Let’s talk about gear!

As a photographer this is one of the most asked questions I receive and it surely can be a topic of endless discussions. I’ve now spend a few years figuring out my favourite camera and lenses combination and my go-to set up if I can only bring the essentials. All the mentioned gear below is owned and tested by me.

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• Canon EOS R5 - Been wanting this camera for a long time and finally made the purchase! I tested it already from friends before and it’s just unbeatable in terms of speed, focus and image quality!

• Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 - My all-time favourite lens and my immediate choice if I need to pack light! This is on my camera 75% of the time and I couldn’t live without it.

• Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 - Great for portraits and has a beautiful bokeh! I often feel a bit constraint with fixed lenses, so I don’t use it too often anymore (but that is personal preference).

• Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 - The latest lens to join the family and absolutely love it! Great for wildlife, moon or outdoor details, such as mountain peaks.

• Manfrotto Be Free tripod - Great tripod for traveling, as it packs very small and is light. I take this on my trips to photograph the night sky, Northern Lights or do self-portraits.

• Hama tripod - Cheaper option than the Manfrotto and did a good job for the first few years I used it. But it is quite bulky compared to the Manfrotto and I wouldn’t take it with me on a trip.

• Shimoda Camera backpack - I’ve got the Action X40 and ordered the free straps for women, which are amazing! This size is plenty for me as I take this as my backpack on a flight and can also use it for a long day hike or over-night hike. It has lots of different pockets and compartments and is made for outdoor photographers. The top expands and provides a good amount of space for some extra clothes, water, snacks and a sleeping bag!

• Thule day backpack - This is my smaller backpack when I don’t have to bring a lot of camera equipment or just do a shorter hike.

• SanDisk SSD - I’ve got the 1TB SSD and I absolutely love it. It’s so small and light that it has become my travel SSD. As it’s only 1TB I don’t use it anymore as my main hard drive, as I need more space and solely use it to backup while traveling and when I don’t want to take my main hard drive.

• Samsung SSD T7 Shield - The newest SSD in my collection and used as my main hard drive. It’s super fast and reliable and a bit cheaper than the SanDisks. I do all my work on this SSD and back it up to my LaCie Rugged regularly.

• LaCie Rugged - LaCie were the first hard drives I got, but I’ve had a few connection problems with them in the past with my Macbook (which might have just been because of my very old laptop). With my new Macbook everything works fine, but they are still more bulky and heavier than the SSDs from Samsung and SanDisk, so I don’t like to travel with them. I’ve got the LaCie Rugged 2TB and 4TB, which I use to backup my main hard drive.

• Apple MacBook Pro - Would never get anything else than a Macbook for my personal and work usage! Super fast, can handle big files and video editing and has amazing colour quality of the screen. I also find it super handy that it connects with your iPhone etc.

• iPhone 14 Pro - I use my iPhone for my story content, especially while traveling. The camera and the video stabilisation are insane and do an amazing job for on-the-go content. As the 14 Pro is not available anymore, I linked the 15 Pro, which has an even better camera!

• Polaroid camera - Great way to get your favourite travel pictures instantly!

• Pentax camera - I also own an old Pentax K1000 film camera, which I got second-hand on ebay. Lot’s of fun shooting with it!

• Camera cleaning kit

• DJI Mini 3 - No pilot license needed for this one and it’s small and light weight for traveling. I love the function that you can record in vertical and horizontal mode which is super handy for reels etc.

• ND filter set for DJI Mini 3 - A collection of Neutral Density filters for the drone, varies in strength to fit every light situation.

• Tiffen Black ProMist Filter 1/4 - Filter that creates a beautiful shine around highlights. Bought it in 82mm for my 24-70mm lens, as I use this the most.

• K&F Concept ND filter - Variable ND filter for my camera to reduce the amount of light without affecting colours and contrast. Mainly used for filming.

• Extra batteries for Canon - So I never run out of battery on longer trips/shoots.

• SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB - I got two SanDisk SD cards with each 128GB capacity. This is usually more than enough for pictures, even when shooting a weeding.

• SD card reader for Mac - All in one USB-C adapter, which I mainly use to transfer pictures from my SD card to my hard drive, but can also be handy for other purposes as it has 2 USB-A and an HDMI outlet as well.

• Angelbird CFexpress Type B 512GB - Memory card that can handle 4K and 8K video and fits in the No. 1 card slot in the Canon R5.

• Angelbird Card Reader CFexpress Type B - Unfortunately, my other adapter can’t read CFexpress cards, so I needed an additional card reader. Not ideal, but necessary if you want to use the full video function of the R5.