CAMERA GEAR FOR PHOTOGRAPHY & VLOGGING

We began documenting our adventures when we began full time traveling in Septeber 2019. Our main goal was to use what we already had and the rest was bought on a budget. One year later we decided to continue traveling and turn our passion into a business. We upgraded our gear significantly so we could produce the high quality videos. 

This post explains the gear we use today as well as the gear we started with. All of the gear on this page is what we use and recommend. If we’ve used something and didn’t like it, we didn’t include it on this page.

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2022 Camera Gear for Photography and Vlogging

Here is all of the gear we’ll be using for 2022 and as soon as we gain a new piece of equipment, we’ll add it to this list.

CAMERAS

Canon R5 Mirrorless Camera This is our primary shooter. We use both of our cameras interchangeably to shoot a-roll, b-roll, and photos, however, if this camera is available, it’s always our first pick. We love this camera for its ability to shoot that buttery slow-mo in 120fps in 4K. We absolutely love this camera!

Canon R6 Mirrorless Camera This is our backup camera, so basically at any point our R5 is being used, we use our R6 to capture anything we’re missing. Similar to our R5, we use this camera interchangeably to shoot a-roll, b-roll, and photos. We have loved having a second camera as it gives each of us a camera to hold so we can capture what we each see.

LENSES

Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 lens This is our primary vlogging lens. It allows us to get really wide angle shots so we can both be in front of the camera as we hold it up as well as some great b-roll for establishing shots. When we’re on the boat, this is one of the two lenses that are usually always on our cameras.

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 lens This is our go to lens to carry when we don’t have access to all of our lenses. It gives us the perfect balance between close up and distance; a great all around lens.

Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8 lens We use this lens for getting far away shots and zooming in really close. When we’re on the boat, this is the second of the two lenses that are usually always on our cameras so we’re ready to capture a bald eagle flying by, dolphins swimming, or something else really far away.

OTHER CAMERAS

GoPro Hero 9 We use our GoPro to capture things underwater or when a situation arises that we’d be uncomfortable to use our R5 or R6 because of the camera size, water exposure, etc.

DJI Air 2S, Fly More Combo We LOVE our new drone! The images and videos it captures of high perspectives and angles is incredible. It also has a “follow” feature, which allows us to throw our drone up, select “follow,” and the drone will follow the boat as we cruise. We upgraded our drone in 2021 because our original drone, the DJI Mini, was so light weight that it was difficult to fly when there was any wind present. It’s a great piece of equipment!

ACCESSORIES

Rode VideoMic Pro+ This is the mic we use to record all of our audio. We are very happy with this mic because it helps to reduce a lot of wind noise when we’re cruising. Depending upon which camera we’re recording a-roll with, we switch this mic between our R5 and R6.

Rode Deadcat This mic attachment helps to the wind noise when we’re cruising. It would be incredibly difficult to get clear audio without this attachment. 

Polar Pro Circular Polarizer This is our favorite lens filter! It deepens the colors without making them look fake. It also acts as a protector to our much more expensive camera lens.

Polar Pro Variable ND Filter 2-5 This filter allows us to put sunglasses on our camera lens when it’s really sunny outside and we’re shooting in harsh light conditions. We use this filter a lot when during the day when we’re cruising and it’s really bright outside.

Polar Pro Variable ND Filter 6-9 This filter allows us to put sunglasses on our camera lens when it’s really sunny outside and we’re shooting in harsh light conditions. We use this filter a lot when during the day when we’re cruising and it’s really bright outside.

Peak Design Travel Tripod in Aluminum This is the tripod we use to set up our shots both on the boat and exploring different cities and towns. It’s great because it’s collapsable and folds together tightly to save space. We love Peak Design for their lifetime warranty!

Peak Design Camera Capture Clip We love this clip! Both of us have one of these clips on our backpacks or belts to carry around a camera. It allows us to quickly and safely store our camera so we can go handsfree. We love Peak Design for their lifetime warranty!

Peak Design Slide (Camera Strap) Jenn loves this camera strap because we’re able to easily change the strap sizes and maneuver the strap with ease. We can keep the super close to our body or keep it loose to get a shot quickly. We love Peak Design for their lifetime warranty!

GoPro Floating Hand Grip When we’re going into the water with our GoPro, we use this attachment to make sure our GoPro doesn’t go sinking to the bottom as it floats! 

GoPro Performance Chest Mount We use this chest mount for our GoPro to get shots of our hands without needing to hold a camera. We’ve used this tool primarily when anchoring or docking and we need to focus on the task at hand.

Suptig Jaws Flex Clamp Mount Gooseneck Mount for GoPro We love this flexible clip and arm for our GoPro because we’re able to mount it in a variety of places (handrails, bimini top, stainless steel poles, etc.) and get different shots. We’ve really enjoyed this new piece of equipment because it’s allowed us to extend the usage of our GoPro that our R5 or R6 would be too heavy, too big, or too fragile to use in a particular situation.

Canon Wireless Remote Control We use this clicker to set up shots when we’re exploring various cities and want to get us both in the shot. 

Joby GorillaPod 5K We use this tripod as an extension of our arms or as a mini tripod on our flybridge or navigation station. The flexible arms allow us to customize the stand to fit our needs on the boat. It’s easy to maneuver and we can use our Peak Design clip with this mount. 

Sandisk Extreme Pro SD Cards After struggling with various SD cards and having a lot of formatting issues, we upgraded our SD cards to the Extreme Pro. We have 512 GB and 1 TB versions of these cards which allows us to film in 4K and save several days worth of footage on them. We have a few back up SD cards, but we have never filled up one card in a day, thus far.

SanDisk CFexpress Cards Our Canon R5 uses a CFexpress card for 4K footage and we have two of them; one is 256 GB and the second is 512 GB. 

Peak Design 40L Travel Backpack We started using this backpack as our main backpack when we began traveling internationally. We continue to love the versatility in this bag. We’re able to carry our camera equipment in in or we use it as our travel bag. It’s versatile size allows us to make it smaller 35L or we can extend it to 45L in different situations. We love Peak Design for their lifetime warranty!

Peak Design Camera Cubes We use the small and medium camera cubes to keep our camera gear safe in our Peak Design Travel Backpack. The cubes are customizable, which gives us the flexibitiy to arrange the gear as we like. We love Peak Design for their lifetime warranty!

2019-2021 Camera Gear for Photography and Vlogging

Our initial gear was primarily influenced by what was affordable, and a lot of what was affordable was what gear we already had. This is what our camera bag started out with and we use some of this gear still today.

 

CAMERAS

Canon G7X Mark II We used this camera for our first year of full-time travel as we ventured around the world. It went with us to Machu Picchu, the outback of Australia, and through Holi in India. We used this camera to our fullest extent and loved the flip out screen feature. If we were to go back in time, we would have bought the Canon G7X Mark III instead because there is a separate mic jack that would have greatly improved the audio quality.

Nikon DSLR D5200 This DSLR camera was mainly used for photography. It was gifted to Jenn during college and was a great starting point to jump into photography. We have a 24-70 lens and a 70-200 lens that we used during our first attempt at the Great Loop. It was a great camera to capture things far away!

 

OTHER CAMERAS

GoPro Hero 4 We bought this camera in 2016 and used it to record our engagement in Iceland. We continued to use this camera on our Galapagos trip as our primary water camera. 

DJI Mini, Fly More Combo  We bought this drone after 3 months of full-time international travel and loved it! It was super small so it didn’t add a lot of weight to our already heavy bags and gave us great aerial shots of the places we visited. It’s a great starter drone for anyone interested in drone photography and videography. We have since upgraded our drone to accommodate for stronger wind conditions.

 

ACCESSORIES

Joby Gorilla Pod We used this tripod as an extension of our arm when we first began vlogging. It was lightweight and allowed us to twist the tripod onto various surfaces, handrails, etc. and get unique shots.

 

We made a video reviewing all of our gear after one year of full time travel that you can watch here: