questions for those of you who have shot in Africa

grinner

grinner

Guest
I will be shooting between Mozambique and Meputo for a couple of weeks. I wondering about electricty. Are there places to utilize A plugs at all? Do you just travel with C adapters? I'm thinking about going this route and just bringing a boat load of pre-charged batteries. If you have experiences in Africa, I'd love to hear from you as this is my first time to shoot ni Africa.
 
I'd start by reading the current threads about shooting in Haiti and China for some good all around information about shooting in developing countries.

Electricity depends on the local situation. I've been in government buildings in Kampala, Uganda, that had no power because they'd shut it off to the city for a while. One of their exports to other countries is electrical power, at their own expense. In Kenya and Tanzania I rarely had a problem, even in remote lodges, camp sites, and towns. They utilize a lot of solar power. It depends on what and where you're shooting. I'd say bring some extra batteries just in case. See if you can find out what the situation is in the places you're actually going to.

Your own solar charger might not be a bad thing to have available.
 
It's always a mess. If you prepare for a situation in which nothing works (and no one can fix it) you'll be in the best shape. One thing you can always find is a car or a truck and some petrol. If you can charge the batteries off the engine and you'll always be in good shape, no matter what.
 
Michaelrosenblum said:
One thing you can always find is a car or a truck and some petrol. If you can charge the batteries off the engine and you'll always be in good shape, no matter what.
Click to expand...

Solid advice! Especially if you're shooting with smaller cameras. An inverter is easy to pack and you can always find a car/taxi to plug it into for an emergency charge.
 
Good point. Get an AC adapter that you can plug a battery charger in to. They're light and not that big. I've brought mine to Africa, and even though I never used it there, I was glad I had it to fall back on if I needed to. Now that I think about it, I've only used it in the US to charge batteries between locations. :)
 
I've shot in Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa. I always used a professional 220 to 110 converter but I think in Zambia I had to change the plug. It's been a while so I don't remember what the plug had to be.
 
Just a quick note on anti-malarials. You'll have to take them, but stay clear of lariam or mefloquine. It's got some really wicked side-effects.
 
Some people complain that the medicines are worse than the disease. I'm on Coumadin, which has conflicts with the antimalarials, so they gave me doxycycline which is an antibiotic. All I know is, I didn't get malaria. :)

Also, get some Ciprofloxacin (Cypro') for the collywobbles.
 
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