What Nikon camera I took on safari in 2014, and what Nikon camera I’d take now – Nikon D7500
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In 2014 I was going on a safari to Tanzania and needed a camera that:
- Was a Nikon. I’d always used Nikons, so stick with what you know, and all of my lenses were Nikon, so a no-brainer.
- I could just about afford to break or have stolen. I don’t insure my gear, it’s just too expensive to do so. And insurers don’t take kindly to cameras disappearing from “unlocked” tents.
- Had an APS-C (Nikon DX) sensor. Hence it was going to be smaller and lighter than a full-frame, with the added advantage that the effective focal length of my full frame lenses was going to be 1.5 the nominal figure (300mm becomes in effect 450mm), so better for wildlife photography.
- Was dust-proof. I can’t emphasise the importance of this enough. Out there on the road everything gets covered in fine red dust. (See the main image above.) So you need a good blower too. Don’t try to wipe or even brush that stuff off the front of your lens! I’m still finding tiny specks of that dust on my gear over five years later. Your lenses need to be dust-proof too, especially zoom lenses. If they are not dust-proof then you will end up with dust inside them. And take care when changing lenses. Ideally have two or more camera bodies (one for each lens) and don’t remove the lenses until you get home, and only after a thorough external clean. A vacuum cleaner with a soft brush works well (with the lens cap on)!
So I got the D7100. Relatively inexpensive and dust-proof.
If I was doing it all over again now, and wanted a direct equivalent I’d get the Nikon D7500.
The image here shows one of the reasons why. A tilt liveview screen is so very useful for so many reasons – chief amongst them being taking those close to the ground or above your head angle photos (without having your face in a puddle or guessing what’s in the frame), and being a bit more surreptitious when out on the street – “That photographer’s looking down, so he must be adjusting his knobs as opposed to photographing me, so I won’t assault or abuse him.”
But there are so many other great features of the D7500. How quickly technology moves on. I especially like:
- Wifi image transfers.
- 4K video (and this time round you can set the aperture, which is so important when taking video, for all those good videography reasons affecting the shutter speed versus the frame rate).
- Continuous shooting frame rate much higher, and buffer about three times bigger, so faster and longer continuous shooting, essential for coming away with a choice of images and just the right shot.
- And of course a faster, better processor.