Many thanks. Hopefully not too long now for the next series.

Thank you. Coming soon!

Video vs still is difficult. I’ve always been a photographer but on our last trip I concentrated so much on video that I came home quite disappointed at how few photos I had taken. I think it’s a case of choosing which you value most (at the time) and sticking with that. Maybe get a cheap second-hand camera for video from Ebay and see if video is for you? If you are pleased with the results then splash out on a decent video camera for the next trip!

Thanks again. I'm looking forward to hearing how you get on in November as we've never been at that time of the year.

Thanks. New series starts tomorrow with a brief intro followed by 5 videos on Kgalagadi and then 10 on the Kruger. In 2022 we hired the Fortuner from Woodford at a cost of £1600 for 7 weeks. This year for 6 weeks they wanted £3500!! I couldn't find anyone doing a Fortuner for much less than that price so we ended up with a Toyota Corolla Cross from Tempest which cost just under £1000 for the 6 weeks. It was nowhere near as good as the Fortuner but it was quite adequate.

Many thanks. The M50 uses different focusing modes for 4K and 1080p with 1080p being the most accurate. I originally recorded everything in 4K but found that the camera would often suddenly start focus hunting on a static scene. The problem was most prevalent in scenes where the bush was all a similar colour, either all greens or browns, probably because 4K uses contrast detection and couldn’t find enough contrast in the scene. The problem didn’t seem to occur with the more accurate focusing of 1080p so I ended up shooting everything at that resolution. The camera is set up to use AI servo (tracking) which generally works very well but does occasionally cause problems in the Kruger when the wind moves grasses or trees in the scene. To overcome this I’ve set up a dedicated button on the rear of the camera to switch AI servo on and off so I can choose instantly which method suits a particular scene. Overall the autofocusing is quick and accurate especially in 1080p.

@@oldcodgerwithacamera Thank you for your gracious response. Look forward to future instalments

By far the biggest piece of advice is to leave camp every single morning as soon as the gates open, get back around midday (unless you want to stay out all day), go out again around 4pm and get back to camp a few minutes before the gates close. Early morning is your best chance to see wild dogs and leopards. At Satara you should have no problem seeing lions right outside the camp (north or south) and along the S100. I would recommend booking a sunset or night drive at Satara. Last year we saw 23 lions including 7 cubs on a night drive from Satara and we were the only ones on the drive! Not a lot of choice for routes at Orpen but there is a wild dog pack in the area and this year we saw leopards, lions and cheetahs within a couple of kilometres of the camp. The main H7 is where you might see wild dogs as well as around the junction of the S106 and S140. At Skukuza this year we saw two leopards right at the crossroads just outside camp and a pack of wild dogs on the road between the H4-1 and H1-1, both first thing in the morning. At Lower Sabie spend one or, even two, mornings driving straight down to Crocodile Bridge, ignoring anything ordinary on the way, and work your way back from there. There is a lion pride in that area (H4-2/S28) that likes to climb trees. We saw them this year on two consecutive days for more than an hour each time - there were 15 in the pride. Also wild dogs were reported around the S25 but we didn’t see them most probably because it takes an hour and half to get to Crocodile Bridge from Lower Sabie and, as I have said, you need to be early, early, early. Apart from that don’t be afraid to ask people what they have seen if they are stopped anywhere and be patient at sightings, lions tend to sleep during the day and will take some time to move. Wild dogs will sleep for hours at a time but when they do move they are manic! Don’t get despondent if the sightings don’t come early on, almost every wild dog sighting we have had has been in the final couple of days of a trip when we were almost giving up. Good luck!