What is My Favorite Lens for Photographing in Madagascar?

When it comes to extraordinary photography–in the very literal sense of way beyond the ordinary–Madagascar is hard to beat.  It’s got big landscapes, fascinating wildlife, and a travel and cultural photography vibe that is enthralling.

I’m going to frame this article as if I could only bring one lens to Madagascar, because there is going to be some compromise and the best for wildlife may not always be the best for landscapes.  However, I do believe there is one lens that can do just about everything and in utterly remarkable ways such that I’d never lead a Madagascar Photo Adventure without it.

The 70-200mm f/2.8 Class of Lens

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room here—this isn’t your conventional wildlife lens with traditionally massive telephoto power.  However, I find it to be spectacular for wildlife photography in Madagascar for a few reasons.

First, lots of Madagascar’s wildlife can be seen at a rather close proximity.  Most animals in Madagascar have little fear of humans, especially the lemurs, and this means that it’s not atypical to get within 20 or 30 feet of some of the best of Madagascar’s wildlife.  This goes for lemurs, but also for chameleons, geckos, frogs, and even some birds and butterflies.

As a result, while you may always want more telephoto power (it’s a common adage in the wildlife photography world, even if you have a 600mm, you always want just a little more…) 200mm is a pretty good place to be, especially if you have a crop sensor camera or a full frame that’s capable of shooting at crop levels. For those new to this terminology, a crop sensor or crop factor gives you something like a 1.4x or 1.6x magnification on the telephoto, such that a 200mm could become effectively a 280mm.

What’s more important about this lens is not what it doesn’t have, but rather the exemplary features it does boast.  Primarily these are the wonderful low-light capabilities and shallow depth of field that an f/2.8 gives you.  In the oftentimes dense and dim rain forests and cloud forests of Madagascar, this is a huge advantage. Or, a shallow depth of field can be great for just being creative with composition and framing in your wildlife photography.

In addition, the 70-200mm f/2.8 class of lenses is always going to be remarkably sharp and high quality, while also being notably smaller and lighter than a 300mm f/2.8 and certainly anything in the 400mm or greater range.  Considering that most wildlife viewing activities in Madagascar involve some sort of hiking, bringing a 70-200mm f/2.8 along is a no-brainer given the compact size of today’s mirrorless 70-200mm lenses.

They’re Great for Landscapes

If you’ve read many of my other articles, you probably know I’m a big fan of using telephoto lenses for landscapes.  I think it helps provide a unique perspective, but also simplifies big, complex scenes into something more manageable and ultimately aesthetic.

Therefore, a 70-200mm f/2.8, with it’s incredibly sharpness, is a go-to landscape lens for me as well.

A Superb Travel and Cultural Lens

When I’m photographing people and travel scenes, I’m looking for two things—some telephoto reach so that I don’t have to be in peoples faces and a shallow depth of field so that I can create portrait-like shots and be artsy with things like street scenes, buildings, food, etc.

Thus, a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens is about perfect because I can be flexible with the zoom, have the 200mm reach if needed to fill the frame or photograph from a ways away while having f/2.8 to give me that wonderfully shallow depth of field and low light capability I crave with cultural and travel photography.

What it Lacks

The last thing I want people to take away from this article is that you only need one lens for Madagascar.

Sure, you could get away with just the 70-200mm and get 70% or more of the shots you want.  However, there are absolutely times that you’ll want to slap on a 400mm for wildlife or a 24mm for landscapes.  Heck, macro lenses are also wildly fun and useful in Madagascar, too!  If you’d like to read my full article on What’s in My Camera Bag for Madagascar, I do recommend it, so that you understand the context of my favorite lens for Madagascar.

As you can see, my goal in choosing the best or my favorite lens is one that serves the most and greatest purposes throughout a Madagascar photo adventure.  It not only has the chance of giving you the most and greatest variety of photos, but given it’s superior quality, shallow depth of field, great portability, and respectable telephoto range, it has a very real chance of giving you your best photos of the trip.

If you’re headed to Madagascar on a photo adventure, and I hope you are, I wish you an extraordinary adventure in every way!

Best,

Court