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A lot of people ask me what my everyday gear is and I would love to hear what you guys use! I’ll drop links for everything below for those who are curious. This is my current everyday kit; it has taken me quite a bit to narrow things down to these essentials. I have spent a lot of time and effort in researching and trying out different gear. One problem I had, that I think is easy for anyone to run into, is excess spending on stuff I never needed or used which eventually just turns into dead weight to carry around. This is my bare minimums kit. Keep in mind we do a lot of traveling and spend lots of time outside so I hate carrying a bunch of extra items with me so this setup keeps me well rounded. I occasionally take a gimbal or drone but this is the ESSENTIALS.

Camera

I currently shoot all my photos and videos on the Sony A7RII. This is a fantastic full frame camera, I always joke with people that I can hand this camera off to a random person and they can start shooting for Vogue! This camera makes it that easy! The 42.4MP is great for when you need to crop photos, make those Instagram bangers, or to get rid of unwanted content. The NPFZ100 batteries last forever, I only carry two if I’m doing Hybrid shooting and usually 4 if I’m doing just video. I could go into all the technical specs of this but maybe at a later date. Don’t want to scare you guys away already!

Lenses

These may get long, oh boy… I got rid of a majority of my primes to make way for zoom lens to cut down on weight and of course costs. Sorry Sigma, your art lenses are gorgeous but they are bulky and too heavy to be lugging everywhere. I currently use the Tamron 17-28 F2.8, Tamron 28-75 F2.8 and the mother of them all… The G master 70-200 F2.8. Why do I use Tamron lens and carry the G master? The Tamron lenses have great focal lengths but the weight savings of these compared to the 16-35 F2.8 and 24-70 F2.8 G master are night and day! Not to mention they leave your wallet intact to splurge on other gear.

I do have some complaints about the Tamron though, but they are rather petty things that I have just gotten used to. I hate that the focus ring (rear of the lens) and the zoom ring (front of the lens) are inverted so it takes some getting used to. With the zoom ring being in the front, I find at times when you have the lens hood stored on the lens it interferes with full articulation of the zoom ring. Lastly I hate the cheesy lens cover, BUT the image quality makes me forget about all of these.

The G master 70-200 F2.8 is one of my favorite lenses I have used from Sony. I wouldn’t say by any means it’s a good run-and-gun lens, but it is a good all purpose portrait/travel lens. It does weight a lot, not just the lens but the price too! If I ever need a little extra reach I just switch to crop sensor shooting.

Memory Cards

I use a mix of the Sandisk Extreme Pro and Sony SF-G cards (not cheap at all!). No matter what I use 64gbs and some people think I’m crazy for it. Well let me tell you why- I have a paranoia of shooting too much content on a larger card and losing everything whereas if I use a 64gb in place of a 128gb I can recover half of my photos. Sony’s dual slot system puts this at ease as you can write to both cards. The Sony cards I try to use mainly for video due to write speeds but some of my friends say the speed vs cost isn’t worth it to them.

Strap

I love me some Peak Design, so I use the Slide Lite strap. Love it and the quick release anchor system. I seriously put these on everything. There’s even one on Joby! Get you one of these straps and change your life.

Hand Held Tripod

I use the Joby 3K Gorillapod for just walking around with or to make the camera more ergonomical. This is one of my fiance’s favorite items as we named “Joby” Joby naturally. I don’t use this as an actual tripod as I don’t trust it not send my camera plunging towards the ground.

Flash

I don’t use this guy much but when I do it saves my butt every time. I carry the Sony HVL-F43M and the only reason I have this is because I got it for a steal or else I would’ve grabbed a couple of Godox Flashes.

Lighting

I LOVE THIS GUY! I use the Aputure Amaran AL-M9 often. My friends and clients are blown away with the results this little guy can produce. You can use it to take some shadows off a subject or my favorite, use the gels included to add some flair to your nighttime photos.

Microphone

Nothing fancy here, I used the Rode VideoMicro. Its cheap, light and doesn’t use extra batteries. I’ve had rain destroy a couple of these already but I never hesitate to pick up another one

UV FIlters- I use the Hoya HD3 or NXTplus UV filters. I’ll go into filters and polarizers more at a later date!

These are my main essentials, I will get into backpacks (my favorite) at a later date. I’d love to hear what you guys are using or if you end up using any of this what your thoughts are!

Gear links-

Sony A7RIII- https://amzn.to/31SBt4u

Tamron 17-28 F2.8- https://amzn.to/2HfJYyi

Tamron 28-75 F2.8- https://amzn.to/2Zhm3c8

Sony 70-200 F2.8 G master- https://amzn.to/2NeZH4N

Sandisk Extreme Pro 64gb- https://amzn.to/31RKvyx

Sony SF-G 64gb- https://amzn.to/33JUA2b

Peak Design Slide Lite- https://amzn.to/2ZhdjPc

Joby 3k Gorillapod- https://amzn.to/2Z58k91

Sony HVL-F43M Flash- https://amzn.to/2YY7NWm

Aputure Amaran AL-M9- https://amzn.to/2Zcgl7r

Rode VideoMicro- https://amzn.to/2NiiA6M