How much better will your photographs be going on an Andy Biggs safari vs going on an OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel) safari?
Biggs: 9 days $17,000 not including air fare to get to Africa
OAT: 19 days $4700 includes air fare to Africa
Are your photos going to be $13,000 better with Andy Biggs? Hey, if you've got money to burn, ignore this info.
I am not criticizing RRS hardware, but no need to bankrupt yourself to get good photos of African animals. Go with OAT. (I have no association with them.
@Joe Johnson. Yes, it was tiring dealing with that huge lens off-hand. I used a high shutter speed. boosted the ISO and the lens was VR. But the price of OAT's safari was so much less than that of a dedicated photography safari, that I could never have gone to Africa, were it not for OAT. They stayed at the same lodges as the expensive safaris and we saw the same animals. I got a few shots that made me very happy; one was of a leopard only fifteen feet from the jeep.
I was on safari in the Okavango Delta. I used a hand-held Nikon D300 with a Sigma 150-500 lens and was able to shoot fast and get good shots. In my opinion, this gear has no relationship to the reality of shooting from a jeep which has other passengers. You need to be able to *quickly* change the height and positioning of yourself and the camera. By the time you get this gear properly oriented, the animal is either gone or has moved.
@berchman , Hi, Joe Johnson again. Andy Biggs leads safaris with only 1 photographer to a bench (or 1 fotog + 1 non-photographer companion). If one were shooting from a jeep w/3 people/bench, then you many not have any choice but to shoot without decent support. All in our group had some type of support fixed to the vehicle. Sometimes circumstances required off-hand shooting, but to shoot all day off hand with a 500mm f/4.0 lens would be extremely tiring, & yield a low % of usable images.
so the series 2 leveling base will be just a levelling base then? I had heard from someone while I was at the RRS office that it was probably going to be a leveling extension column. Or will there be both ?
Nice, very nice. But I wonder if it's a bit of over kill considering the vehicle itself is so unstable, sitting on shocks, springs and rubber tires inflated to about 40 psi.
@jacarape, Hi. I'm Joe Johnson, the one in the video. Actually, we built the safari rig in response to Andy Bigg's observations that there wasn't anything available that was sturdy enough and versatile enough to give adequate support. When the Landrover is parked and the other photographers in the vehicle settle down, it is indeed plenty stable and a LOT better than shooting off-hand.
NIKON baby!
user7ist 1 month ago
How much better will your photographs be going on an Andy Biggs safari vs going on an OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel) safari?
Biggs: 9 days $17,000 not including air fare to get to Africa
OAT: 19 days $4700 includes air fare to Africa
Are your photos going to be $13,000 better with Andy Biggs? Hey, if you've got money to burn, ignore this info.
I am not criticizing RRS hardware, but no need to bankrupt yourself to get good photos of African animals. Go with OAT. (I have no association with them.
berchman 1 year ago
@Joe Johnson. Yes, it was tiring dealing with that huge lens off-hand. I used a high shutter speed. boosted the ISO and the lens was VR. But the price of OAT's safari was so much less than that of a dedicated photography safari, that I could never have gone to Africa, were it not for OAT. They stayed at the same lodges as the expensive safaris and we saw the same animals. I got a few shots that made me very happy; one was of a leopard only fifteen feet from the jeep.
berchman 1 year ago
Nice. Now if I can just find a couple other uses to justify me buying it! Stay tuned, this shouldn't take long...
AV84USA 1 year ago
I was on safari in the Okavango Delta. I used a hand-held Nikon D300 with a Sigma 150-500 lens and was able to shoot fast and get good shots. In my opinion, this gear has no relationship to the reality of shooting from a jeep which has other passengers. You need to be able to *quickly* change the height and positioning of yourself and the camera. By the time you get this gear properly oriented, the animal is either gone or has moved.
berchman 1 year ago
@berchman , Hi, Joe Johnson again. Andy Biggs leads safaris with only 1 photographer to a bench (or 1 fotog + 1 non-photographer companion). If one were shooting from a jeep w/3 people/bench, then you many not have any choice but to shoot without decent support. All in our group had some type of support fixed to the vehicle. Sometimes circumstances required off-hand shooting, but to shoot all day off hand with a 500mm f/4.0 lens would be extremely tiring, & yield a low % of usable images.
RRSCameraSupport 1 year ago
so the series 2 leveling base will be just a levelling base then? I had heard from someone while I was at the RRS office that it was probably going to be a leveling extension column. Or will there be both ?
DanCarrPhotography 1 year ago
@DanCarrPhotography, Dan, the Series 2 Leveling base will fit directly into the apex, or on top of the quick column/monopod-- either way. Joe
RRSCameraSupport 1 year ago
@RRSCameraSupport Great! Thanks Joe. Really looking forward to that. Checked out the series 2 when I stopped by the office and am very impressed!
DanCarrPhotography 1 year ago
Nice, very nice. But I wonder if it's a bit of over kill considering the vehicle itself is so unstable, sitting on shocks, springs and rubber tires inflated to about 40 psi.
But as all things RRS, solid.
jacarape 1 year ago
@jacarape, Hi. I'm Joe Johnson, the one in the video. Actually, we built the safari rig in response to Andy Bigg's observations that there wasn't anything available that was sturdy enough and versatile enough to give adequate support. When the Landrover is parked and the other photographers in the vehicle settle down, it is indeed plenty stable and a LOT better than shooting off-hand.
RRSCameraSupport 1 year ago
wow, looks really interesting and fantastic gear. Do you have any photos taken with these gear?
JD95 1 year ago