topic Re: Lenses for upcoming travel in Gear Guide

Lens recos for upcoming Alaskan cruise and African safari

lrp0805 — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 17:41:00 GMT

I am brand new to photography and recently purchased my first camera for an upcoming Alaskan cruise and African safari. I purchased the Canon EOS R50 Mirrorless Camera with RF-S18-45mm F4.5-6.3 & RF-S55-210mm F5-7.1 lenses. It’s all so new to me, I don’t understand much of what it means. Will I be ok with these lenses or should I get a different one? Thanks in advance!

#wildlife #alaska #africa #cruise #safari

Re: Lenses for upcoming travel

FloridaDrafter — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 23:24:04 GMT

Hello, irp, and welcome to the forum!

IMO, those lenses are a very good start and depending on what/where you will be exploring, might be enough. However, it would be nice to have a little more reach than 210mm. Maybe Canons 100-400 or, if your pocketbook can spare it, the RF 200-800mm or RF 100-500mm L. Both of the latter are expensive and pretty heavy, so they may make for an unbalanced feeling on the R50.

Newton

Re: Lenses for upcoming travel

March411 — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:03:40 GMT

I would agree with FloridaDrafter, the two lenses you mention will serve you well. If the budget allows the RF100-400mm is a very nice lens at a great price point. On your APS-C camera the equivalent focal range would be 160–640mm which would give you nice range with these three lenses.

They don't have one in stock in the refurbished area right now but you can find a Refurbished RF100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM for about $600. Follow the link and click the Notify Me link fount on the page if you are interested. The refurbished gear comes with a limited 1 year warranty. A new RF100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM can be purchased for $699.99.

We have planned a trip to Alaska and I will have my RF200-800mm with me. If you can swing it the RF200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM goes for $2100 but as mentioned, it's a big lens on a small body and the equivalent range is 320–1280mm.

Re: Lenses for upcoming travel

lrp0805 — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:11:22 GMT

Thank you!

Re: Lens recos for upcoming Alaskan cruise and African safari

basaltjohn — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 18:52:58 GMT

For a typical Alaskan cruise or any cruise, the lens you have should work well. You could take a longer lens, depends on what you expect to photograph.

An African safari is a different story. I've done two African safaris with the 100-500 on a full frame camera and it worked well. My grandson used a 100-400mm on a full frame in June of this year and it also worked well. But we were able to off road with our safari vehicles and get much closer to the animals then places where you are restricted to the roads.

You will be shooting a 24mp APS-C camera with a 1.6 crop factor. So, a 100-400mm will be equivalent to a 160-640mm. That's a really good range and typical of what most people take on safari. I don't thing you need to go longer, unless you really want to shoot small birds. If so, consider the 100-500; will be equivalent to 160-800mm on a crop sensor. Something to remember is heat haze, especially if you're going during the warmer months. It can be difficult to get sharp images of an animal that is 75 to 100 yards away due to the heat radiating off the ground. Subsequently, an equivalent focal length for a cropped sensor greater then 600 to 800mm isn't of much value. I think a 100-400mm will serve you well.