Best Camera Travel Gear For Our World Tour 2017-2018

This is the most difficult challenge for us: Choosing the right camera gear for travelling…

Here are our choices in terms of cameras for photography & videography while travelling.

Before getting into technical details I like to remind you to ask yourself – what will you use the gear for? The moment you start looking into specs you might be attracted by things that you don’t even need (crazy high burst photo mode, 4k, 6k, ISO etc…). So make a list of exactly what you want to shoot with your camera to help the process of choosing your gear. Based on that you will narrow a lot down your options. Here are my choices and the reasons behind each.

Travel Photography

• Camera: Nikon D750
  • Why: crazy dynamic range, beautiful high ISO, very durable, great in low light, shoots fast, has two memory card slots. I bought this camera originally to shoot Portraits & weddings. I still love it for travelling IF… I don’t carry another camera. If I need to shoot two videos, this camera becomes my nemesis because of its weight & the weight of its lenses – read below! Also, weather sealed – resists well to the elements!
• Lenses:
  • Long range: Nikon Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 ($$$$). This lens is a BEAST – the shots are sharp, the bokeh beautiful and it is very fast! Now before we go any further this lens is almost 1kg heavy and costs about $2,200… I got it for professional work during weddings & lifestyle portrait sessions. I love this lens so much but really cannot bear the weight when I travel. Why do I still have it? Good question…. The shots are so beautiful I’m having troubles letting go….
  • Prime 35mm: Sigma Art 35mm f/1.4. This is my main lens. Always attached to my camera. If I go for a day exploration and can take only one this is the one. Love the angle 35mm gives me and the f/1.4 offers an amazing low light capability along with some of the best bokeh I have seen. Shallow depth of field here we are!
  • Wide Angle: Nikon Nikkor 16-35mm f/4. Love this lens for landscape and fun cityscape where I need to get a whole room/street into a shot. I wish I had taken the f/2.8 as for stars/night shots that 1 stop of light makes a huge difference.

Travel Videography Vlog camera

• Camera: Panasonic GH5
  • I hesitated a long time before getting that one. I used to have this one [LINK] and tried the GH5. Love the colours & the 4k image quality. The 4k@60fps allowed me to shoot everything in 4k actually which is also one of the reasons I got it. Low light wise I don’t like that camera after ISO 3200 it gets not very pretty – I find it a bit sad for a 2016/7 camera BUT it’s a micro 4/3 sensor and as such it’s smaller than a full frame which apparently makes it harder to get clean high ISO. The sensor is also 5-axis stabilised and WOW blew away – it makes footages handheld sooooo smooth & stable
  • The ergonomics are lacking a bit of grip but I love the dials and all the buttons. Super practical to use!
  • Photos are not bad – I’m not amazed by them but have yet to try great lenses on it. I get a 16MP raw file out of it – wish it went up to 20 or 24MP but to be honest for what we do with the images nowadays (social media 99% of the time) it’s good!
  • Last but not least – weather sealed – which means I’m not panicking when it drizzles or slightly rains.
• Video Lenses:
  • All Round: Panasonic 12-60 F/3.5-5.6 – Ok this is a lens that comes in a kit with the G85. I kept it. It’s cheap very useful, very light and the range is great (oh and weather sealed). I tried the Panasonic Leica 12-60mm f/2.8-4 version and it is great but not worth for me an extra $500 for my usage. It is a great option if you need a smooth manual focus.
  • FUTURE Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8. I really want to get that lens – the quality is amazing and behaves better than what I have in low light.
  • FUTURE Panasonic 8-18mm f/2.8-4 or Olympus 7-14 F/2.8: Need a wide angle for the Vlog style. Have been hesitating between those two – haven’t made up my mind yet. The Panasonic seems good but aperture is variable… The Olympus has raving reviews but the glass sticks out (meaning no filters) and I am not sure how well the AF will work with the Panasonic body….
  • FUTURE Panasonic 20mm f/1.7: Gotta have that one to be the equivalent of my Sigma 35mm on the Nikon. Low light capability at f/1.7 is important
  • Future Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8: To replace the Nikon above. I’m sure it won’t be as beautiful but this is a great zoom range and super practical for portraits.
• Action Camera:
  • Of course… The Legendary GoAmateur action camera! (thinking of updating to a v6 one day…)

Sound & Accessories for travel

• Sound: I use this external microphone (Shure VP 83). It makes a HUGE difference in terms of audio quality. Yes, it’s bigger on top of the camera but sometimes that’s what you need for good audio.
• Flexible tripod: totally going Casey Neistat’s style with this flexible tripod.
• Bigger tripod for stable shots.
• Camera Backpack: that took me awhile to find the right one. I used to have a small Lowepro one but when I got bigger lenses that wasn’t enough. So I ended up getting an F-STOP bag with a compartment you add in. To be honest, the bag is excellent, seems durable, kinda weatherproof (not if you hike 5+ hours under pouring rain) and super comfy to wear. I fit everything inside, laptop, cameras, extra clothes for the day/food/water, you name it!

Travel Drone

• I LOVE Drone footages, it just makes any video look 100x better. My go-to travel drone is the DJI Mavic Pro – simply because it is so compact, the image is decent, it is fast and (I repeat) SUPER compact!
• Add-ons: Mavic Pro ND Polarized filters. Using those most of the time – allows to get a slower shutter speed and the polarizer is great on any reflecting surface.

And that’s about it….

Yes, that is WAY too much. I basically need to get rid of one of the cameras. This is something I am planning for very soon. I have a hard time letting go of the Nikon D750 because the pics & the dynamic range is incredible but because of its weight & the lenses, I will let it go in favour of a camera slightly less good for photos but 100x better for video. My goal is to carry only one! I will update this blog post when I change!

Here is the video where I explain it all!