What’s in Our Camera Bag? Our Favourite Travel Photography Gear

Are you planning your next travel adventure? Maybe you’re searching for that next essential piece of camera equipment to take your photography to the next level? Or perhaps you’re just venturing into the world of photography and are looking for ideas on where to start?

In this blog post we’ll give you an in-depth look at what’s in our camera bag for 2023. We’ve been posting content on our blog and YouTube channel for over 2 years now, starting with a GoPro and an iPhone, and have slowly upgraded our kit since then.

We definitely do not have everything, but the kit listed below has served as a great introduction to the world of photography and videography for us. For the most part they are also on the lower to mid-price range, so are great value pieces of kit for those on a budget.

Travel Photography Gear – The Cameras

In this section we’ll take a closer look at the most important pieces of kit in our camera bags: the cameras.

Main Camera – Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV

Taking the leap from phone photography to buying your first camera can be daunting. There are so many options out there, with crazy names, specifications and built-in additions that choosing that first camera can be overwhelming. Trust us, we know!

The Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV is the camera we eventually chose. It gives fantastic all-round photography and 4K videography performance, is super-lightweight due to its mirrorless design and we also love the retro aesthetic.

This camera really allowed us to take our creativity and content to the next level and we’ve loved having it in our camera bag.

Secondary Camera – GoPro Hero 8 Black

This is our very first videography camera and still one we use regularly to this day. When you buy a GoPro camera you know you are getting a fantastic quality product at an incredibly affordable price!

We shoot all our action, slow-motion and vlogging shots on this camera and it has worked flawlessly for over 3 years. Whilst we love our Hero 8 Black, we would advise buying one of the newer models such as the Hero 10 or 11 as GoPro keeps adding better features each year.

Phone – iPhone 11

Phone cameras are of such high quality now that they can compete with traditional cameras on many levels. Even our slightly dated iPhone 11 is still capable of taking some beautiful, crisp images that look great alongside our Olympus photos.
If you’re on a budget or just starting out on your photography adventure, then grabbing your phone and getting out there is a great way to start.

Drone – DJI Mavic Air 2

This is one of our absolute favourite pieces of kit in our camera bag. As outdoor and nature lovers, the DJI Mavic Air 2 allows us to get some incredible and unique perspectives of the environments we travel to.

Drones are becoming more difficult to fly, with greater restrictions being placed on many locations, so we would advise this to be the final addition to your camera bag. If you do decide to take the plunge though, the DJI Mavic Air 2 is a fantastic mid-range drone to take your photography to another level.

Top Tip – If you want to shoot vertical videos then check out the DJI Mini 3 Pro for some epic TikTok and Instagram reels.

Travel Photography Gear -The Lenses

Cameras would be nothing without great lenses. We only have one, but it is a fantastic all-rounder.

Zoom/Travel Lens – M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm F4-5.6 II

This lens has been our ultimate travel lens over the last year. When traveling long-term, you want to pack as lightly and compactly as possible. The M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm lens for our Olypmus camera has allowed us to take both incredible landscape and detailed close-ups without the need to change lenses in between.

You will sacrifice some photo quality by using a zoom lens, especially in low light conditions, but the convenience of only needing one lens during our travels has 100% outweighed this so far. We are planning to be adding to our lens kit in 2023 though!

Travel Photography Gear – The Laptops

A high performing laptop is definitely a must when working with 4K video. Here is our favourite laptop for editing our YouTube videos and the photos you see on our blog.

Laptop – Dell XPS 15 9500

High-end laptops are not cheap. This will probably be one of the biggest but most important investments you will make if you plan to get into video editing or want to edit your photos on a 4K screen.

The Dell XPS 15 9500 is an amazing laptop! With a huge 4K screen, Intel i7 CPU and the ability to buy it with 32GB of RAM, you will never have any issues or slowdowns when working with large 4K video files.

After using this laptop for 2 years now, we really don’t think we could go back to anything less! It’s just that good!

Travel Photography Gear – The Camera Bags

With all this bulky gear to carry around, it’s important to have bags that can accommodate it all comfortably and compactly – without drawing too much attention to yourself and all your expensive equipment!

Main Backpack – K&F Concept DSLR Camera Backpack for Travel Outdoor Photography

This is our main camera backpack. We love the K&F Concept DSLR Camera Backpack because it honestly doesn’t look like a camera backpack. When traveling it can sometimes be good to keep a low profile and being able to carry all our expensive tech in a backpack that doesn’t shout ‘camera bag’ is often a blessing.

Having said that, it is also a very well-designed bag with two separate compartments for your camera and accessories. The bottom compartment opens from the back, giving an extra layer of security, and it has a dedicated 15” laptop sleeve which is not easy to find in a camera bag.

Camera Bag – BV & Jo Elegant Vintage PU Leather Case Bag

We love a good vintage look (as you can tell from our camera), so we couldn’t resist this beautiful camera bag to put it in. This bag has been great when we don’t need to carry all our equipment with us in our backpack.

It comes with detachable dividers so you can organise the interior to your liking and an adjustable strap so that it sits comfortably when out and about. Again, it also doesn’t scream ‘camera bag’ which we love!

GoPro Bag – Casey Semi Hard Camera Case

Once you start adding multiple accessories to your GoPro setup, things can start to get a little cluttered. The Casey Semi-Hard Camera Case (which you can purchase with your GoPro as part of a bundle) is a great way to keep those tiny screws, clips and mounts organised efficiently.

There are multiple adjustable dividers inside so you can change compartment sizes easily and the semi-hard exterior means your GoPro kit is more than safe inside even if it gets bashed around a little bit whilst traveling.

Travel Photography Gear – Storage

SSD – Samsung Portable SSD T5 1TB (x2)

On average, we usually take 500+ photos and 100+ 4K video clips on each day that we are exploring and creating content. That’s a lot of data! Whilst traditional HDDs are still a great (and much cheaper) option for storing photos, we choose to use the newer SSDs to store all our data.

The Samsung Portable SSD T5 1TB is a fantastic SSD. They’re extremely durable (we’ve dropped ours countless times and they still work perfectly), have much faster transfer speeds than HDD’s (important when transferring large 4K files) and are incredibly lightweight which makes them perfect when traveling.

Top Tip – If you are only going to be storing photos then we would still advise buying an HDD like the WD 5TB My Passport (we also have 2 of these). You get way more storage for your money; just be careful not to drop them as they are a lot easier to break!

Memory Cards – SanDisk Extreme 128GB micro SDHC

SanDisk is a household name when it comes to storage and the SanDisk Extreme 128GB micro SDHC memory cards are the ones we use in our GoPro and Drone. They handle 4K shooting very well and the amount of storage space you get for your money is very good. You could shoot for multiple days at a time before needing to offload footage (not that we would advise that!).

Top Tip – Get the XCOZU Memory Card Case to store all your memory cards safely and compactly. They are small and very easy to lose – trust us!

Travel Photography Gear – The Accessories

GoPro Accessories – Protective Housing, 3-Way 2.0 Grip, Media Mod, Head Strap, Shorty Grip

We have accumulated a lot of accessories for our GoPro over the years. They’re cheap and each enables you to add a different perspective to your filmmaking.

Our grips are great for vlogging, getting different angles to our shots and both also function as tripods for when you want a steady time-lapse.

The Media Mod is a great addition to your kit if you plan on vlogging with your GoPro. It has a built-in directional microphone which improves the audio of your video and comes with the ability to clip on other features such as a light or front facing screen (Hero 8 or older).

The Head Strap is great for action shots when our hands are occupied, and the protective housing lets us shoot underwater with greater confidence.

Extension Cord – iBlockCube Extension Lead with 6 USB Slots

We have a lot of tech to charge after a day of filming and shooting. We’ve been using the iBlockCube Extension Lead for the past year and put it under some seriously taxing charging situations. It hasn’t let us down yet.

With 3 UK sockets and 6 USB slots we can charge laptops, phones, cameras and drones simultaneously which is a lifesaver when you need to have everything ready to go again the next day.

Adapter – Hyleton Worldwide Travel Adapter

We’re always searching for the next country to visit, so having an adapter that will work no matter where we go is fantastic.

The hyleton Worldwide Travel Adapter is a UK, EU and USA/AUS adapter all rolled into one. In addition to one socket, it also has 4 USB slots. No matter whether we are in Mexico, South America or Europe we have always been able to use this adapter without any issues.

Cable Case – HCFGS Travel Cable Organiser Bag

A lot of equipment means a lot of cables and leaving them unorganised can be confusing and messy. With the HCFGS Travel Cable Organiser Bag we can keep all those loose cables stored away neatly and when we need to access them, they are easy to identify and find.

Want to be a freelance photographer? – If you’re a photographer looking for job opportunities that would allow you to travel, you can search for such opportunities on Jooble by clicking on this link: https://jooble.org/jobs-photographer/Abroad