Two years ago, I wrote the article, “Best Big Lens for a Wildlife Safari.” However, since most people were not traveling and with the safari high season right around the corner, I wanted to focus more on why fast glass, 2.8 or 4.0 fixed, is critically important for a successful wildlife safari.
IN SIMPLE TERMS
Most of us understand that the wider the aperture, the more stops of light we have. In low light, we can open-up to 2.8 for more light to achieve a faster shutter speed before we have to crank up our ISO, which causes noise and deterioration of the quality of an image. Yes, I have heard the comment, “I can fix it later in Topaz.” While this may be true this is not the most important reason that professional wildlife photographers shoot with 2.8 fixed aperture lenses.
THE CRITICAL DIFFERENCE
The aperture of your lens determines the speed of focus. If you have a lens that is fixed at 2.8, it always focuses with the speed of light at 2.8, even if you have the aperture dialed down to F/8. This means that if you have a 400 mm 2.8 lens set at F/8, the lens will still “focus” at the speed of 2.8 light before it closes the light down to F/8. This is why 2.8 fixed aperture lenses are called fast glass.
Alternatively, if you have a sliding aperture of 4.5 to 6.3 (even 7.1)on your lens, it will focus only on the widest aperture of your range. Therefore, when you zoom your lens out to 600 your lens is at 6.3 fixed and at F/8 your lens is only focusing at the speed of 6.3 light; too slow for low light with moving cats on safari in the Maasai Mara in Kenya, on the Chobe River in Botswana, or the great plans of the Serengeti during the birthing season. Think about it. When you are shooting at 6.3 you are shooting 2+ stops of light slower. Your ISO must be up 2+ stops and your speed of focus is 2+ stops slower; you will struggle to get sharp images on a moving subject in low light.
THE BIGGEST MISTAKE
The biggest mistake made with sliding aperture lenses is not watching your shutter speed (settings). This happens often. You hop in the safari vehicle and head out for your afternoon game drive. The light is still bright, so you have a low ISO, and it is easy to have a fast shutter speed. You drive around and photograph a few animals and then you receive a call saying that a lioness with cubs has been spotted. When you arrive, the cubs are playing in much lower light. In your excitement, you instantly zoom in and start firing away without checking your settings. When you arrived, your shutter was at 1000, but when you zoomed in, your aperture slid two stops lower which means your shutter also dropped two stops and is way too slow for cubs at play. Later you are saddened to see blurry images.
Yes, you can put on auto ISO and almost without fail; it will go too high, and the images are unusable for almost anything but social media. Yes, you can put a stop on your ISO so that when you reach the highest ISO allowed, you cannot shoot. Now you fluster as you try to fix your setting and then miss the action.
MY ADVICE
A safari is a large investment with big expectations. If you are making a large investment in safari, calculate renting a top-quality lens into your budget. I have been leading African safaris for 12 years. The most common complaint that I hear every safari season is, “My lens is too slow. I wish I had rented better and faster glass.” From anyone who has rented big fast glass on one of my safaris, I have never once had the complaint they regretted spending the money to rent the best big lens for their safari.
These images were recently captured on the African Wildlife Extreme Safari. Even though it is the “dry season” the skies opened up and poured on us the first night in the Mara. I was still using my Nikon D850’s (still holding out for the z8!) and my 400 2.8 lens. There is no way I would have been able to capture these images with a sliding aperture slow lens!
If you have questions, please leave them in the comments below if you would like me to reply.
If you have helpful comments that everyone can learn from, please share them in the comments below.
Wow, Piper! These are amazing images. Can’t wait to be on safari with you in September! I can’t imagine how I lived without my D850 and 400mm 2.8. Best investment I ever made.
Thank you! Yes, I am so excited for us to work together. My D850 and 400 2.8 is my best investment ever!! However, it is a pricey set up unless you are using it for more than 50% of your shooting, which is why I HIGHLY recommend renting a fix aperture lens 2.8 or even 4.0 fixed with range such as the 180-400 or 200-400 for a safari of a lifetime. NO ONE who has invested in the rental has ever been disappointed!!!!
Great words and images Piper! Well said.
Thank you kindly and a big complement coming from such a master!!!
Hi Piper:
Dale Davis here (friend of Joan Miller)
I am going on safari to Maasai Mara October 2023 (Angama and Bushtops)and again, renting Nikkor 600mm f/4.0 for D750 body. What would be your “go to” settings for daylight action shots?
Low light shots?
I am thinking f/8.0 1/500 to 1/600, ISO ??? 350-800 daylight
Dale
Hello Dale
Great to hear from you.
As you know it is all relative to the light you have on any pacific day- full sun, semi cloudy, cloudy, or stormy. “F8 is great”, but with a 600 you already have a very shallow depth of field. Therefore, faced with an action shot I would immediately open up to f4 for a faster shutter and then raise my ISO as necessary to have a high enough shutter speed to make a sharp image, unless you were trying to blur the image for an effective motion shot. What shutter speed is necessary will be determined by the speed of the action, but I always prefer at least a min of 1000 if you want a sharp image.
I loved this post and got a lot out of it. I enjoyed becoming better educated about the sliding aperture. I have always waited until I could afford fast glass and have always been pleased that I did. Now, I know why it performs so much better than variable aperture glass.
Thank you so much! My pleasure. As you know there are always compromises when it comes to photography, which also makes it exhilarating- especially when we get the shot! We all want a big budget for glass and gear, but most of us have not yet won the lottery – especially if we are not playing….LOL. However, after 12 years of experience specialize in African safaris, what I can share is many cut the budget short to maximize the budget for the trip and then wish they had better glass. Yes, it is pricey to rent a big lens, but as stated, no one on my safaris of 12 years have ever regretted it! More what happens is they learn they need the better lens and then plan another safari… great for business, but I want all my guest to have the ultimate success that they dreamed about on that first safari!!
You are smart, an outstanding photographer and you communicate in plain English. It is much appreciated.
Asante Sana ( thank you so much). My journey was not easy so I am honored by your compliment!!! I was born a creative (I guess that mean right brain is working harder?) and although I love math and puzzles, F stops, shutter speed, ISO – how they worked together and exposure seemed to take me years to figure out…. LOL!!!! So I try my best to explain what I have learned in simple creative terms for other creatives as I have figured it out along the way!
Very well explained. My 500mm and 600mm are both f4 (Nikon glass). I have been pleased with the images I get. I didn’t realize that autofocus was done at the widest aperture. You explained it quite well!
Hello William
Thank you so much. I never understood this until about 15+ years into my career! Actually not until I changed systems… having nothing to do with mirrorless or the likes – but a personal choice that was a long time coming. It seems to be a bit of information assumed. The wider the aperture the faster the shutter the lower your ISO is what most of us understand ….. but the speed of focus is what most have not been educated on is critically important.
Very helpful. Now I know another reason why my favorite lens is my favorite lens.
Yes, fast glass is so important and a love on safari!