This video is sponsored... by me.
Having started this channel and produced about 130 long form videos in the last 18 months
I got to learn quite a bit about making videos and photography.
And I love talking about gear, this is the video I wanted to make all year! And finally
I get a chance to do it.
And this is not just me showing you what is in my camera bag but I will try and tell you
a little bit about each item and how I use it.
This is the sort of video that I watched over and over again from various different channels,
small and big creators trying to get inspiration. so don't be surprised if you spot some gear
in here that you've seen before in other channels. It's not a coincidence.
You know, I would add some of this gear into my basket and leave it there for months until
I could afford it or until I was brave enough to pull the trigger.
So whether you are just starting out or have already embarked on this journey of being
a creative person, I hope this inspires you too and gives you ideas for your next... let's
call it.. "investment".
That's what I keep telling myself. It's an investment.
Peak Design bag Starting with this great camera bag from Peak
Design, it's their everyday backpack in 20 litre version.
This has been in my shopping list for a long time. My buddy Patrick has also reviewed this
on his channel - so it must be good quality right?
That wasn't sarcarstic!
I will confess something to you, and I hope it helps you not make the same mistake I made.
Like most of my gear I tried to cut corners and buy something a bit cheaper to start with
and this was no different when I was choosing a camera bag.
Last year I bought this camera bag which costs a third of what the peak design bag costs.
They are very different bags but if I was to really think about how much I carry around
and how big I needed my bag to be, I would never have chosen that big bag.
Because it's so massive I only used it twice in a whole year and used a standard rucksack
for my gear. So complete waste of money in the end.
Anyway, since I bought the peak design, it's become my every day bag as their name suggests.
I am going for a dog walk and I feel like shooting some outdoor-y shots? This bag is
coming with me.
It's so light, very comfortable. And I can fit in just about everything I need to right
now. A camera, two lenses, a drone from time to time, my laptop or iPad Pro, and all the
accessories I carry.
If I ever do travel long distances and want to take more gear with me... I will have a
re-think then... but I don't plan to travel for big shoots any time soon so I feel this
will be perfect for me for a long time.
You can open the bag in so many different ways and the best part: without ever having
to remove the bag from your body!
Side pockets are great and can fit quite a few things in. It has all of these different
configurations inside to allow you to carry cameras, lenses, a drone in many different
ways to suit your style.
These organisers can be set as shelves, cubes or simply tucked away if you're not using
them.
I quite like this configuration that leaves the camera and lens in one side, with the
other side left for additional lenses or other accessories.
The top bit is super convenient too, it expands in four different sizes and has this extremely
satisfying magnetic latch, listen to this...
Love that!
It has secret compartments too some of which I haven't discovered yet!
Here at the top you can use to hide your phone, sunglasses or chargers.
There's a hidden inside pocket which I am using for a very cool item that I will show
you in a bit.
You don't want to carry this on your back? No problem, it has a side and a top handle
which is made with this really strong but very soft material, so it's very comfortable
to carry.
If you are into the whole Peak Design vibe, there are accessories you can get for this
bag like this Capture Clip to carry your camera. Or this Hip Belt.
Not for me right now, but it's good to know they have that.
The material is waterproof which is great, especially for me being here in the UK.
It rains. It rains a lot!!
and the zippers are fantastic, and you get two on each side, again to add that extra
level of convenience.
Any issues with this bag? I found one. And I am not sure yet if it's me doing something
wrong but when it's fully loaded and I am doing lots of walking, I start to feel the
straps getting a bit loose.
A quick tug and it's sorted but I thought I should mention it because it does annoy
me a little bit.
Now, let's get to the juicy stuff.
Sony A7S III This is now my main camera, the A7S III. I've
wanted this bad boy from the minute it was released. It's been added and removed from
my shopping cart several times.
It wasn't just a switch from Canon for me. But more like an upgrade.
I was using a cropped sensor camera which has been fantastic for me. This wasn't exactly
a cheap camera and I bought specifically because I wanted 120 FPS.
Not really sure why I wanted 120 FPS but I felt like the 90D was a good middle ground
between a point and shoot and a full frame.
Now with the A7S III I can see how gear does matter when you want to elevate your game.
There were times when I would see something. I would imagine the shot....
Then set it all up how I wanted...and then the result was... lacklustre or I had to cut
corners to make it work with the Canon.
In my first few weeks with this bad boy, I've been amazed at how sometimes I imagine that
shot and BAM! It delivers! sometimes it goes beyond my expectations!
I can now shoot in SLOG3 for example and add my own style to my videos.
The Canon was pretty good out of the camera to be fair but I love that I can be creative
now and go for something a little different without being constrained by picture profiles.
I am definitely in the honey moon phase still and will do a full review of it soon.
In short: If you are thinking about it and you have the cash to invest, you won't regret
it.
24mm 1.4 G Master With great power comes great responsibility.
And with a great camera, comes great EXPENDITURE.
To go with the A7S III, I paired it with this beauty right here, the 24mm 1.4 G Master from
Sony.
I haven't even scratched the surface of what this lens offers. It is a powerhouse in terms
of sharpness and auto focus. The Toneh is beautiful on this too.
Toneh = Boken (When you know... you know)
I wanted a really good Prime lens, that is great for close-ups, with that nice and close
focusing distance as I want to be able to use it for B-roll shots as well as external
shots or even shots like this.
Like I said, I barely scratched the surface of what this bad boy can do. Apparently this
is one of the best lenses for astrophotography.
I will need to give that a go soon!
TAMRON 28-75mm Then I chose the fantastic Tamron 28-75mm.
I chose this lens after watching Peter Lindgren and Dunna did it raving about how good this
is.
There was a third factor. I looked at my wallet.
They have a G2 of this lens now which only costs $20 bucks more than the original and
it has a few more bells and whistles.
I got this one second-hand but it is in great condition and having that range of 28-75 just
gives me so many options.
This entire A-roll shot is done on that lens set to 35mm. But If I wanted to Casey Neistat
myself here, I could reach and zoom in a bit.
But no one wants to see that. Back to 35mm... there it is.
The Tamron is great for B-roll shots too, there's no stabe built-in, but I can plonk
this on my slider or my Gimbal and it works like a champ.
I probably want to get a 85mm soon for even better close-up shots or a 70-200 for some
photography but I might rent them out first and see if I like them, these things are quite
large investments so I am happy for now with these two.
Microphone Over here I have my audio stuff. I always
carry my Rode go wireless mic. I bought these before I started the channel and they saved
my bacon several times!
I used them a lot as my backup audio here in the office but when I record outside, you
can bet I will be using these.
They are much better than the camera built-in microphones and because I am filming by myself
all the time, I might be away from the camera quite a bit so these are perfect for those
situations.
And don't let the budget price fool you, these are solid microphones. Never experienced any
lag or crackling or anything like that.
Rode Video mic Pro Plus Occasionally though I will carry this on camera
shotgun mic, the Rode Video Mic Pro Plus. This has an option to run on batteries or
charged via Micro-USB cable. The battery lasts for 100 hours so it can really be used on
the road without stress.
You've seen lots of people on YouTube using this, it's great for vlogging, it has great
rejection and extremely clear sound.
It has other features that I never really use like the 3 stage gain control for added
oomph! And a High-Pass Filter too to reduce those annoying low frequencies like traffic
rumble or A/C units if you have them.
People in the UK will be like "A/C units?"
Something else that's cool about this mic? It works with smartphones too, if you use
a TRS-TRRS cable (and a lightning adaptor if you have an iPhone).
Yeah, that can level up your game even if you're just recording with a mobile.
Tripods This is the Manfrotto Pixi Evo. I had this
from my very first videos on YouTube.
I use them every week. Great to use it with the camera for those low shots or even quick
vlogging shots, but also for lights or my mobile phone, with this manfrotto clamp.
If you are trying to capture a timelapse shot a mini tripod with a smartphone clamp will
be really handy!!
Manfrotto Befree GTX PRO This bigger tripod is not strictly IN MY BAG,
but because is carbon fibre, this is extremely light, so if I am planning a shot that needs
a bigger tripod, this is the one that comes with me.
It's the Manfrotto Befree GTXPRO in carbon fibre.
I will be honest with you, I always hated tripods but after I got this one I learned
another valuable lesson.
The reason I hated them was because I bought those very cheap ones online that were very
clunky and unstable. Pretty horrible really. They were ok for some indoor shots but waste
of money really.
These are more expensive but it only takes using them a couple of times to realise...
These will last a long time and are actually ---I never thought I would say this about
a tripod--- but they are nice to use.
The legs open really wide for trickier shots and you can set up this center column at 90
degrees for even more creative options.
Drone - DJI Mavic Pro 2 My drone here is the DJI Mavic Pro 2. Probably
my favourite piece of equipment, I wish I used it more to be honest but I am always
self conscious of using it in public.
I have done a couple of videos where it was super useful to have it, I did one where I
wanted to drop my phone from my car so it was cool to have the drone follow me.
Other than that I like to use it for establishing shots, like when I was in Sardinia in Italy
to give you an idea of where I was.
Again, I wish I used it more, it has way more features than I need but very easy to use
it. It goes quite fast and I got the Fly more version which comes with all these extra batteries.
Which fit perfectly in these dividers here and saves me having to carry the drone bag
itself.
Pouch from DJI I then use this random DJI Pouch with small
bits
Variable ND Filter Like this super cool variable ND filter. I
never really got to use this with the Canon because the only lens I had that this would
work with was too wide for what I need.
Now with these two lenses I can see me using this filter a lot more. It has this really
clever mechanism to lock into the lenses, without any need for step up rings.
That's right! no more step up rings! They do other sizes but they beauty here is that
they have a range, like this one is from 67mm to 82mm so it will fit quite a few different
lenses. One ND filter, for various lenses. Awesome.
After I bought these I noticed Philip Bloom raves on about them as well so you know...
great minds.
Did I REALLY just compared myself with Philip Bloom???
Sorry! Must be the wine.
Nomad card What else have I got here?
I have this really cool Nomad Card for the AirTag.
I was keeping it in the pouch but now that I have these secret compartments, I think
I will leave it there. I hope I never have to use it but I am know to have left a Macbook
pro or two on aeroplanes before.
Memory cards - Pro Grade Since being able to record 4k in 10bit I learned
that the 128GB game that got me going on the Canon 90D is really not enough for the A7S
III. so I got these Pro Grade memory cards in 256GB.
These are recommended by Gerald Undone too so I think we are in safe hands here.
I am really name dropping every Youtube creator here - but those are the guys I watched for
inspiration so I have no issues in telling you where I got the ideas from.
I believe Pro Grade are the only ones doing 256GB on the V90 cards still and they had
a nice deal going on when you buy two, so worth a look.
SSDs When they do fill up though, that's when I
need to offload them onto my SSDs. These are great for using as an extension of your local
storage but I like to use them in a rotation that is similar to what people do in IT.
So files that are supporting live projects are kept locally, then onto SSDs and after
a month or two they go into a cheaper hard drive storage like the LACIE here.
I don't carry the LACIE drives with me, but that's where everything will eventually live.
After a year of doing YouTube videos I think I am getting to a point where I might need
to invest in a NAS.
But to be honest I like to be forced to only keep stuff I might one day use again. for
example once the video is uploaded to YouTube, I get rid of the A-roll which can easily be
70-100GB these days.
Satechi USB-C + SSD Whether I am taking my laptop or the iPad
Pro, this Satechi enclosure comes with me.
Yes looks like a dongle. smells like a dongle. But it's actually also a SSD enclosure.
When you open this bad boy you can see here I have am M.2 1TB SATA SSD. It has 2 USB Type
A 3.0 ports, a power delivery USB-C port AND a HDMI port.
I wish it had a card reader to be honest but hey, it's a nice compromise having that extra
bit of storage in something that's basically extending how I use the iPad.
All we need now is for Apple to pull their finger out and give us support for external
displays and we will be laughing!
That's never gonna happen is it? Oh well!
I have some cleaning items here as well, just in case I get a smudge or need to get rid
of finger prints. I take a lot of shots of the iPhone and I hate when I forget to remove
the fingerprints.
Knife I carry this lovely knife from Benchmade - barely
legal here in the UK. That's not a knoife. That's a knoife!
I love this thing, looks great on camera and very functional. Makes me feel very manly.
When I am opening those darn Amazon boxes. Frustration free packaging. This definitely
makes it frustration free!
Arca-swiss Couple of Arca swiss plates here for good
measure.
Aputure B7C and MC lights These lights are one of my favourite pieces
of tech too, they are from Aputure. And to be honest that's pretty much all that needs
to be said. Very powerful little lights, can add that little extra spice to a shot to really
make a difference.
This is the MC light and this is the B7C. I reviewed them on the channel before but
they are essentially a must have for any creator.
I love how this lightbulb looks as well and they can be both controlled by an app or using
the button controls. More controls on the MC lights
Earfun earbuds In this little pocket here I carry the Earfun
earbuds. The main reason I carry these is because they stay put in my ears. Great sound
quality and decent active noise cancellation. It does the job!
M1 iPad Pro Now, Another juicy product here is my M1 iPad
Pro. I just recorded a collab with another creator talking about my favourite piece of
tech in 2021 and it has to be the M1 iPad Pro.
It definitely has its flaws but there is nothing out there in the market that comes anywhere
near when it comes to performance, features and hardware.
I still wish it would support external monitors a bit better and that more apps would start
to take advantage of all that processing power.
That mini-led display is just fantastic whether I am using it indoors or outside and the accessories
are awesome from Apple. I am rocking this magnetic pad at the back here to be used with
this MOFT stand.
Really clever solution and because it's so low profile and light, it is perfect for the
iPad. It saves me carrying the full size keyboard. Unless I am going somewhere to write a script,
or be doing a lot of work, in that case the MOFT stand stays behind and the Magic Keyboard
comes with me instead.
I hope this was useful!
I will see you and your smiling faces on the next one. Don't forget to subscribe!