Our Camera Equipment
We both love photography, it’s a big part of our travels. If you are not at least a moderate camera enthusiast, you might find the equipment we brought with us to be a bit overwhelming.
The first DSLR body we purchases was the Canon Rebel XT, known as Canon 350D outside North America. We decided to go with this camera even though it is the lower end of the scale in Canon’s SLR models. It was very light in weight and cheaper in price. We thought it would be best to put our money into high quality lenses.
We recently picked up another camera to have as a second body. It’s the Canon Xsi or 450D. We have been really happy with it’s results and function.
Thinking of all the possible photo situations we might encounter on our travels made it hard to decide what lenses to purchase. We also had to keep the weight in mind. We ended up going with three lenses that gave us a good range and worked well to to cover a variety of situations.
- EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 wide angle (love this lens, great for taking pictures of buildings inside and out, and landscapes)
- EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM (our pride and joy, we had to shell out the big bucks for this baby! Amazing lens, super fast and sharp)
- EF 70-200mm f/4L USM ( great zoom lens, the best we could afford, would have love to have got the f/2.8 in this one or a longer zoom, but we needed to have some money left for the trip!)
The rest of our gear includes:
- hoods for each lens
- dust cloth and lens cleaning fluid as well as packs of pre-moistened wipes
- dust blower
- extra camera batteries for all cameras and chargers
- several memory cards for each camera
- LowPro CompuTrekker Backpack
- small and lightweight tripod
- Canon 430EX Speedlite and extra batteries
- Lexar dual card reader
- Asus 14 inch laptop with DVD burner
- Canon Powershot SD300 (compact point and shoot)
We choose the LowPro CompuTrekker backpack. It fits all our gear perfectly and has padded slot for our 14 inch laptop to slip into as well. After removing the LowPro logos it looks like a regular back pack. See our post on Keeping Camera Gear Safe.
There is still plenty of room in the outer pockets of the pack for maps, cell phones and snacks. LowPro has lens cases that can attach to the outer sides of the bag, allowing more room in the interior if you need it. We also purchased a water bottle holder that attaches to the bag.
There is a fold out pocket and strap system to accommodate a tripod. Usually we didn’t want to advertise it was a camera bag so our small tripod went into a day pack.
We took a small pocket size Canon digital with a bit of a zoom and minor video capabilities. When it wasn’t convenient or unsafe to take out our larger camera we would use the small point and shoot. They are small enough to slip into your pants or shorts pocket. Many people travel solely with one of these little cameras either from Canon or Nikon. Some of the shots I have taken with them are quite remarkable. The video technology has greatly improved on the newer ones as well. See our post for mirroless cameras as a smaller but high quality camera option.
We love the Gepe card safes for holding memory cards. They are extremely tough and waterproof. You can choose from several different sizes and styles. The ones we have can hold two SD cards and two Compact Flash cards sit over top of them.
For more information see our post on Digital Photo Storage While Traveling.