Equipment Breakdown – What’s in our camera bag?
Equipment Breakdown – What’s in our camera bag?
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We get asked which travel photography equipment we use all the time? This is our ultimate equipment breakdown! Are you looking for great photography and videography gear to document your travels? We slowly upgraded our camera gear over the years. We started with an affordable vlogging camera and upgraded our gear step by step! Then we added things like a drone, a GoPro and a really good camera and lens.
In the beginning, you will not need all of these things, simply play around with a camera and learn about perspectives and light. We now use all of this equipment to shoot magical pictures for Instagram, create cinematic video shots and to write blog posts with lots of inspirational pictures!
Creating Travel Photography
Let´s talk about our camera, our drone and our GoPro whic
Main Camera and Lens for travel photography:
When we decided to upgrade our camera, we really wanted to try out a full-frame camera. We bought the Canon EOS 6D II DSLR and we love it, although there is room for improvements. What really made the difference in image quality is the lens. We went with the Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8 USM II zoom lens. It is an awesome piece of glass and the 24-70mm range is all we need most of the time. But we will certainly add a 70-200mm lens in the future. And maybe a 16-35mm and… Don´t forget a second or a third battery for the Canon LP-E6N Battery and some really fast Micro SD cards.
⤖ More about: Canon EOS 6D MkII – Fullframe DSLR
⤖ Get our lens here: Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8L USM II – Zoom Lens
Second camera
There will always be situations where using our DSLR will be too inconvenient or even risky. We bought our Canon G7X Mk II back in 2016 and are still happy with it. Since it has some scratches and is well used, it is the camera we don’t mind using in these situations. But don’t get us wrong, the image-quality of this small camera is really good!
⤖ Get the: Canon PowerShot G7X MkII – compact camera
DJI Mavic Air Drone
We have the DJI Mavic Air drone. The most important thing for us, besides a decent image quality, is the size. The drone is always in our backpack and ready to fly. If we are allowed to bring it into the country… Unfortunately, there are more and more drone restrictions and sometimes it’s almost impossible to get a permit. Nevertheless, it’s really nice to get different perspectives for a video or a picture. Don´t forget the extra battery!
⤖ Learn more about: DJI Mavic Air – Drone
Gopro and Dome
We use the GoPro Hero 6 with the PolarPro 50/50 Dome. The quality is really good and the mounting system doesn’t block the touch functionality of the GoPro. No leaking while
Tip: Try out the linear instead of wide angle mode on your GoPro!
⤖ Get the GoPro Hero 6 – action camera here
⤖ More about Polar
Camera Stabilizer
Oh yes, the video shots with this DJI stabilizer are amazing. We use it for those cinematic running shots and it allows us to get footage that isn´t shaky at all. We just bought it to get more into videography and to add some of these nice smooth moving shots to our videos
⤖ Get our DJI Ronin S Gimbal – camera stabilizer
Iphone and Apps
Well, we use our
Photography Accessories
There are a few photography accessories we really need for shooting our couple pictures for our Instagram @travelinyourarms and to be able to shoot pictures in beautiful light for our blog:
Our Tripods
Did you ever get the shot you wanted by asking someone to take a picture of you? We travel with the Manfrotto BeFree Tripod. It is lightweight, compact and the build quality is excellent. We use the Ultrapod 2 mainly for our small camera. It is a very small, nearly weightless Tripod and it can be mounted on railings, branches or whatever you find. We love it. If you are starting with travel photography we highly recommend investing in a tripod. You can set your camera into interval mode to get a natural moving shot with you in the picture.
⤖ See our tripod: Manfrotto BeFree
⤖ The little one: Ultrapod 2
Filters for Camera and Drone
Sometimes you have to shoot in bright daylight, especially when you are traveling. For photography thats not a problem most of the time. But when it comes to videography you need to reduce the light that gets to your camera. With a variable ND filter, your videos will not get too bright and you can create videos with a cinematic look. We love the variable ND filter. For the drone it’s also important to use drone ND filters otherwise you will end up with stuttering over exposed drone shots.
⤖ See our Haida variable ND filter here
⤖ Get the drone Polarpro filters
Microphone
We just bought a Rode microphone for crowded areas with loud background sounds. If you want to record your voice or if you like to record sounds of nature or animals, it’s really important to have a good microphone. Also, it has a really good sound quality compared to the price.
⤖ See our microphone here: Rode VideoMicro
Camera Backpack
We are still looking for the perfect one but the Thule Perspektiv is close. It is a medium sized backpack that still fits all the equipment we like to bring with us on a day trip. It is comfortable to carry for a whole day and the quality is very good. The camera has an extra protected bag in the backpack.
⤖ More about our backpack: Thule Perspektiv
(This one is slightly bigger Thule Aspect)
Memory Cards
We like to use SanDisk Extreme cards with 32GB and 64GB. We have always like 8 of them with us. They work very fast with big RAW files and you can use them for your camera, GoPro and drone. We carry them in a protected case.
⤖ Get the SanDisk Extreme Pro cards 32GB and 64 GB
Pacsafe and a voltage converter for the car
Do you know that feeling when you are not sure if you locked the doors but don’t want to turn back and check? This thing is not unbreakable, but at least you would have to put some effort into getting our stuff ;). Gives the extra bit of relaxation. Paranoid? Maybe…Especially when we do a road trip and want to enjoy a swim in the ocean, the Pacsafe is really nice. Also, a voltage converter for the car might save you on a road trip, when you want to charge your phone or laptop while driving.
⤖ More about our PacSafe 12l
Editing Workflow
After shooting all the beautiful pictures and videos you have to save them and edit them:
Backup disks and tools
We like to travel light, so for a short
⤖ See the 4 TB WD Elements backup disks here
⤖ More about our Ravpower Filehub
Macbook Pro, Ipad and editing software
All our pictures are edited with Lightroom on our MacBook Pro. For our
⤖ Learn more about the MacBook Pro 15″
* In this article we give you recommendations for our travel photography equipment. If you buy something via the affiliate Amazon links, we will get a small commission. There are no additional costs for you!
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