What is in Our Travel Camera Bag?
Thinking of buying a new travel camera and focusing on your photography passion during your next travel adventure? How about if we open our camera bag and let you peek inside? A journey that started with our phones’ cameras, has snowballed into a passion we can’t shake off. Embarking on a journey into the unknown without being able to properly capture it, doesn’t feel quite right anymore.
We are self-taught travel photographers and content creators, with some very long and intense travels under our belt, so we try to keep our gear short and sweet (so we avoid hernias😅), while still getting the desired shot. Let’s see what photography essentials are inside our camera bag:
Travel Photography Cameras
Sony Alpha 7 IV | The Dream Travel Photography Camera
With Sony Alpha 7 IV it was love at first sight. This camera is a full-frame mirrorless (which means it is smaller, lighter and quieter than a DSLR), that excels in both still photography and videography. Sony Alpha 7 IV versatility allows it to be a fantastic camera to photographers, videographers and enthusiasts alike.
Tamron 28-200mm | The Lens that Never Leaves Our Side
Covering a wide range of focal lengths and performing great even in low-light conditions, Tamron 28-200mm was the clear choice when it came to choose only one lens to take with us on a year long trip. This lens is lightweight and compact, making it easy to carry around.
Dji Mini 3 Pro Drone
Dji Mini 3 Pro is a powerful, yet small and lightweight drone (249 gr) that we take everywhere. It allows us to get a whole new perspective on our location and shoot videos and photos both vertically and horizontally, with a 4K/60fps camera. We pilot ours with a DJI RC, which makes our lives so much easier. This drone due to its size has fewer restrictions than others, but bear in mind that nowadays a permit to fly is required in most countries.
We purchased a package with extra batteries, propellers, charger, and bag* and we ended up needing every single item in there. Extra batteries are no doubt a must!
Samsung Galaxy Ultra S22
To have the luxury of carrying in your back pocket a phone with a good camera and being able to capture a moment that passes by as quick as the blink of an eye, is priceless. We have folders and folders of photos shot with our phone and we still use it regularly, so our Samsung is not going anywhere.
GoPro Hero 11
Our first photography travel companion as a couple was a GoPro Hero+, which in 2022 was upgraded to a GoPro Hero 11. This compact action camera fits in the palm of your hand, is light, super steady, waterproof and can record a 4K video at 120 frames per second. What more can one ask for? Perfect for that day at the beach, or even to record a video while walking up a volcano.
A GoPro can be easy to lose, mainly if you are playing around with it at the beach, so we use a handle that floats*. We actually keep it attached to the GoPro the whole time, as it is easier to film that way.
Travel Photography Accessories
Travel Camera Bag
We actually have two camera bags, a grab and go Manfrotto bag for when we are going for a walk or have easy going plans but want to take the camera along, and our Tarion Camera Backpack, where we fit our camera, drone, tripod, extra batteries, laptop and everything we need for any photography adventure, including a hoodie for those early mornings. This one always travels with us and we like it because (at least in our mind) it doesn’t scream “I am full of photography gear”😅.
Tripod
The tripod was a game changer for us! We went from only having bad selfies together, to be able to have proper photos with both of us in frame. Not only that, but a tripod is a secret weapon for ensuring sharp, blur-free images, mainly if you are a fan of long exposure photos and you want that milky way popping in your shot.
The travel tripod we use is a Manfrotto Befree Advanced Twist, which is pretty light and folds down to 41 cm which is perfect to carry on the side of our backpack.
If you are planning on using a tripod to take photos with your phone, the Manfrotto clamp* works like a charm for us.
Drone ND Filters
90% of the time we fly our drone it has a filter on it, so for us this is a must have if you have plans of doing drone photography. There are plenty of options available on the market, but we suggest you buy a pack with several ND filters to guarantee no matter the light you are ready for it. We use the Freewell ND Filters.
Cleaning Kit
Might sound silly but a cleaning kit is so important to keep your camera and lenses spotless, no matter in which type of surroundings you were shooting that day. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but that lens cloth should never leave your side.
Memory Space
Memory Cards
Each of our cameras always has a SD card inside, and a backup just in case. All the cards we use are SandDisk Extreme Pro, for the Sony camera from 32GB all the way to 128GB in storage, for the drone and GoPro we have their Micro SD cards from 64GB and 128GB. These cards have a high performance and deal perfectly with 4K footage.
Backup Disk
We always backup our footage to two different disks to guarantee we don’t lose any material, as accidents happen more often than one would like to admit, and we can’t afford those kinds of hiccups. For that, we use our 4TB Western Digital My Passport. It has proven to be a reliable external drive that has traveled around with us, getting a fair share of bumps along the way and giving zero problems to this date.
Travel Photography Editing Tools
After the photos are shot, the camera is clean and everything is saved and backed up into the drive, we start the editing phase. We use mainly Adobe software, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Lightroom and Photoshop.
Asus Vivobook Pro
Asus Vivobook Pro is Andreia’s laptop, perfect for on the go use, with good battery life and very lightweight. Its processor and OLED display makes it perfect for editing photos and videos.
She also can’t live without her Trust* mouse, because trying to edit with the laptop’s mouse pad is always a sad recipe for failure.
Lenovo Legion 5
Eneas carries around his Lenovo Legion 5, which, truth be told, was purchased for gaming and ended up being used 90% of the time for editing videos. It is a bit on the heavier side to carry around, but it is a work beast.
As you can imagine we use all this material for our work, like this travel blog, but realistically you won’t need all this gear to travel and take some lovely shots, so focus on the essentials😊.