jules39

Hi
I have seen mention on this site about using bean bags on the roof of your safari vehicle to balance your camera. This was mentioned in relation to 2Afrika. We are going on a 2Afrika trip to Tanz/Kenya in Feb and was wondering if these beanbags are supplied or something you need to think about bringing along?

Thanks in advance

J

sandy_b

We made a trip w/2Afrika in May '01 and they did not provide beanbags. We thought about taking some and then decided against it . . . we didn't need them and they would have probably been in the way . . . we were all over the poptop van, hanging out the windows, hanging out the top . . . we were lucky in that there were only 4 of us plus the driver.

IMHO, it's more important to have 400 or higher speed film and a 300 telephoto lens. Our photos came out GREAT!

Hope you have as good a time as we did, our trip was absolutely PERFECT!

Sandy (in Denton)

nkh

Beanbags are not supplied, and we did find them useful a few times - particularly with longer exposures early/late in the day.

They are really easy to make, however! Take a ziplock bag (pick a size that your camera fits well on top of) and fill with lentils or rice or something similar. You can use it without any other covering but probably want to cover it with something cloth. If you dont sew, you could even take a dish-drying cloth (what I call a tea-towel?!) and wrap it around the bag like a present, holding it in place with duct tape or elastic bands.

I agree with Sandy about film. We actually used 400 speed film the whole time since we were worried about having the "wrong" film at the "wrong" time.

You havent actually asked about film or anything, so I apologize if you find the following unnecessary (I am certainly not a photography expert!). I would also suggest you take a bit of time to "pre-test" the film you plan to take in your camera (if you dont use digital) - take pictures of a variety of colours in sun and shade (and different exposures if you have SLR) to find out what the film is capable of. Take it to the developer you plan to use and see what you get. When we did this with 3 types of film we were amazed at the differences in colour and the "problems" we could have had in certain settings. Our experience led us to pick film that gave us pictures we were really happy with, but also to set the SLR to overexpose by +1... something we would never have known!

nkh

Whoops hit post a few lines too soon...

Note that the +1 was specific for OUR camera with the film we picked and the developer we used - people use all types of film and get great pictures - what you are checking is how all the elements of your setup (film/camera/developer) work together, and what final effect you like the best.

twoaussies

We took empty zip locks and filled them with sand when we got to the safari site. Worked very well, even with 600 lens.

jules39

Thanks for the hints on home made bean bags they should be easy.

J