With black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up soon I get more and more people asking what gear I use and because I haven’t done an article about my gear in ages I figured this would be the perfect time! In this article I’ll explain what gear I use on a daily basis:
This is how my bag kind of looks like in general.
- Sony A7RIII : My main workhorse. Light, portable and great image quality.
Sony 100-400 GM attached : I recently became addicted to this lens for landscape photography. The images are just so sharp. It’s on another level than the 70-300 G lens that is much lighter, but the quality of the 100-400 GM makes it worth the extra weight. Check my recent review about this lens on my website.
Sunwayfoto L-bracket attached : I always use Sunwayfoto L-brackets on my Sony cameras and they never disappoint me. They’re sturdy and just work. The main advantage of an L-brackets is to allow me to quickly switch from horizontal to vertical shooting on a tripod.
- Sony A7III : Secondary camera. In my opinion this is the best allrounder camera on the market. It’s also amazing for video which is what I am using this camera for more and more. Autofocus is blazing fast and accurate too. Check my article about it here
Sony 12-24 f/4 G attached : Great sharpness and I love the wider angle of view compared to traditional 16-35 lenses. It just offers a bit more creativity shooting at 12mm.
Sunwayfoto L-bracket attached.
- Sony 24 f/1.4 GM (top left corner of the bag): another lens I recently got addicted to. Normally I wouldn’t think of using this lens too much as I already have this focal length covered but the size and weight of this thing makes me want to bring it everywhere. With the beautiful quality and especially bokeh, its just such a joy to take around and shoot with. For an extensive review of this lens, check my article here.
- Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 : in my opinion the best midrange zoom on the market for the Sony E-mount right now. It’s also relatively cheap with around 800 euro. This lens is very sharp and most importantly: very light weight. It does suffer from quite some distortion and vignetting (especially compared to the 24-70 Sony GM) but the light weight factor outweighs this for me. Check my review on my website.
- Laowa 15mm f/2 : Great fast wide angle prime that is perfect for shooting stars capes and auroras. Review on my website.
- DJI Mavic 2 Pro including batteries and controller : Best portable drone on the market you can get currently. Still far away from full frame quality, but technology is improving fast. I can’t live without a drone anymore. The different perspectives I can get are just so addicting.
- Nisi filter holder including CPL for the Sony 12-24 G lens : yeah, below that white cloth is the Nisi holder for the 12-24 Sony G lens. I am protecting it like this because I don’t have a decent case that can fit in that compartment of the bag. This holder takes 150mm square filters. I normally only bring 2, the 8 stop and 10 stop.
When you take out the main gear of the bag it looks like this.
This is what I would use in general. Now all of you know that I am a Sony ambassador so you will see a lot of Sony gear im my bag. Being a Sony ambassador doesn’t mean I am forced to use only Sony gear. I am free to use whatever gear works best for my needs. For example, I now use the 28-75 f/2.8 Tamron lens simply because it’s a lot lighter than the 24-70 Sony GM lens. This is of high importance for me when hiking around.
Sometimes I change some things depending on where I am going on my trip. I sometimes bring the Sony 16-35 GM and leave out a wide angle prime for astro to save weight. Lenses I would sometimes bring or swap would be the Samyang 12mm f/2.8 fisheye (amazing for cityscapes and very wide landscapes) and the Sony 70-300 G instead of the 100-400 GM because its much lighter. I now also have the new Laowa 10-18mm that I find great because of its portability and 10mm full frame gets me some crazy perspectives.
Note that my bag always used to be around 7-8 kg without tripod but it increased a bit in weight (now usually around 10 kg with this setup) since I am now also carrying my drone and got addicted to the amazing 100-400 GM lens.
Tripods and heads:
Currently using Photoclam (high quality Korean brand that not many people know in the EU and US). Very good experience with them so far. Regarding the heads I use the Photoclam head and Sunwayfoto heads.
Small and big Photoclaim tripods
Bag:
Mindshift Backlight 26L: Great backpack and as you can see it fits all my gear including my Mavic 2. It’s not too big and is comfortable to wear. It also has a nice big front compartment where you can put lots of more stuff in, including laptop, food, some clothing etc. You really use that 26l to their maximum. What’s also very useful about this bag is that you can take stuff out when holding it by flipping it around. This allows me to take out lenses without having the need to put the bag on the ground. Useful while shooting in wet and muddy conditions. However, I do notice that sometimes I want to bring just a bit more gear for some occasions (especially now that I bring my drone to almost anywhere) so I am currently also looking for an extra bigger bag for some of those occasions :)
Mindshift Backlight 26L comes in green, nice stealth colour in nature!
Phone:
People often ask what phone I use when they see my photos and videos on Instagram stories. I use the Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium. This phone takes amazing videos and photos (for a phone) especially in the dark. I edit the mobile photos in Snapseed before I upload them to my Instagram Stories. The XZ2 premium is a bit on the bigger side so it took some time for me to get used to, especially because I was using the Xperia XZ2 compact first. But the bigger screen has some nice advantages, the biggest one being its great to fly my drone with. The screen is bright and ‘big’ (for a phone) so flying the Mavic with this phone is a nice experience.
Photo of a canyon in Iceland shown in my Instagram Story, Picture was made with the phone and edited with Snapseed.
Accessories I bring (they’re mostly in the front compartment):
- Rocket blower : To quickly blow some dust off of the sensor or to blow away rain from filters and lenses.
- Memory card case: always bring extra memory cards. Especially because I tend to forget to put back memory cards from my computer into the camera after I transferred files.
- Camera Raincoat : for rainy conditions. I don’t use it that much, only near the sea.
- Lens cloths
- Flashlight : Currently using a Led Lenser P7R. Very strong and adjustable beam with multiple intensities. This one is rechargeable via USB
- MIOPS trigger for time lapses
- Shutterbands lens bags and protection gear : Shutterbands sent me a bunch of stuff and I have been using it. Simple accessories to protect lenses during travel .
- Business cards
You can find a list of my gear with Amazon/B&H links on my Gear List page :)
As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment box below!
Albert