travel tips required

[Geodar]

I would stick with what you got, you'll be far enough away from major landscape shots to make the 18mm work. The 300mm should get you quite close (although a 500mm would be better but mega bucks).
If adding a lens I would think about a dedicated macro lens, for all those little bugs 'n' stuff.
How about a mini DSLR tripod. You could set it up on rocks, fences, ground etc. Weighs next to nothing.
I would invest in lots of extra cards, but no more than 1-2gb. I wouldn't bother with any hard drives, laptops etc. You are going to enjoy yourself & I wouldn't want the worry of having extra equipment, or even having to carry it around.
I shoot in RAW all the time, but would be tempted to go high jpeg, just so I could shoot away and have more shots per card.
Don't forget to take the battrey charger and a converter plug if needed.
Have fun, you will get some great shots.
Geoff.

[Geodar]

Just an extra thought,
I would carry the body and a lens, 70-300mm with me. Also all the cards, battreys & charger. Keep them in a coat pocket. They will be fine going through x-rays.
I would do this as the baggage handlers are not known for their gentle handling of luggage, and if your case gets lost you will still have the main equipment, plus you save on those few kilos in your case.
Oh! and don't forget to make sure you have insurance which will cover your stuff.
Geoff

[fletch]

The most esential piece of kit for a trip like this, where you will be without power for large parts of the day, will be spare batteries. DSLRs drain batteries at an alarming rate when you don't have a spare.

Lens, I'd stick with what you have, it covers a wide focal range. If I had money to burn I would extend the focal range rather than using a normal prime. Either a super wide for the landscapes or a 400 or 500 for the safari shots. I'd probably get a decent flash instead though.

As for RAW vs JPEG. If you are used to shooting RAW why would you not while on the trip of a lifetime. It sounds like you will have plenty of memory. I would also take the hard drive for backup and extra capacity if required. You don't want to be constrained in what you can shoot due to card availability. Make sure you shoot each card till they are full though, don't use one per day or anything like that. It will ensure that you fill each card and don't end up with gaps over lots of cards at the end. You can use the meta data to arrange by day taken but some days you will shoot more than others.

Don't forget to shoot normall holiday snaps as well as landscape and wildlife, its easy to forget the cheesy group shots and family infront of landmark shots but they are the ones you will really treasure and your friends/family will want to see when back home.

[saivor]

to africa?? mmm i have never been there but if you are going on safari a tripod seems a must for some awsome for dusk and dawn, and also filters the sky will pop out 1000 more along with trees and mountains or wathever.
and yes a BIG telephoto prime seems like the best way to go
but that is only my opinion
hope it does good

[sheldonc]

Thank you all very much for the advice it's been very helpful

In the end I'm taking a Monkey Pod - loads of memory cards (& I know I won't use them all but I will probably still buy some more at the airport). I will take a decent size pen drive on the off chance I get access to a PC. I have spare batteries and a polarizing filter and UV filter

I've rented a 10mm to 20mm Sigma lens so hopefully will have a bit of fun trying out some nice landscape shots.

My daughter will be taking her P90 which is a bridge camera with a 24x zoom so I even have a back up camera!

One other really useful tip I was given by my travel agent was to buy some spare lens covers so I will be trying to get that sorted too

[kimmichelleross]

Seriously. Take some over the counter stuff with you for upset stomach, headache, cold symptoms and allergies. This I know because I returned from Colorado yesterday, where I hoped to take have the photography trip of a lifetime. Instead, I ended up hospitalized for altitude sickness. I got zero pictures. Zero. Nothing. Not a thing. Not that the OTC stuff would have helped in my situation, but take it along anyway.

By the way, I packed my Canon EOS 40D, 50mm prime lens, 10-22mm lens, Tamron 18-270mm lens, polarizing filter, diopter for macro, 2 batteries and charger, as well as four 4 gig memory cards and a Benro travel tripod. Everything except the tripod fit nicely into a small camera bag which fit nicely under the seat in front of me. The tripod traveled in my suitcase, which was lost by the airline.

By the way, after I got out of the hospital and down to 5,000 ft, I got heat exhaustion.

[djotaku]

I know you said you already decided what you're going to do, but I would have gone with a longer lens rather than a wider lens. With what you have you'll be able to get some awesome landscapes, but not as awesome wildlife. I guess it depends on which is more important to you. And don't forget all the articles DPS has recently had on wide angle photography. It's important to have foreground objects or your shots just won't have as much impact.

[sheldonc]

Having returned I now know what I should have taken & what I shouldn't

Obviously extra battery, (you only really need 1 charger but travel with it in your hand baggage) loads of memory cards (I took 2,500 images), cleaning equipment & a cloth to wrap around your camera whilst you are out (amazing amount of dust). As previously suggested the wide angle lens was a bit of a waste of time although I'm glad I took it. I agree a 500mm would have been better although my experience with my images is that actually the real close ups aren't that popular because people like to see the animal in it's environment. I took a monkey pod which was also a bit of a waste of time - I think you need a mono or go without - but remember you will be unlikely to use it at sun rise or set as you will already be on the road. I own a Lowepro shoulder bag that can carry all my equipment & it's a must - I used to take out stuff I didn't need and then take the rest in the bag with me - the only time I just took the camera on it's own was when we did a walking safari

Anyway we had an amazing experience and got lots of great shots

Thanks again for all the advice