For many photographers, the opportunity to photograph wildlife in Africa is a pinnacle experience. For more than a century, adventurers went to Africa to track big game — and, originally, to slaughter it in great numbers. Today, hunting is banned in most parts of Africa but, for the modern-day adventurer with a camera, tracking and photographing the continent’s legendary big game is equally thrilling, and makes for a compelling adaptation of the African safari experience.

Just as the 35mm camera replaced the hunting rifle, a new technological revolution is taking place on the savannah: digital capture. Digital SLRs are beginning to equal the quality rendered by the wildlife shooter’s favored 35mm transparency films, such as Fuji Velvia and Kodak E100VS. Although film remains solidly entrenched in many wildlife...