Lens hire for road trip

OMB

OMB

Mountain Man
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I'm going on a road trip for a couple of weeks through Namibia and Botswana, with a decent chunk of time being spent in game reserves.

I have a Nikon D90 and D5300 and I'm thinking about renting a decent zoom in the 150-500/600mm region

Views on a particular lenses e.g. Nikon vs Sigma and decent rental shops in Jozi would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Outdoor Photo are good. The cheapest lens that will meet your requirements is the Tamron 150-600mm at R 400 per day. Since you are going for a couple of weeks this will work out at R 5600 for 14 days. You can buy a Sigma 150-500 mm for around R 10k. If you are ever going to do a trip like this again then it may be worth buying the lens.
 
Thanks for the feedback so far guys, much appreciated

I see I can get a Sigma 150-600mm for about R250 a day from these guys http://www.lensrental.co.za

Tamron I know, but not familiar with Sigma, thoughts?
 
Sjoe, lens rental can get expensive fast! Almost certainly better off trying to buy a secondhand copy if you wanting to rent for a few weeks, unless it's a really expensive lens.

Sigma? Like any brand, it depends on which lens. hey make great lenses and dodgy lenses. And then even sometimes on the copy of the lens. Read lots of reviews.
 
Last I checked it wasn't very economical...stupid rental prices. Might as well buy one.
 
OMB said:
Thanks for the feedback so far guys, much appreciated

I see I can get a Sigma 150-600mm for about R250 a day from these guys http://www.lensrental.co.za

Tamron I know, but not familiar with Sigma, thoughts?
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R3.5k to rent if it's for two weeks. You could always buy it second hand and sell it when you're back. As long as you don't sell it at a loss of more than R3.5k you're coming out ahead.
 
Randhir said:
R3.5k to rent if it's for two weeks. You could always buy it second hand and sell it when you're back. As long as you don't sell it at a loss of more than R3.5k you're coming out ahead.
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This still seems to be about the best option

New it's out of the question at R15k plus

Even second hand looks like around R9k from what I've seen so far, didn't get much time yesterday to explore online
 
There's a Sigma 150-500 for sale on ODP for R6000. http://www.outdoorphoto.community/c...-neutral-density-and-polarizer-filters-&cat=4

I started my long lens shooting with this lens and it's not awful. At f/5 it was too slow for what I wanted to do but with good light you can get some nice shots with it.

@BigAl has some experience with the Sigma 50-500 Bigma which is probably a little sharper plus you have that 50-150 range which is useful.

EDIT: Bigma - http://www.outdoorphoto.community/c...&title=sigma-50-500-zoom-lens-nikon-fit&cat=4
 
Last edited:
bwana said:
There's a Sigma 150-500 for sale on ODP for R6000. http://www.outdoorphoto.community/c...-neutral-density-and-polarizer-filters-&cat=4

I started my long lens shooting with this lens and it's not awful. At f/5 it was too slow for what I wanted to do but with good light you can get some nice shots with it.

@BigAl has some experience with the Sigma 50-500 Bigma which is probably a little sharper plus you have that 50-150 range which is useful.
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The disadvantage of the 50-500 is that it only starts at f/6.3 at the long end and you need at least f/7.1 for decent pics. Fortunately, the light is good in Namibia.

Make sure you also have a decent wide angle lens in your kit. On my recent trip to Namibia I seldom took the Sigma 10-20 off my camera, but then I didn't visit any game reserves.

I would go with what others have said: buy a lens and sell it on your return if you feel the need to. Whether you rent or buy, test the lens you want to take beforehand. Sigma and Tamron do suffer from QC issues. Also, you have no idea of how 2nd hand/rental lenses have been handled by previous users - you cannot fix duffed photos caused by misaligned components in the lens.
 
Eish, you guys must think I have a lot of spare cash lying around
 
OMB said:
55 - 200 and a 70 - 300 and a stock 15 - 55

Why? You thinking a converter?
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If you had something like a 70-200 I'd have definitely said converter(s).

You don't think the 70-300 will be long enough? On a crop body thats 450mm on the long end, right?
 
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