What equipment to bring on a jungle trek
Sometime ago I had the opportunity to take a once in a lifetime trek to Manu National Park in Peru. At the time, I only had a P&S Sony Cybershot 717. However, now that I know more about photography, I thought I would share with you what I would take if money were no object and if I decided to return to Manu - which I certainly hope to do someday.
First, I will divide the trip into the different types of photos you may take - landscape, wildlife, and macro.
Landscape photography
The landscape is absolutely beautiful there - and most of my favorite photos taken there were landscape shots. However, this is mainly because I lacked a good telephoto. If I had had an SLR with a telephoto lens, things would have been the other way around.
The best lens to take for landscapes would be the 16-35mm 2.8L II. In this case, the 16-35 is a much better choice than the 17-40 4L because the 2.8 aperture really makes a difference - especially when you are in the jungle - which is very dark.
However, you will not have a tremendous amount of time for landscape photos because you’ll find yourself on the move quite often. Unless you go on a photography specific tour, you’ll find the need to shoot handheld most of the time because you won’t have the time to set up a tripod.
Wildlife photography
There are actually three different ways to see wildlife on a trip like this.
A lot of the time will be spent in a canoe similar to the one above. This is actually the best way to take pictures and most of your keepers will likely be from the canoe. Most of the time, it moves quite quickly - but the engines stop whenever they spot something interesting.
For a canoe, if I had one lens and one body I would take the biggest telephoto I had. Ideally I would take the Canon 600mm 4L. Most of the interesting critters will either be on the shore or high in trees - which often is a good distance from the boat. Therefore, you’ll need a very long lens. Even with the 600mm I would be tempted to use a 1.4x extender.
The main drawback with such a large lens is weight. On the trip I went on, we were severely limited in the weight we could carry due to the small plane we took back. You will need to make sure to work this out with the company before going.
Even more ideal, I would bring a second body with the Canon 100-400L lens. In order to accomplish this though you will need a second helper. You will not have time to pull a camera out of the bag and you need to secure the lens well when the canoe is moving - which is often very windy and wet.
The next best way to see wildlife is from blinds. During the trip, we went to two different blinds. At the first blind we saw hundreds of macaw parrots and at the second we saw a tapir late at night.
The poor quality of this shot is due to the night vision feature of the F717 - probably the only time I used that feature for a real purpose. However, Tapirs don’t mind flashes so if you plan to view tapirs a flash would be a good thing to bring. Otherwise, I would not bother for a flash unless you want to take pictures of your traveling party.
For a blind, the same equipment as mentioned above would be important. In this case though you’ll have time to set up your tripod and get a lot of shots. In the tapir case, we were quite close to it so even a 70-200 would have worked just fine. However, for the macaws I definitely would have wanted a 600mm - expect when taking pictures of a number of macaws at the same time which would require the 100-400.
For walking around in the forest, you’ll probably be disappointed. The majority of wildlife will not stick around for awhile once they notice you - which in the majority of cases is before you notice them. Monkeys are probably the only exception. You’ll need to shoot them handheld - so I would use a 100-400 for this purpose. You will not have time to setup a 600mm - so leave that back in the camp where it will be perfectly safe.
Macro photography
This is the place for macro, but unless you go on a photography specific trip you’ll notice that you won’t have much time to take shots. On my trip the guide was constantly on the move.
You will have time when at rest around the camp. For this purpose the best lens is the MP-E 65. However, for some things such as army ants I probably would bring the 180L because I want to keep some measure of space between us.
It’s not a bad idea to bring a 180L when walking in the forest. Most of the shots in the interior will be macro shots because other animals won’t stick around very long. This will also allow you to get some monkey shots if you happen to see them. Make sure to bring a macro flash like the MT-24EX because you will not have time to setup a tripod.
Recommended companies
The two main companies I am familiar with are Manu Expeditions - which is the company I used - and Inkanatura. If I were to go again I would use Inkanatura. I felt the group in Manu Expeditions (10 people) was a bit too large and Inkanatura uses smaller groups - though charges more. When I was there I also ran across two individuals who arranged for an individual guide - which in my opinion is the best way to do a trip like this.
Related posts:
- A Trip to the Manu Biosphere Part III I find it somewhat amusing that I meant to write a single post on my trip to Manu, but I am currently on my third one and I’m not sure if I’ll finish up in this post. From yesterday’s post, we were just departing from the Cock-of-the-Rock lodge and descending...
- Confessions of an equipment junkie I admit it. I am an equipment junkie. I want all of the best photo equipment and lenses no matter how much they cost and I love showing my equipment off. In particular I love hearing now that’s a camera, as people walk by. You know that you are the...
- Equipment that I hope to buy In my previous post, I covered the equipment that I currently use. The following is a list of what I am still planning to get. Canon TS-E 17 - This is simply too tempting, especially for my real estate work. I am currently saving for this lens, which is good...
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- A Trip to the Manu Biosphere Part IV I think it has become quite obvious how much I enjoyed my trip to Manu based on the length of this series of posts. Today, I will try to wrap up this series. I will start today with the biggest mystery of the trip – some form of creature that...
Tags: advice, equipment, expedition, jungle, lens, photography, rainforest
Great photos.
Thank you very much to recommend our company, InkaNatura Travel in Peru.