The Camera Gear I’m Using
One of the most frequently asked questions is: which camera are you using? or what’s your camera gear so in this post I’m going to share with you all of the gear and accessories I’m using.
Although a better gear can help us in many ways with achieving better results in many cases, it is still just a tool and should be considered as that.
In my opinion (and others too) the best and most improvement will come from practicing and getting to know better the gear you already have before any new purchase, even if it means using your phone only at the beginning.
So lets start!
Camera Bodies
My Main Body: the Sony a6400 Mirrorless Camera
The Sony a6400 is my main body since the end of 2020 (when it replaced the a6000 which was my main body back then), the a6400 is a great camera with some amazing capabilities for its size! very fast auto focus, great 1080p and 4K video and more.
oI used this camera since 2020 mainly and you can see its great results in the trips to Africa, Central Asia, the UAE, the Philippines and more.
Secondary Body: the Sony a6000 Mirrorless Camera
The a6000 today is my secondary body that i’m not using as much as i used to, but this great model will always have a warm spot in my heart.
The a6000 was the first “real” camera i purchased myself and seriously started learning and practicing on. I purchased this camera in 2016 and since then i traveled with it to countless amount of countries between 2016 and 2021.
Some of the places i’ve visited with the a6000 are Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Laos, Myanmar, many countries in Europe and more.
In 2024 (while writing this) the a6000 is a bit outdated for its focus speed and other features but it is a still great camera for beginners if you are on a low budget. especially if buying it 2nd hand. just make sure to pair it with a good lens and you can get some great results.
The Lenses I’m Using
Lenses are actually as important to the end result as the actual camera or even more than the camera body itself. Let’s use this metaphor just to get the idea: if the camera is the car, the lens is basically the gearbox, they both can’t work without the other.
Bad gearbox with a good engine will just cause a bad driving experience and vise versa. That’s the reason why lenses are as important as the camera and some cases even more.
Sony 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS (SELP1650 Kit Lens)
This is the kit lens that most of the Sony APS-C cameras in the last 10 years are coming with out of the box. This is a very compact lens with an expendable zoom from 16mm wide to 50mm narrow. This a really nice lens to begin with, especially the wider side with the lower aperture of as low as F3.5 which can provide some really nice results in good light.
My advice for beginners is try to the kit lens (this model or another if you have a different camera brand) for a while (6-12 months at least) till you know your gear enough and can tell which focal length attracts you the most. then you can decide about your next move of adding a better lens. there is no point in buying any expensive lens before you know your camera and its features from A to Z.
Sony 35mm F1.8 (SEL35F18)
This is one of my favorite lenses that i have for quite a while (since 2017), this great lens has a really good image and video quality in a very compact size, which makes it a really good lens for traveling.
The lens has a built in OSS (Optical Steady Shot) which is a built in image stabilizer which helps mainly for videos and low light while using a low shutter speed.
I took this lens to some of the most memorable trips in South East Asia, lots of places in Europe and even Africa.
Samyang/ Rokinon 12mm F2.0 Ultra Wide Lens
This is a great fully manual ultra-wide prime lens, i really love using this lens for landscape, some nature photography and even architecture.
This is a fully manual lens which means that both the focus and aperture are manual so it takes some amount of practicing and understanding.
Sigma 56mm F1.4: the sharpest lens for Sony APS-C
Sigma 100-400mm F5-6.3 Contemporary DG DN OS
This is a great lens that i have purchased for my first safari trip in Africa back in 2021, this is a telephoto zoom lens with the focal length of 100-400mm which makes it a great wildlife lens especially on APS-C body (because of the crop factor), the lens is compatible with full frame sensors as well.
This lens is a great option for photographers that wants to get into the wildlife photography without going “all in” and buying a very expensive 400mm or 600mm prime lens. The results are great for this lens especially in a good light conditions especially while considering the very affordable price of less than 1000$. I used this lens on my safari trips to Kenya and India mainly.
Underwater Gear
GoPro Hero 4 Silver
The GoPro Silver is a great and cheap underwater camera that i originally purchased in 2016. The image quality was good back them but today (in 2024) i will take a leter model like the Hero 7-10.
GoPro Hero 7 Black
The GoPro Hero 7 is the 2nd GoPro i bought for a better image and video quality. This model has better colors than the Hero 4, with a build in stabilizer and 4K video capabilities.
Tripods & Accessories
The Tripods I’m Using
K&F Concept 64 inch/163cm Travel Tripod
This is the first tripod i have purchase in the past, it is very affordable (around 50-60$) and doing a great job as a traveling tripod as long as you don’t have any huge or heavy lenses.
JOBY GorillaPod 3K – Flexible Tripod with a Ballhead
This is one of the most popular flexible tripods from GorillaPod, it is really nice if you need a small tripod for traveling. it is good for filming yourself on a desk, trees or anything around you. pretty affordable with the ball head as well.
INNOREL RT80C Carbon Fiber Heavy Duty Tripod
I’ve purchased this tripod for wildlife photography, although this tripod is very overkill for my current setup (its maximum load is 20Kg), I decided to get this one in case that i will upgrade the lens in the future for something bigger but for most people it is not needed, unless you have a 400mm or 600mm prime lenses.
Memory Cards & External Hard Drives
The Memory Cards Im Using
Memory cards are something that some beginners will save on for some reason, but this is the LAST thing to save money on, especially when today some great memory cards from SanDisk or Lexar or even Sony are pretty affordable.
Just think about the memory card as your insurance policy, you can have the best gear in the world but if your SD fails with the all of the great pictures you’ve captured during your last trip it would be a disaster (always backup your files every 1-2 days). so please just don’t save a few dollars on a good memory card.
I’m using 5-6 SD cards from SanDisk with a capacity of 64GB each (for me it is the best balance but you can buy bigger ones too).
External Hard Drives
External hard drives (SSD or HDD) are something im always traveling with as a backup. In every 1-3 days i will backup the files from my camera to the hard drive just to make sure the files are safe and to reduce the chances of any card failure or anything like that.
My First HDD: Transcend 1TB USB 3.1 Gen 1 StoreJet
A few years ago i have purchased one of the travel HDDs (mechanical hard drive) from Transcend which was a great hard drive for the price back then but today those mechanical hard drives are a bit slow so i would recommend getting a faster SSD if you need a faster drive (i will talk about the one I’m using later).
External SSDs I’m Using
Later on i decided that i need a faster backup option so i decided to purchase the this Crucial SSD model which is very compact (smaller than a KitKat bar) and pretty fast with USB-C capabilities.
Thankfully the prices of the SSDs today are pretty affordable too so it wasn’t expensive as well. since this SSD is so fast (like most of the SSDs today) i use it with my Lightroom Catalog as well so you can basically move your catalog from one laptop to another or to a PC very easily without using accounts and passwords etc.
Other Accessories
Microphones I’m Using
In the last a few years I’ve purchased a few microphones for a few purposes, mainly for videos for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube when im talking to the cameras or capturing other people / objects.
BOYA Lavalier Lapel Microphone – Wired Mic
This is a simple and affordable microphone but with relatively high sound quality and a very lightweight, which is good for traveling and outdoors. Great value for money for less than 20$!
BOYA by-MM1 On-Camera Shotgun Microphone
Great and small shotgun mic that I usually use on my camera for filming food videos or other ambience content or even wildlife videos (standard 3.5mm plug).
DJI Mic 2 (1 TX + 1 RX) Wireless Microphone
This is a great and compact wireless microphone from DJI, what i like about this one is the high sound quality and the wide compatibility with the iPhone, Android, camera and more. I mainly use it for social media videos and voice overs.
That’s it guys, it is very important to say that all of the gear above (good or bad it may be) is just a tool. the best results will be achieved from learning and practicing with what we already have as i mentioned above. Funny enough, some of my best posts ever are just made with the iPhone (and not with any camera or expensive lens) which means that everything is possible today as long as you put the effort and let your creativity do the job.
Enjoy and never stop dreaming.
Much love, Ben.
Disclaimer: some of the links in this page are affiliate links. Which means whenever you buy something through one of these links, I get a small commission with no extra cost to you. I will only recommend products or services I used myself and satisfied with. you can choose to use one of the links for supporting the blog or to purchase directly from the supplier. Thank you for your support.
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