Safari camera advice for me and my DS

[SurreyisSunny]

I’ve booked a safari for my DS and I next summer.
i used to have SLR type camera when I travelled but nowadays I tend to only use my iPhone

Should I take a compact superzoom or just use my phone?

I’d also like to get my DS (who will be almost 8) some sort of camera and preferably not one of the cheapo kids ones as the quality seems poor.

No idea on cameras (we just took phones), but jumping on to say that a decent pair of binoculars will be really useful.

I got a cheap zoom lens for my phone and it made a massive difference. DH had a proper SLR but also had to buy an extra zoom lens

I've just got back from safari and only took my Galaxy, which has a good camera with really good zoom (I chose the phone for the camera, a couple of years ago). Lots of people did have SLRs, but I've got lots of incredible photos, and don't regret not taking an SLR at all.

I found having a decent camera and trying to take good shots a really enjoyable part of going on safari. It was part of the experience. I was suprised as I had previous thought if people were busy with their cameras then they were missing the actual experience. I can’t actually remember the details of the camera but it was about a £1000 worth from Sony and was still easy to use for a non photographer.
I still got lens envy when I saw some of the lenses people had.
We mainly used to go to Kruger and self drive so the animals could be a little scarser than some of the smaller more managed private safaris where you are driven from animal to animal.

I bought a canon powershot sx70 for a recent holiday with wildlife (not a safari though) think it was about £400. I really like it - you can transfer photos to phone via wifi link which I liked. Meant I didn’t have to worry about losing a SIM card or anything and then I had all photos in one place as o used phone a lot as well.

It depends how much you care about photographs.

I bought a really decent SLR with a regular lens (30-80 I think) and a proper zoom lens (80-200). I got some fantastic pictures.

However, often the animals do come really close to the car and a phone is perfect for that.

But those amazing mating lions 50m away will only be a dot on a phone camera, and very blurry with electronic enlargement. Also you don’t get to choose shutter speed, focal length, ‘film speed’ etc, so you can’t play with effects.

But you will have the memories and some really good pics with just a phone.

Deffo get some binoculars with image stabilisers/ anti jog so you can scan for animals while driving along

I dug out old compact Panasonic Lumix with good optical zoom from about 2010 and found that perfect.

We also took an SLR but I found the weight and bulk distracting and took me out of the moment, like I was "finding the photo" rather than "capturing what I was seeing". The compact camera felt much more immediate.

I'm sure I could have got some better shots with the SLR but for the overall experience the compact was better.

How much do you want to spend? For about £1000 I’d grab a new mirrorless Canon R50 or R100 with kit lens, an EF-RF lens adaptor, and a secondhand 55-250 EF lens from CEX (they do a 5 year guarantee on lenses). Don’t use it for shots you can take with a phone, the phone will be better than the kit lens 99% of the time but for far things, your 55-250 will be invaluable. Shoot in auto mode if you don’t know how to handle a camera. The lens is more important than the camera body. But photography is my hobby/part of my job so I couldn’t imagine going on a safari without a proper camera/lenses!

If you like photography, it’s the perfect opportunity with a nice SLR but if you just want to see the wildlife and capture some shots to view on your phone - your phone is more than good enough. I only ended up bringing my iPhone (not even the newest one) because I didn’t want to travel with my bulky cannon and I got some incredible shots. The animals come so close you don’t even need a zoom, except maybe for the birds if that’s your thing.

We are going to Namibia in a couple of weeks and I'm digging out our canon digital SLR for the trip. I used to always travel with that camera, wherever we went, including previous safari trips, but haven't travelled with anything other than a phone in almost 10 years. The camera must be almost 20 years old, but we have a separate 75-300 zoom lens, so I know for distance it will take much better photos than my Google pixel phone.

Have a fab trip. Yes I haven’t travelled with anything but a phone for years either but I haven’t done this sort of trip, Disney is fine with a phone!!!

in reality it’s about the memories, I’m beyond excited about seeing a lion in the wild

That’s helpful Thankyou. Did you take a protector for your phone to prevent it getting dusty?

We just took a phone and got very good pictures of vast majority but we did see a leopard 30 metres or so away and the conservationist had a proper camera and was very skilled and he got a close up and sent it to us. It's a beautiful picture though not like as we saw it. The phone ones are more like as we saw it. Didn't take anything but the normal clear plastic case and was fine but one time battery ran out at the end. Just as a Mum and baby leopard were calling each other and Mum crossed right by us. So then a camera would have been great. The recommended ones seem to be about £1000 so depends how much you would use it, if you have that available. This is what conservationist could get from 30 metres or so away. Though think it needs skill as well as the camera.

If it's somewhere animals come close phone is fine, if they are more in the distance the camera is useful.

We just got back from safari. I took some nice photos with my iphone. My husband dusted off his 16 year old DSLR camera and took that. His photos were considerably better than mine.

Fuji x camera they are small and the colours pop

https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/product/fujifilm-x-t200/sku-4056616

These were taken on this Fuji

The camera I took was a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 - 30x optical zoom. The pictures are too large for MN to upload but here's a couple of low res screenshots to give an idea of the quality of the zoom

This is like what could get with our phone which is an old iPhone 6.

This is one with daughters phone from 2024 which is probably a newer iphone than ours.

Well what are you after?

An iPhone will give you somewhat decent photos, but not professional. You can pick up a used DSLR & zoom lens from any photography retailer, it’ll be expensive though.

For your son there are plenty of £50 screen less cameras about that you could use?

Wow that’s amazing. I’ll have the latest iPhone 18 next year

Amazing, i literally can’t wait!

I think the Panasonic was one I saw recommended