I'm going to shoot an Elephant !

[BCdives]

I am off to South Africa later this month and I have a 1D MKII that I will be taking. So my questions.

1.) Is South Africa (Cape Town specifically) EU plug or something different?

2.) Would you use a converter? or go with an EU/Canon charging unit (which I have still yet to find)

3. Or just stock up on charged $40 dollar knock off batteries

Any help would be appreciated,

BCdives

[zacker]

I dunno but good luck! cant wait to see the pics!

[Double Negative]

Bring a big gun! :)

I shot some penguins and seals last weekend. They didn't mind. Heck, I don't even think they noticed...

[Seamless]

Hope it's not in your pajamas...
;)

[kwsanders]

Congratulations on the trip. I heard that elephant steaks are pretty good. :p

Seriously, have a great time on the trip. I envy you guys who get to travel the world. Maybe when the kids are gone here. :)

By the way, here is a link that might interest you, BCdives.

http://www.kropla.com/electric2.htm

[ScottE]

South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland all use a unique three prong plug that is bigger than the EU plugs. I believe the voltage rating is 220 or 240 volts, but some cities such as Port Elizabeth use 250 volts. Before I went I made sure all my electrical equipment was rated for 100 to 240 volts. I just used a simple North American (110 volt) to SA adapter plug, no a converter. I had no problems, even when I charged batteries in Port Elizabeth.

If you are just charging batteries for your camera, laptop, image storage device, electric toothbrush or electric razor an adapter plug may be all you need. Check the voltage ratings printed or stamped on your devices. If your devices are not rated for 240 volts you should get a converter.

I picked up my adapter plugs in Canada, but I believe you can get them at the airport and some other stores in SA.

I also carried an adapter that plugs into the cigarette lighter in a car or truck and can be used to charge batteries. This proved useful at some of the bush camps in Kruger where there were no outlets, the generator did not work most of the time or the generator only provided 12 volt DC.

Extra batteries are a good idea. Depending where you go, you may not be able to charge every night. Some tent camps have limited facilities (but a lot more than some of the places I stayed in Uganda this year.)

As Double Negative indicated, say "Hi" to the penguins at Boulders for me while you are in Cape Town.

Have a great trip. I have really enjoyed my visits to South Africa.

Scott

[samsen]

Bring a big gun! :)

I shot some penguins and seals last weekend. They didn't mind. Heck, I don't even think they noticed...

I think he meant, Take a gun and bring a big diamond with you...:)

Good advise from ScottE. As long as your adapter say "Input 100-240V" or similar, all you need is a physical adapter and not converter. My converted died on the second use, make sure you have plenty of right size fuses if you take one with you. Another thing of concern is to have a multiplier or two, possibly one of the cheaper 1int4 or 6. So the physical adapter goes to the wall sucket, the regular USA socket on the other end connected to mutliplier. You may want to charge cameras battery at the same time that your laptop is downloading and remote hard drive storage device is getting charged and you probably using the electric shaver. Oh yes my converter died the moment my wife tuned on the 110V USA hair blower. Please use a local on there. This is for every electric sucking device.:evil:

[Mike V]

Cool, have a great trip.

Here's one I prepared earlier:

http://www.molecule.com.au/images/India/28-3335.jpg

[BCdives]

(Ha!)

Mike, thanks for cleaning up that elephant, he should look great in the photo's!

Thanks all for the info and links, my Canon charger in fact is 110-240 thus, I just need the wall adaptor which I have found and ordered. Thanks for the links too!

I am excited, I will also be hopping into a cage, and lowered into the water, while they throw Ham and other meat produts into the ocean. I'm looking forward to some "Teethy" photo's to share with you.

BCdives