Photography Tour Gear Guide

photography gear guide

What should I bring with?

My photo tours and walks are for everyone, so you certainly don’t need an expensive DSLR camera to come and join in the fun. Your phone camera will do just fine. In fact I will show you great tips and apps that you can use to make to take even better pictures.

For those of you who do want to buy into a DSLR, here are some links to different levels of photographic gear. Knowing what gear to use for what situation is what sets beginner photographers apart from professionals. I have put my gear recommendations on the drop down list to the right together with links on where to buy them.

I will bring my gear along and explain and show you what most of the buttons and number on your camera mean and how to best make use of them.

Your DSLR Camera - Nikon, Canon or any other brand

Below are some recommendations in different pricing tiers for Nikon and Canon as they are the most popular two brands. For our purposes the entry level will be just fine, but if you have the budget, then I would recommend the intermediate level as you won’t out grow the features as quickly.

As a rough guide, I started out on a Nikon 5000 (discontinued brother of the current 5500) zoom and wide kits which lasted me a good 3 years before I felt I outgrew its features and need something better. I then bought the D800 full frame camera which I still use today. These are just some of the more popular cameras (there are more). Please speak to your local photography store for more details on specifics

Wide angle lens (landscape photography)

Wide angle lens is the bread and butter of a landscape photographer. For our purposes the entry level cropped sensor kit lenses will be just fine. If you bought a full frame sensor camera you will need to buy full frame camera lenses to get the best quality out of your camera body.

A nice lens to start with is one that start at a wide angle such as 18mm and goes up to 135mm for zooming. This way you won’t have to swap lenses as often between wide angle shots and zoom shots. There are also third party manufactures such as Sigma who’s ART range is one of the best in the world.

Zoom lens (bird photography and portraits)

Most cropped sensor kits come with a 55-200mm zoom lens. Otherwise you can buy one separately

Required Extras

  • Tripod – required for sunset shoots.

There is a massive variety here, so I have just listed the entry level try to bring a small compact one to attached to your backpack.

  • Sun-screen – The African sun is VERY hot and we will be outdoors for most of the day for 3 days straight. Please bring sunscreen to protect yourself as you don’t want a sunburn on the first day
  • Camera bag – keep everything safe and attached your tripod to
  • Warm jacket – sunset shoots can get cold even in summer
  • Bottle of water – while lunch and drinks are provided once per day, please bring a water bottle should you think you will get thirsty in-between.

Recommended Extras

  • Spare battery – you don’t want to be running low on battery while everyone else is having fun.
  • Large (32GB) or spare memory card – same reason as above.
  • Off-Camera Trigger – Keeps the camera nice and still for our sunset shoots
  • Non-fibre cloth – keep your lens clean – same as the type you get with any prescription glasses
  • ND Filter to create glossy water effects. The mm depends on your lens. If you have a 77mm radius lens then you need a 77mm ND filter to screw onto the front.