I was thinking was getting a new SLR camera for capturing the unique landscapes & inhabitants of E. Africa!

How much zoom is generally recommended according to your experiences, anyone?

I would suggest taking two lenses.

One with a wide angle (I use 28-135 so I still have some telephoto in there too).

One telephoto zoom (mine is 100-300).

I considered buying a single lens covering 28mm to 300mm as these are not expensive but reviews are mixed with some users reporting loss of quality and some distortion at the ends of the range.

Above 300mm is not recommended UNLESS you buy a lens with inbuilt image stabilisation as you will mostly be shooting hand held from the vehicle.

On the trip I just returned from (only a few hours ago!) I really found it helpful to take my old SLR body with the wide angle on it and the newer body with the telephoto attached - quicker to swap cameras or even have both out of the bag than to change lenses each time...

Hope this helps.

Dear Kavey or any other camera buffs out there:
We have the lenses described for our SLR but do you have any experience with using filters? I know a lot is based on preference but the last time I played around with filters was in a photo class many years ago. Do you have any suggestions for filters to use on some of those bright, landscape shots, especially for wildlife? We will be in Chobe in 3 weeks. We don't mind experimenting so any advice would be great.

The most important filter for me is my circular polariser which can help cut light at certain times of the day whilst also enabling you to bring out the blue within the sky and create a more striking sky and cloud contrast.

Be sure to take it off when the light drops though as it will cost you a stop (ie if you had the filter on your camera might allow you to shoot at 120 speed but with it on and blocking light the camera insists on 60 speed as it needs a longer exposure to allow in the same amount of light). That can mean it's harder to hand hold steady and result in blurred images.

Other than that I don't bother - I do have a UV skylight on both lenses but it's more of a lens protector than anything!

Kavey's exactly right...and you might look into a "warm cirular polarizer" too. a couple manufacturers make them. They combine the standard polarizer with a slight warming tint to warm up foliage, landscapes, etc. I thought this gave nice results when I was shooting film. If you are going digital, it's so easy to adjust color in photoshop or other programs that just the circ polarizer will do.

An whatever lenses you choose, make SURE you get a UV filter to protect each lense from damage!!! This saved me when I dropped my telephoto lense. Filter was ruined, but expensive lense was protected and saved. Don't leave home without it!!!