry an adapter for smartphones so I can put my phone on the GorillaPod if needs be.
Extra Memory Cards
No matter what you’re photographing, you can never have too many memory cards. This holds particularly true for African Safari photography. If a memory card fails when you’re out in the bush, you can’t just run out and get another one. You should also keep multiple copies of all your photos and videos, so at the very least the memory cards will function as a backup. Memory cards are a dime a dozen these days. Get yourself a memory card wallet and fill it up with blank cards before you depart.
Additional Photography Gear for Your African Safari
Because my computer is a power hog and we had limited access to charging, I left it at home and brought the iPad instead. Most of the extra gear I brought was just to be able to easily offload everything onto the iPad.
- Cables and adapters to transfer photos and videos to the iPad
- 5 TB external hard drive to keep a backup/second copy of all photos and videos
- Extra camera batteries. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can go through them over the course of a day on safari. Bring a minimum of three batteries for your primary cameras.
Full List of Photography Gear for Our African Safari in Zambia
All of the photography gear we brought on the African Safari in Zambia all fit into a small carry-on backpack.
- 2 Mirrorless Camera Bodies
- 24-105 mm Standard Zoom Lens
- 100-400 mm Telephoto Lens
- 50 mm Prime Lens
- 16 mm Prime Lens
- GoPro (plus a few mounts and a microphone)
- 2 Rode Microphones (one for each mirrorless camera)
- Neutral Density and Circular Polarizer Filters
- 2 GorillaPod Tripods (plus smartphone mount)
- Spare Batteries
- Solar Chargers
- Cables and Adapters
Photography Gear We Left at Home for the African Safari
Now that we’ve gone over what we brought, the gear we left at home was primarily big and bulky.
- Gimbal (for the mirrorless cameras)
- Full-Sized Tripod
- Drone. An African Safari is not an appropriate place to be flying drones anyway.
- GoPro mounts we knew we wouldn’t use
Final Thoughts
The African Safari is a bucket list trip of a lifetime. Despite weight restrictions, limited access to power, and everything else, you don’t have to skimp on photography gear. You just have to be smart about it. The best gear to bring is lightweight, compact, and easy to use. Things can happen surprisingly fast on an African Safari. The last thing you want to do is miss that perfect shot.
