I had read that the safari had a close time of 6:30 (started back in November)
Is that still the case now that the sun sets later? The park is open until 9pm this month and I was hoping to see the safari at dusk (say 7:30 or so.)
I had read that the safari had a close time of 6:30 (started back in November)
Is that still the case now that the sun sets later? The park is open until 9pm this month and I was hoping to see the safari at dusk (say 7:30 or so.)
FYI, you can toggle the date on this page to see currently scheduled attraction hours: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/attractions/animal-kingdom/kilimanjaro-safaris/
Yesterday (May 4) the last Safari left at 8:45. There was a large sign to that effect posted outside the standby entrance.
So are most of the animals still out that late or have most of them been called back to their holding pens for the night?
That actually will depend on your camera, if you have really good low light abilities, then you should be able to get some shots, especially when the vehicle is stationary. Even the Google Pixel 3 phones will be able to get some pretty nice shots thanks to their night shot option.Yes most of them are still out. The lions are nocturnal thus will be more active at night. Giraffes also remain active at night. Of course the flip side is it will be too dark to take photos.
Eh, the GP3 won't do wildlife shots, their night shot option is street type only and needs different lighting than you'll get in AK. Plus it doesn't have a telephoto lens and I don't want to shove my phone within a few feet of a critter to get that sort of shot.That actually will depend on your camera, if you have really good low light abilities, then you should be able to get some shots, especially when the vehicle is stationary. Even the Google Pixel 3 phones will be able to get some pretty nice shots thanks to their night shot option.
Actually, the GP3 can indeed take such shots. The zebra is admittedly far away, but it is doable.Eh, the GP3 won't do wildlife shots, their night shot option is street type only and needs different lighting than you'll get in AK. Plus it doesn't have a telephoto lens and I don't want to shove my phone within a few feet of a critter to get that sort of shot.
But yes, you can take photos of animals in almost pitch black with the right equipment, which isn't even that expensive, even from a moving vehicle. Nikon's VR and some of Canon's IS systems have a mode to remove vehicle motion (either automatically engaged or via a switch on the lens). The light pollution at WDW is so bad that with even a slow lens and good sensor, your biggest trouble will be getting enough light to focus by. Even during midday though, it's easy to end up pushing your ISO to 6400 or higher if you're looking into deep shade and need shutter speed to stop motion.
Here's one I took in the African bush at night with two zebras, even with some limited artificial lighting we had this is far darker than AK ever can get, and you can see the moon in it to give an idea of light level - even with my naked eye I could barely see the second zebra behind the first. The AF was able to lock on because of the zebra's stripes.
View attachment 399224
And here's one of a crab taken in full daylight, but with the animal in deep shade and also heavily cropped because I ran out of lens (I was a 420mm on a DX camera). Both are ISO6400 and f/5.6, the first is 1/125 and the second at 1/200.View attachment 399227
And of course if you're willing to go black and white only (otherwise the photos are unusable due to color noise), you can push exposure even further, to ISO 51,200 or higher, and a faster lens would net me even more light, so I have 6-8 stops more to go in the dark if I really wanted to, and only need about 1% of that amount of light before I had to start dropping my shutter speed.
The photos I posted aren't professional quality either, they're web/computer/photo frame, and printing up to maybe 8x10 or so. My point was more that you can shoot far deeper into the night than AK ever gets with a decent camera, and that you can also encounter the same issues during the daytime in deep shade.Actually, the GP3 can indeed take such shots. The zebra is admittedly far away, but it is doable.
Since the animals are usually closer on the Safari you would be able to get better shots.
It isn't going to be perfect, but still decent. Remember most people are taking photos for their memories, not to print out at insanely large sizes or anything. These aren't going to be professional photos, but still viewable on a phone, computer, digital photo frame, tablet, etc. that most people will view them on.
thanks. We haven't done the safari close to dark, but sounds like we should.Yes most of them are still out. The lions are nocturnal thus will be more active at night. Giraffes also remain active at night. Of course the flip side is it will be too dark to take photos.
It does a multiple exposure stack which kind of works until a subject moves, then it drops back to boosted ISO range single shot. It's used to get around the sensor prioritizing readout speed over ISO noise and only having a max native ISO of around 800. But shooting to .dng files, better results can be obtained with a single shot in post than it can even with their AI routines. This gets into computational photography and such which is a whole other discussion.Actually the night sight does add quite a bit technically new, there is a big difference between turning flash off and using night shot mode and that is with some very fancy camera. It uses quite a few tricks to get better shots. It uses a lot of trickery to accomplish this, but it works very well.
I've done it, with f/2.8 zooms, but I don't use the strap around my neck, that becomes a pain quickly, not the least of which because most straps are then in the way of shooting! I either use a cross body strap that connects to my tripod plate if I'm going to be lugging the camera all day, or if it's going to be in and out of a bag I sling the strap onto my shoulder when I want the camera available.I honestly wouldn't lug around a DSLR at theme parks, I tried that once and it was a pain in the neck, literally.
Here's one I took in the African bush at night with two zebras, even with some limited artificial lighting we had this is far darker than AK ever can get, and you can see the moon in it to give an idea of light level - even with my naked eye I could barely see the second zebra behind the first. The AF was able to lock on because of the zebra's stripes.
View attachment 399224
And of course if you're willing to go black and white only (otherwise the photos are unusable due to color noise), you can push exposure even further, to ISO 51,200 or higher, and a faster lens would net me even more light, so I have 6-8 stops more to go in the dark if I really wanted to, and only need about 1% of that amount of light before I had to start dropping my shutter speed.
But my overall point is you can get some shots from the safari at night that will be decent.
Haha! I kept it because it tells part of the story of that game drive and how dark it got, the rest were much better. I also had quite a bit of hot sensor going on right then, which was pretty unusual since it's a Nikon, so I was capped at ISO 6400 for anything even that small - at a pixel level, there's just garbage hot pixels everywhere. I could push it a couple of stops, but it gets bad quickly. But, well, it's Africa, and I've since upgraded (not only for that reason).I mean, yeah you can see it’s a zebra but it’s certainly not a great photo- that one wouldn’t even make it to the photo album , let alone the wall!
Haha! I kept it because it tells part of the story of that game drive and how dark it got, the rest were much better. I also had quite a bit of hot sensor going on right then, which was pretty unusual since it's a Nikon, so I was capped at ISO 6400 for anything even that small - at a pixel level, there's just garbage hot pixels everywhere. I could push it a couple of stops, but it gets bad quickly. But, well, it's Africa, and I've since upgraded (not only for that reason).
Here's a better one from the same album - edited for projection or screens, I have a different edit for print.
View attachment 399242
And I get to go back! My in-laws live there, so we have a second trip coming up. One thing about most of Africa is that it's mostly about vacation time and flight prices - everything else is super cheap down there, even in South Africa since the Rand has pretty much crashed. A two week 4/5 star vacation cost less than coach airline tickets to get there.You have to work with what you’ve got, and I guess when in Africa you’ve got to grab whatever you can. Still I wouldn’t waste my time trying to get photos on the AK sunset safari!
Africa must have been awesome!! I’m sure you’ve got tons of great photos to remember it! You are so lucky to have that experience!