Greetings from the Chobe River!

[Marcelo_R]

Great capture of the Hippo, Marcelo.
And for your background information on your trip to Chobe.
Chobe is always special and has great photographic opportunities.
My wife and I have visited the area on a number of occasions - living in South Africa makes this lot easier for us.
Gavin

Thank you Gavin! Indeed the Chobe is special, more so when enjoying the luxury of all the gear on the Pangolin boats. Individual 360º rotating chairs each having a set of arms that adjusts to height (and bellies! ) crowned by a nice gimbal head. Such an easy way to make the gear fully transparent and focus only on the subjects!

So envy of you living so close to most everything out there... I met a couple that drove from Cape Town all the way to the Chobe (xing Botswana) and were returning thru the Caprivi going south thru Namibia... 3 weeks on the road! How nice!!

I'll be returning to the Chobe again, but will take a break or I'll start calling the birds by name... We had a young Malachite jumping on the boat, fishing from the rails, and even standing atop the gear!

This is a capture from one of the vids I took with the cell phone while he was on the boat!

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

Krgds, Marcelo

 

[Marcelo_R]

While I'm on it, instead of opening yet another thread and clogging/boring the Forum, I'll post a few more pics here.

(Mods please remove if not convenient/proper to do so, thanks!)

This Fish Eagle taking off with the remainings of what it seems to be a Tigerfish made my day (actually, it was on my first outing on the boat on Sunday 12/29). What a way to start the week!

Light wasn't the greatest but with a bit of denoise I could save the shot:

Z92_3751©MC by Marcelo Cinicola, on Flickr

Nikon Z 9
NIKKOR Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S
ƒ/5.6
840.0 mm
1/1600s
ISO 2800

Krgds, Marcelo

 

[Box Brownie]

Thank you Gavin! Indeed the Chobe is special, more so when enjoying the luxury of all the gear on the Pangolin boats. Individual 360º rotating chairs each having a set of arms that adjusts to height (and bellies! ) crowned by a nice gimbal head. Such an easy way to make the gear fully transparent and focus only on the subjects!

So envy of you living so close to most everything out there... I met a couple that drove from Cape Town all the way to the Chobe (xing Botswana) and were returning thru the Caprivi going south thru Namibia... 3 weeks on the road! How nice!!

I'll be returning to the Chobe again, but will take a break or I'll start calling the birds by name... We had a young Malachite jumping on the boat, fishing from the rails, and even standing atop the gear!

This is a capture from one of the vids I took with the cell phone while he was on the boat!
View attachment 104820

Krgds, Marcelo

On our trip the Malachites were not as confiding and your post reminded me of this

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

Posted by the same photo host (William) we had on our trip in September 2024

 

[Lance B]

Exceptional shot!

 

[Marcelo_R]

On our trip the Malachites were not as confiding and your post reminded me of this


Posted by the same photo host (William) we had on our trip in September 2024

Oh yes, Will sent me that vid just a day before Dan (the [best to me] boat guide) sailed to the area where this little KF is making it's appereance!

Will is a charming guy, I had him as a photo guide on my first trip to the Chobe (I've been out with several of their guides, all fantastic!)
I have a couple of vids of my own, but not as well shot as Will's... mine's not half as good...

Krgds, Marcelo

 

[Marcelo_R]

Exceptional shot!

Thank you Lance!

 

[Helo48]

Marcelo, fantastic shot! I'm heading to Botswana in early March with Pangolin. We'll be on the Chobe for a few days, then Okavango, finally Kalahari. I'm planning to take my Z8 with 800PF, 500PF. I'm thinking about getting a Z50ii as a backup and put my 70-200 2.8 on it for an effective focal length of 105- 300. I'll also have my 24-200 and phone for wider close up shots. What do you think about focal length mix? What has your experience been with respect to focal lengths used? I'm not sure how I'm going to meet the weight challenges but I really want to take the 800. Have you run into problems with weight restrictions on the smaller planes? Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Hi Tom
I did this trip with Pangolin in October 2023. My equipment was a Z9, the 180-600, 500 PF, 24-120 and 16-35 for the Milky Way. As a backup camera I had the D500, which I never used. I also never used the 500 PF. 98% of my shots were with the 180-600. It was a great trip.
In June we're going to Zambia. SLNP and Lower Zambezi.

 

[TomSavage]

Hi Tom! So exciting to read about your incoming trip!
As for focal lenghts: I've never been to the Okavango, so I'm not quite sure about the FL to use there... there are surely some ppl here with experience on that area that can better point what's the choice for the Delta.

But for the Chobe River itself, I'd take the Z800 and a zoom covering somewhere up to 400mm. I don't need to have all mms covered, a gap of 400mm seems a lot but it isn't if the glass is good enough and you're working with 47mpx...

Last March, the combo I took was the Z800 and the 180-400 f/4 TC. It's proven to be the best combination for me, yet 800mm was too much sometimes, so I had to grab the 184, however, having the prime forced me to become a bit more "creative" to take the shots...and it wasn't too bad.

For this last trip I took the Z600TC only, and I've been happy with the choice of having 600/800mm (840 to be accurate), however, I missed the 184... (I damn myself since we had a leopard sigthning that chose the closest tree... and the 600 was excessive...)

For wide angles I took a Z50 with a DX Z18-140mm and... auch. Not doing that again, I'd much rather have a 24-120 f/4 instead. The performance (to me) was very compromised by this combo.

Haven't tried the 24-200 but on paper, that'd be a good choice I guess. However, perhaps a 70-200 could do better, yet, I believe that a 24-120 is just perfect to use for everything close enough that would not fit with 180mm'ish. Ellies can get very very close to the boat...

As for weight: depending on the long haul airline and the ticket, you might be able to bring 2 x 12kg backpacks in the cabin.

I didn't have any problems with the weight of the in-cabin luggage with Airlink (or SafariLink).

You stand your ground telling them that there are valuable equipment (glass) and they'll go for it. For bushflights, it's not a big deal to hand it over to the cargo compartment, you'll see more often than not the bag being loaded and unloaded from those small plains on site, sometimes you load it yourself!

I fear totally the big airlines and airports though. I wouldn't check in anything valuable on the travelling suitcase (only replaceable stuff).

Hope it helps with your choices!
Krgds, Marcelo

ps: Here's an example of what the Z50 could do combined with the 18-140... shot at 68mm (102mm on Fx)

DSC_1129©MC by Marcelo Cinicola, on Flickr

Thanks for the detailed answer. It was very helpful. Still mulling my options but the 800 is going to make the trip for certain.

 

[JimFromAZ]

Hi Tom
I did this trip with Pangolin in October 2023. My equipment was a Z9, the 180-600, 500 PF, 24-120 and 16-35 for the Milky Way. As a backup camera I had the D500, which I never used. I also never used the 500 PF. 98% of my shots were with the 180-600. It was a great trip.
In June we're going to Zambia. SLNP and Lower Zambezi.

Tom, I’m considering this Pangolin trip in October, but I’m concerned about high temps. Are my concerns unwarranted? Thanks!

 

[Marcelo_R]

Tom, I’m considering this Pangolin trip in October, but I’m concerned about high temps. Are my concerns unwarranted? Thanks!

AFAIK, October might be the hottest month overall. I talked about it with some guides and they all said to me that it was horrific. However, due to the conditions, you might get a huge activity on the river, with hundreds of ellies spending the day on the river... Perhaps the activity hours are reduced to early mornings and late afternoons, but I wouldn't be shy to go in that period, honestly.

 

[realspeed]

Had to look up where the Chobe River is as the OP forgot to mention. Can I please ask if posting a photo at least state which country it was taken in

 

[TomSavage]

Hi Tom! So exciting to read about your incoming trip!
As for focal lenghts: I've never been to the Okavango, so I'm not quite sure about the FL to use there... there are surely some ppl here with experience on that area that can better point what's the choice for the Delta.

But for the Chobe River itself, I'd take the Z800 and a zoom covering somewhere up to 400mm. I don't need to have all mms covered, a gap of 400mm seems a lot but it isn't if the glass is good enough and you're working with 47mpx...

Last March, the combo I took was the Z800 and the 180-400 f/4 TC. It's proven to be the best combination for me, yet 800mm was too much sometimes, so I had to grab the 184, however, having the prime forced me to become a bit more "creative" to take the shots...and it wasn't too bad.

For this last trip I took the Z600TC only, and I've been happy with the choice of having 600/800mm (840 to be accurate), however, I missed the 184... (I damn myself since we had a leopard sigthning that chose the closest tree... and the 600 was excessive...)

For wide angles I took a Z50 with a DX Z18-140mm and... auch. Not doing that again, I'd much rather have a 24-120 f/4 instead. The performance (to me) was very compromised by this combo.

Haven't tried the 24-200 but on paper, that'd be a good choice I guess. However, perhaps a 70-200 could do better, yet, I believe that a 24-120 is just perfect to use for everything close enough that would not fit with 180mm'ish. Ellies can get very very close to the boat...

As for weight: depending on the long haul airline and the ticket, you might be able to bring 2 x 12kg backpacks in the cabin.

I didn't have any problems with the weight of the in-cabin luggage with Airlink (or SafariLink).

You stand your ground telling them that there are valuable equipment (glass) and they'll go for it. For bushflights, it's not a big deal to hand it over to the cargo compartment, you'll see more often than not the bag being loaded and unloaded from those small plains on site, sometimes you load it yourself!

I fear totally the big airlines and airports though. I wouldn't check in anything valuable on the travelling suitcase (only replaceable stuff).

Hope it helps with your choices!
Krgds, Marcelo

ps: Here's an example of what the Z50 could do combined with the 18-140... shot at 68mm (102mm on Fx)

DSC_1129©MC by Marcelo Cinicola, on Flickr

Thanks for the detailed response! It is a big help.