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Re: [OM] Safari Kit update/film suggestions?

Subject: Re: [OM] Safari Kit update/film suggestions?
From: "Ron Crabtree" <crabtree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 10:06:45 -0600
I got back from a photo safari in Tanzania a few months ago and learned some
valuable lessons.

I have in the past used Velvia and Provia exclusively for wildlife shooting.
For landscapes I love the punch of color I get from Velvia, but both Velvia
and Provia gave me too much contrast for many wildlife scenes, even when
shooting with a telephoto(which can lend less contrast to the scene).  I
decided to go for more natural colors in Africa(which often has more that
enough contrast for my tastes) and shot only Astia this trip.  While this is
considered a portrait film, I was very pleased with the fine grain and
natural tones.  Lets face it, everyone knows what color a cheetah really is,
and when very saturated film captures such an animal, the results are
sometimes a little odd.  I think Art Wolfe is shooting Astia now in adition
to Velvia.

I found that I often shot at 400-500mm and sometimes wanted even more focal
length.  Using a 500mm f8 will make for a difficult situation with slow
film.  I took my Sigma 500mm f4.5 lens and often shot it wide open.  If
using slow teles is the only option, I wonder about pushing Astia to ISO
200.  The results would probably be satisfactory.

I had the good fortune of having a Land Rover all to myself.  If you are
going with other people, movement in the truck really makes for a maddening
situation when trying to shoot at high magnification.  While many pros use
beanbags to steady their lenses, I found something that worked great for me.
Kirk enterprises makes a heavy duty window mount.  I used it on the window
of the vehicle some of the time(allows more eye level shooting, which I find
pleasing), but better yet I found I could mount it on the rim of the
"pop-top" easily.  I had a heavy duty ball head mounted on the window mount
and it did very well with my long lenses.  I find that using a tripod inside
the vehicle unwieldly, especially if you are sharing the vehicle with
others.  Pop Photo had an article recently about Africa trips.  The authors
reccomended a beanpod.  This is a beanbag which allows one to mount a ball
head onto it.  I tried to get one before I left but was unsuccesful.  The
phone number to call for it is in the issue.  They really seemed to like it.

I found that it was incredibly dusty in the game parks.  I would change
lenses as little as possible. Also, the great shots sometimes come and go
quickly, so I had two OM4t bodies each mounted at all times to the 500mm and
a 300mm 2.8.  I also had two Kirk window mounts always in place on either
side of the Land Rover.  That way I could quickly pop either lens/body on
the mount and fire away.  Needless to say, the OMs worked flawlessly.  There
were a few low light situations shooting wide open that an autofocus would
have, well......Never mind.  The light weight and durabilty of the OM system
was, as you know, wonderful.

One word of caution.  If you are flying through Paris to get to your
destination, be aware that Paris airport officials flattly refuse to hand
check your film.  It is through the xray machine or else.  I did not have an
xray shield big enough for 200 rolls of film and had to just send it
through.  I did fine with my slow Astia, but be aware of this problem if you
take faster film.

Hope you have a great trip!!!

Ron Crabtree
Santa Fe, NM

I

From: KFrohling@xxxxxxx <KFrohling@xxxxxxx>
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Saturday, May 15, 1999 12:26 AM
Subject: [OM] Safari Kit update/film suggestions?


>Hi all,
>
>Several weeks ago I posted a request for suggestions for lenses for a trip
to
>Kenya.  I would like to thank everyone who responded again.  For those who
>might be interested, I augmented my normal, wide and short telephoto lenses
>with the following super-teles:  Zuiko 85-250/f5, Zuiko 300 /f4.5 and Zuiko
>500/f8.
>
>Now for the important (to me, anyway) question, what film should I take?  I
>would like be able to show slides, but more importantly, I would like to
make
>large prints of some selected shots (I have to justify buying these lenses
to
>my wife somehow ;-)).  Has anybody shot the new Kodak EBX-100 (I have a
roll
>loaded up for this weekend).  My long teles are pretty slow, so I suspect
>that I'll need some at least 200 speed slide film (Ektachrome E-200 or
>ED-200).  I'll probably keep one body loaded with some 400 speed print
film.
>
>Somehow in the lenses buying frenzy, I ended up with two more bodies (OM-4
>and OM-1N), so I have four now.  How many bodies are enough for a trip like
>this?
>
>Thanks for listening...
>
>Kerry Frohling
>Fullerton, California, USA
>
>P.S.  I think I've crossed the line to Zuikoholism, I didn't really _need_
>the OM-1N but it was way to pretty to leave in that dirty pawn shop :-)
>
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