The Nikon brand has a range of DSLR camera and lens selections at diverse prices for the best quality or pocket-friendly choices you would like as a photographer. Within these limits, Nikon, like Canon, has beaten other reputable brands to become market leaders in photography equipment sales. In light of African wildlife photography, the Nikon brand has a selection of camera and lens options that befits important attributes like portability, low light capability, excellent iso capability, autofocus, and vibration reduction (VR) image stabilizer. This guide will discuss some of the Nikon lenses you should consider for your next Africa safari.
1. Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8E
The Nikon AF-S, 70-200mm f/2.8E, is the ideal telephoto lens for walking safaris and close-up wildlife photography. The lens has excellent autofocus and a four-stop correction VR image stabilization. The VR reduction helps to prevent your images from getting blurry due to shakes when taking photos with the camera handheld. The autofocus uses a silent wave motor to protect your subjects, especially wildlife, from getting distracted or fleeing from the noise when taking close-range shots. The f/2.8 wide aperture makes the lens an excellent choice for low light situations. The lens can produce sharp images throughout the given zoom range. In addition, NIKKOR 70-200 mm is also compatible with a range of FX Nikon DSLR cameras with higher iso capabilities due to the full frame cropping sensor. This lens weighs 1400g making it one of the portable lens choices you can easily carry around while on a walking safari. The only downside of this lens is that it is one of the most expensive Nikon lenses on the market.
2. Sigma 70- 200 mm f/2.8 E
The Sigma 70-200 mm f/2.8E is the best third-party short-range lens. The lens is also compatible with full-frame cameras, which translates to high iso capability. The lens also boosts high autofocus speed, making it dependable for shooting scenes that require high vigilance. The wide aperture makes it an excellent choice for evening and morning game drives when you are likely to experience low light problems. With a weight of about 1800 g, this lens is relatively portable. The lens also has a water and dust repellant coating, which protect your lens from getting damaged by rain drops. Rains are, at times, not very predictable in the equatorial region.
3. Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G
This lens with 850 g is lighter than the f/2.8 version. The aperture size is, however, not so good for the premium evening and morning hours when there is diminished light. The lens is, therefore, ideal for mid-day treks when you are walking for several hours or taking a full-day game drive and would like to have the lightest camera load. Like the f/2.8 lens, this lens uses silent wave motor AF which is an ideal choice for close-up photography. In addition, the lens has a highly effective four stops optical stabilizer and, therefore easy to use without a monopod. The lens is compatible with full-frame DSLR cameras. Like other 70-200 mm Nikon lenses, this lens is not cheap.
4. Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8 G
The Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8 G is one of the Nikon lineup’s most recent new generation lenses. The lens is, therefore, currently quite expensive. However, this is the best prime lens for long-range photography. With a 400 mm focal length and wide aperture, the lens is a dependable option for taking images with the minimal need to go off-roading. This lens can mount a Nikon AF-S teleconverter to increase the focal length when needed. The f/2.8 wide aperture makes it the perfect choice for morning and evening game drives. Nikkor 400 mm f/2.8 also has excellent performing inbuilt features like silent wave mortar autofocus and vibration reduction (VR) image stabilization.
This lens is compatible with most full-frame Nikon DSLR cameras.
5. Nikon AF-S 120- 300 mm f/2.8 E
This lens is the best Nikon zoomable lens for game drives. With this lens, you can take sharp images of game scenes meters away by the roadside. The lens’s wide aperture makes it ideal for low light hours. Nikon 120-300 mm f/2.8 is fully compatible with a full-frame DSLR. The lens has an excellent four-stop VR image stabilizer. The greatest undoing about this lens is that it’s pretty heavy to carry around with a weight of about 3200g, which makes it ideal for game drives. In addition, you will need a teleconverter extender to capture photo scenes far away from the roadsides. Although extenders increase your focal length, your aperture size reduces, negatively affecting your low light capability.
6. Nikon AF-S 80- 400 mm f/4.5- 5.6 G
We recommend this lens if you want a Nikon lens with a long zoom range. The lens will save you the necessity of buying another lens to fit different focal length ranges. Nikon 80- 400 mm is also one of the most portable zoomable Nikon lenses, weighing about 1500 g. Like most Nikon lenses, this lens has a perfect image stabilization of up to 4 stop VR. The lens is as well compatible with many full-frame DSLR cameras. The lens is, however, not very dependable on low light conditions and high shutter speed. It is also a pretty pricey option.
7. Tamron 100-400mm f/4.5-6.3 G
While the Tamron 100-400mm f/4.5-6.3 G is not a Nikon lens, it’s compatible with Nikon cameras. It is a cost-effective lens, gate crashing our listing. The lens is ideal for long-range and short-range photography, so you may not buy another lens to fit both ranges. This lens weighing about 1100 g, is the most portable option compared with Nikon lenses of the same zoom range. The small aperture size makes it not applicable in low light situations. This lens won’t also give you sharp images with an extender and, therefore, can’t be used to capture scenes beyond the 400mm focal length. Tamron 100-400mm lens is, however, full frame compatible and has a dependable four stops VR stabilization, making it capable of producing sharp images when handheld.
Point to note
it’s important to note that Nikon lenses are either FX or DX. FX signifies full frame, which means an FX camera has a larger sensor than a DX camera. This makes the FX camera the ideal choice for a Kenya photography safari, where a larger sensor increases and boosts the sharpness of images taken even in low light conditions. However, in Nikon, unlike Canon, where they are incompatible, you can use a DX lens on an FX camera and vice versa. When you use a DX lens on a full-frame FX Nikon camera, the camera will reset to DX mode and only use the sensor’s center to gather light.
# Choose the best camera
The first step of dealing with the low light situation starts at getting the right camera for the job. Firstly, your camera should have a large crop sensor that’s why we recommend a full frame DSLR canon or Nikon camera. In addition, your camera should have a good image stabilizer to reduce the risk of getting blurry images.
# Lens choice
Your lens selection will also have a great impact on your low light capability. The most important consideration is going for the wide aperture lenses. A wide aperture lens is able to quickly gather enough light to luminate the object. We recommend a f/2.8 l aperture size lens. Where possible also consider a lens that has good on-lens stabilization which improves the sharpness of the image.
# Zoom out when using zoomable lenses
The aperture in zoomable lenses widens as you zoom out. For better results in low light conditions we recommend you zoom out a little.
# Increase camera ISO setting
If your aperture size didn’t yield the desired result is the next step is to increasing your ISO setting. This will increase the sensitivity of your camera image to the light. To get the best fitting ISO range start by setting your camera to the maximum and readjust slowly as you take photos to test the efficiency. Ensure the setting you choose produces less image noise.
# Lower the shutter speed
You should also consider lowering the shutter speed. This will give your camera more time to gather enough light for your image. Agreeably, you will require a high shutter speed to get quality images of moving subjects. This might not work out in low light conditions as it leads to underexposure which reduce the sharpness of your image. For better results we recommend that you use a manageable low shutter speed (not slower than 1/ your lens focal length i.e 1/500 sec for a 500 mm lens. We also recommend that you adopt other mechanism as detailed in the next point to improve the sharpness of your image with low shutter speed.
# Avoid shaking, follow the motion.
You have to minimize any unnecessary movement of your arm when taking the shot. Ensure your arms are steadily anchored in your bean bag while on a game drive. When you are going for walking safaris consider carrying along your tripod or monopod. To freeze a bird in flight mode or an animal in motion. Keep moving your camera on the direction of the movement. Even though this might not always give a perfectly sharp image you will at least minimize the blurriness.
# Utilize available light
There would never be time when there is completely no source of light. For best outcomes ensure that the object you are photographing is facing the light source. During night game drives and there is moon ensure you take a shot when your subject is positioned in an open space not on a shadow.
# Turn off Autofocus
Whereas this help you save time during daytime photo shoots. Automatic focus may not work well in lowlight conditions especially at night when there is no uniformity in light distribution on the subject. Just adjust to manual for better results.
# Keep the burst mode on/ take repeated shots.
Making multiple shots at a go increases your chances of getting a sharper image. Importantly, if you are taking a closeup shot and you don’t want to scare away your subject with the shutter sound, you can turn off the burst mode and at least 3 extra shots before leaving. At no given time should it be a single shot!
# Get as closer as possible, try to keep the eye focus.
Different animals have different flight distance. To get the best photo ensure you are at the closest point where you can capture the best photo without causing discomfort on your subject. Close range images of the big cat gazed towards the direction of the camera in their characteristic glowing eyes gives some of the most appealing night images.
Point to note
Safari photography is more of an interaction between the photographer, the wilderness and all that it holds. When going for a low light photography you may not always get the quality pictures captured under the noon sun. This especially when you have to go for night drives. However, you ought to appreciate the effort and enjoy the moment while it last.
