MY GEAR

Grant shoots mostly with Canon cameras and lenses, which he has found are exceptionally reliable in a wide range of wildlife locations.  Although Grant uses a wide variety of Canon gear, he does most of his shooting with his Canon R1, Canon R3 and Canon R5 Mark II.  Grant also used a Canon R6 body heavily since getting it in 2022 until its failure early in 2025.  Up until early 2025, Grant did own and use a Sony A1 camera with a Sony lens along with his Canon gear.  There are clear advantages to having identical camera bodies, like knowing the layout very well when switching between camera setups in the field with a two body setup.  At the same time, the three full-frame Canon bodies that Grant uses all do each have some capability or characteristic that can make one of them better suited to one wildlife task than the other bodies.  The difference could be sensor resolution or compact form and weight or unique controls.    Working with more than one Canon body does help Grant stay familiar with different levels of Canon equipment.
When it comes to lenses and focal length, he finds that in most of the places that he visits focal lengths of around 300mm to 600mm are ideal.
This is especially true in the private concession areas in Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa where he travels and photographs most often and where off-road driving is permitted. This means that it is often possible to make very close approaches to some of the wildlife which is of great benefit for wildlife photography.
For parks and reserves where no off-road driving is allowed, focal lengths from about 400mm and upward to 600mm come in useful.
Patience is of course another important piece of photographic equipment, and an under-rated one at that!

GRANTS GEAR

He usually travels with two, sometimes three, camera bodies, as this limits how many times he needs to change lenses in the field.  The three Canon bodies that he uses the most are the Canon R3, Canon R5 Mark II and Canon R6.  He also uses a Sony A1 camera body.  All of these cameras have excellent autofocus, excellent electronic shutter performance (except for the Canon R6) and all have fast frame rates and deep buffers, to make it easier to take on action photography.

All four of the full-frame bodies , the Canon R3, R5 Mark II, R6 and Sony A1 perform very well in low light when shooting at high iso values, for example up to iso 10 000.  The camera bodies differ in that the Canon R3 and Canon R6 are medium resolution at 20-24 megapixels, whereas the Canon R5 Mark II and Sony A1 are 45 nd 50 megapixels respectively. For lenses, Grant owns the following Canon lenses; EF 500 f4L IS ii, RF 16-35 f4L IS, RF 24-105 f4L IS, RF 70-200 f2.8 L IS, RF 100-500 f4.5-7.1 L IS along with a Sony FE 200-600 f5.6-6.3 G OSS.

The lenses with maximum apertures of f2.8 and f4.0, allow for shooting in low light.  The lenses with maximum apertures of f5.6, f6.3 and f7.1 work best when shooting in somewhat brighter ambient light.

Most of Grant’s images are taken using the following bodys:

  • Canon R6
  • Canon R3
  • Canon R5 Mark II
  • Sony A1

Most of Grant’s images are taken using the following lenses:

  • Canon EF 500L f4 IS ii
  • Canon RF 100-500L f4.5-f7.1 IS
  • Canon RF 70-200L f2.8 IS
  • Canon RF 24-105L f2.8 IS
  • Canon RF 14-35L f4 IS
  • Sony FE 200-600G f5.6-f6.3 OSS

OTHER GEAR

Grant also owns the following additional lenses, which he uses depending on the main shooting requirements at any given time:

  • Canon RF 16 mm f2.8
  • For data capture he uses only Sandisk CF Express Type B cards which have proved to be most reliable.  He also uses Lexar CF Type A cards.  He processes his images using Adobe’s Camera Raw, Photoshop Creative Cloud, and Lightroom.
  • He hase two Slik tripods: one a lightweight carbon fibre Slik fitted with a Slik SBH 550 ball-head, the other an alloy Slik Pro 580DXm fitted with a Gimpro precision alloy gimbal head.
  • The lightweight tripod is especially useful when photographing landscapes, nightscapes or camps and room interiors, and for travelling.
  • The Pro 580DXm with gimbal head is ideal for shooting wildlife with long telephoto lenses, particularly from photographic hides.
  • He use quick-release brackets and lens mount plates made by Really Right Stuff.
  • For traveling, He uses a variety of camera bags, including LowePro Pro Runner AW bags.