The two brands are highly competitive accounting for over 80% of cameras in the market. They are in many ways identical in features with just but a few distinctions to fit individual customer interests. Since canon was the first to adopt the DSLR technology, more wildlife photographers use canon cameras. As a first time Africa photographer you may be stuck between choosing canon or Nikon camera for your next trip. To begin with, you ought to have a clear understanding on different attributes must be able to achieve to give the best results.  These include:

• Large aperture. Wildlife photography involves capturing motion scenes which requires a good shutter speed to get sharp images. In addition, you will find more interesting wildlife photography scenes in the evening and morning hours when most of the animals are active. These hours are characterized by high low light conditions. Large aperture helps you gather as much light as you can and gives sharp photos of images taken at high speed.
• An impressively efficient crop sensor or full frame camera. This also boosts your low light capabilities.
• Weight of the camera body and the lenses. Portability of your photography gadget is important especially if you are going for a trekking trip.
• Wide angle or telephoto lenses availability. Telephoto lenses are the most sought after since you will be taking images from a distance. You will need lenses of at least a focal length of 150 mm for walking safaris and not more than 600 mm for game drives. Wide angle lenses can be used when you are taking images on ancient architectural designs or artifacts in a museum. 
• Cost. You should at least afford a camera. For the lenses you can rent some and return after your safari.

Now let’s look at each camera brand and their suitability considering attributes given above

 Canon vs Nikon: Lenses capabilities- aperture size and range and focusing

Focusing

One distinguishing feature is the auto-focus capabilities. All canon EOS has autofocus with an impressive eye focus. Nikons on the other hand only have AF-S lenses being autofocus enabled. Non-AF-S lens use manual focus. Canon lenses autofocus features gives the best photo angle some lenses having better focus than what you get when you adjust manually. Most of the lenses has an impressive eye focus which creates superb headshots.

Focal length and aperture sizes

For an African wildlife photography safari you will in most instances use telephoto lenses than wide angle lenses since you won’t be able to move very close to your subject to capture the moments. For a walking safari you will require a lens that has a minimum focal length of up to 200 mm and for game drives up to 500mm. Due to the moments low light conditions we recommend lenses with large aperture at minimum f/ 2.8 l. Both brands has a variety of lens options but canon gets an upper hand in features and range of wide aperture telephotos options mostly due to the many third party lens versions available in the market. Some of the befitting lenses includes:

Short range lenses

canon

• canon EF 70-200 mm f/2.8 l
• sigma 50- 150 mm f/ 2.8 l 780 g
• Tamron 70 – 200mm f/ 2.8 l

Nikon

• Nikon Z 70 – 200 mm f/2.8 VR S

Mid range lenses

canon

• Sigma 120 – 300mm f/2.8 l

Nikon

• Nikon Z 120 – 300 mm f/2.8 E

Conclusion

Canon has a wider range of lenses options hence a better choice for wildlife photography.

Canon vs Nikon: portability

With some Africa walking safari involving trekking for hours in mountainous terrains, at some instances you may have to consider the weight of your DSLR camera. Some camera body can be extremely weighty leading to a load of over 10 kg.

Both brands has entry level cameras weighing as low as 700 g and top hybrid selections weighing approximately 1500 g. Both brands has short range lenses ranging from 780g to 1200 g and long range 1200 g and 1900g. This gives both brands a variety of options having a combined weight of approximately 4 kg which is not too heavy.

Conclusions

Both brands have a range of portable camera bodies and lenses

Canon vs Nikon: sensor

Camera sensors helps gather light that luminate the image leading to high resolution images. Most of Africa best wildlife images are captured during morning and evening hours which experiences low light conditions. You would also like to gather more quality views of your image background. This explains the need of a camera with higher crop factor. Both brands has dependable in sensor capability. Canon however has a better crop factor of about 1.6X against Nikon’s 1.5 X

Conclusion

Both brands have good crop-factor but canon stands out slightly better.

Canon vs Nikon: cost and value of money

One thing to consider is the cost of both the camera and lenses for each of the two brands. Notably, the features in a camera or lenses has a greater cost impact than the brand. Both brands have a collection of entry level selections. However, canon has a wider scope of cost-effective beginner’s selections with more camera features than Nikon. On the other side, despite canon dominating the market Nikon surprisingly seem to have cheaper hybrid camera and lenses when compared to equivalent canon selections. The difference is however slight and prices keeps changing as new types emerge.

Conclusion

Looking at the cost effectiveness and value of money, the two brands are at par but with Nikon slightly better at the hybrid level and canon at entry level.

Summary

Going by the comparison, neither of the two brands can be said to have a clear command over the other and your choice largely depends on your personal desires. Looking at the points discuss canon is marginally better in most of the aspects discussed. The difference is ignorable all the same.

However, as most experienced photographers says ‘It’s not much about the camera features but the skills and sophistication’. The best camera is the one you can afford. More travelers will therefore go for canon because of it’s advanced entry level cameras coming at an affordable price. This is in addition to canon being a pioneer in DSLR.