We’re often asked about wide angle lenses by guests when they’re booking a safari trip with us. Here’s what we’d generally recommend.

Most experienced African wildlife photographers will insist that a wide angle lens is a vital piece of kit for a safari, and broadly speaking we’d agree – but with the proviso that it probably doesn’t need to be super wide. A short zoom, like our favourite Canon EF 24-105mm, is certainly a must. But wider than that? Well, it depends on the trip and your own photographic interests.

A wide angle lens is generally considered to be anything wider than 50mm, though some wildlife photographers think of anything shorter than 70mm as wide. For us, wider than 35mm is when the perspective effects start to get interesting. We’re talking here in terms of full-frame equivalent focal lengths – you’ll need to recalculate if you’re using cameras with crop factors.

Of course, in an ideal world we’d all travel with a full range of lenses, from fish-eye to 800mm. But the realities of international air travel and restrictive hand baggage allowances mean you need to be selective about what you carry. We always travel with a 24-105mm and a 17-40mm. But there’s two of us and we can share less-used equipment. In truth it’s only rarely we use the wide end of the 17-40mm. So if you’re tight on baggage we’d suggest thinking carefully whether you really need an ultra-wide lens.

Here are some of the situations where you’ll be kicking yourself if you can’t go wide. Our advice: look at where, when and why you are going on safari, and whether any or all of these situations are likely to occur.

Ground squirrel, Kgalagadi transfrontier park, South Africa
Canon EOS-5D MkII with EF 17-40mm lens at 20mm, 1/320 sec, f/16, ISO 320
Ann says: Rest camps and lodges often have resident wildlife that can be very tame, offering a rare opportunity to capture wide angle, low viewpoint shots of small creatures. If you are shooting in the middle of the day, between game drives, the light is generally harsh and unflattering, so finding a dynamic composition to compensate is important.

Our top tips for when to reach for a wide angle lens

• Close-up big game. Frame-filling wide angle shots of large mammals are undoubtedly dramatic, adding a huge ‘wow’ factor to your portfolio. And in certain reserves where animals such as elephants may approach close, the occasional trunk to lens encounter,can provide a magical image as well as a great memory . But how wide do you really need to go? Although we use our 17-40 mm quite often, it turns out when reviewing the images that it’s rarely at the wider end, even for elephants. Our 24-105mm is generally plenty wide enough. Bear in mind as well that on a game viewing vehicle you sit quite high, so even if a leopard or lion chooses to walk up and rub it’s neck on your bumper, you’re going to be looking down on it. It’s only really with elephants that you’ll have an intimate eye-to-eye viewpoint (giraffes are largely too nervous to come that close). It goes without saying that you or your guide should never press an animal in order to get a wide angle shot – coming closer has to be solely on their terms.
• Close-up big game from hides (blinds). Low level hides offer a much better alternative to game viewing vehicles when it comes to shooting wide angle close-ups, and if your safari includes sessions in ground-level hides, then a wide angle lens is a must. Hides offer the opportunity to shoot from a dynamic low angle, and capture natural shots of animals undisturbed by your presence. Again, though, it’s rare you’ll need to go ultra wide. Many hides designed for daytime viewing have a shade overhanging the window, to reduce flare and make occupants less visible to animals. These shades limit your vertical field of view, so a very wide angle lens will be partially obstructed. Zimanga’s nocturnal hides don’t have such shades, so it’s possible to use a very wide angle lens at night (and in daylight, although then the absence of a shade can make flare an issue at certain times). That said, it’s only with giraffe and elephant that we’ve really needed the 17-40mm. For the majority of large subjects, even at 3 to 4 metres range, the 24-105mm works fine, and most of our images are taken at 35mm or longer.

Elephant, Zimanga, South Africa
Canon EOS-5D MkIV with EF 17-40mm lens at 22mm, 1/40 sec, f/5.6, ISO 3200
Steve says: This was one of the rare occasions when we really appreciated the wide end of a wide zoom. You may only get one or two such chances on a safari (more often none!), but these can be the stand-out images from your trip.

• Animals in the landscape. If all your safari shots are taken on mid to long telephotos, and you constantly fill the frame with your subjects, your portfolio can turn out one-paced and repetitive. We discussed animalscapes in a recent tutorial: suffice it to say that a reasonably wide angle lens opens up a lot of possibilities for capturing habitat and context. How wide? Again, something like the 24-100mm zoom is generally more than sufficient, especially in Africa’s dry season, when skies can be uniformly clear and blue and lacking in interest. If you’re planning a visit in the wet season, when skies can be filled with dramatic storm clouds in the afternoon, a wider lens might be justified.
• Or just the landscape. Africa has some outstanding scenery, and if your itinerary includes add-ons to places like Victoria Falls, for example, you’re definitely going to want to pack a wide angle. However, not all game-rich reserves with grassland and/or thornveld bush are scenically exciting. If you’re going to be largely vehicle-bound and visiting during the dry season with cloudless skies, the options for great scenics can be limited. Our advice is to research your destination’s scenic and wide angle potential before you travel.

• Astrophotography. African skies can be awesome, but if you want to do justice to the Milky Way you need a wide angle – or the ability to stitch together multiple shots. We’ve found our 17-40mm barely wide enough, so if you are a keen astrophotographer and want to experiment with star trails, etc, go for something even wider. Make sure a tripod will be available, if you can’t bring your own.
• Video. if you plan to shoot video and your camera has 4K capability, then there’s something to be said for shooting in 4K with a wide framing, even if your ultimate output is to be 1080p. Shooting wide in higher resolution gives you the option to cut to close ups, so you can effectively get multiple differently framed shots out of the same footage. You can apply ‘Ken Burns’ pan-and-zoom effects without losing image quality, and the same goes for software stabilisation if needed. Having said that, for our purposes a smartphone produces excellent quality wide angle footage!
• Selfies. A wide angle is handy iof you want to capture self-portraits of yourself and your group, for example during game drives. It’s easiest to frame wide then crop in post, especially on bumpy drives. Again though, a decent smartphone is a convenient alternative.
• Camera traps. If you’re going to have the opportunity to set up a camera trap on your safari (not something that’s possible on most trips), a wide angle lens can come into its own, for dynamic ultra-close-ups of curious animals. Use a cheapish lens and camera, though, as wildlife can often be curious to the point of destruction.

• A few final tips: ideally you don’t want to be changing lenses too often in the field, or you’ll suffer dust spots on the sensor. If you can manage a dedicated camera body for your wide angle lens, so much the better.
• Make sure you use a lens hood with wide angles, as they are prone to flare. The exception is when shooting from a hide, as the hide itself acts like an enormous hood. In a night hide a hood is redundant and can lead to you knocking the glass and disturbing your subject, so definitely remove it.
• Wide angle shots need careful processing. We tend to avoid placing important elements of the image close to the edges of the frame, to avoid excessive distortion, and then use lens profile correction in Lightroom to adjust the overall perspective and remove vignetting. If you like the uncorrected perspective effect, that’s fine – it’s a personal preference. But do remember to remove chromatic aberration, which can be significant in wide angle images, especially near the corners.

Giraffe, Zimanga, South Africa

Steve says: We always take a 17-40mm into Zimanga’s night hides, for these rare opportunities, and we always keep it attached to a dedicated camera body. You don’t want to be fumbling around changing lenses in the dark, when there’s a fleeting moment to capture.

Canon EOS-1Dx MkII with 17-24mm lens at 23mm, 1/80 second, f/4, ISO 2000