My Photography Gear List 2025 // Gear
If you read our Photography Gear List 2023, you’d know our running joke of M upgrading something in our gear kit after every trip. Needless to say, that tradition has not stopped and we are on yet another iteration of our favorite gear.
As we get older, we increasingly prefer minimal fuss, and value these three things when choosing gear:
High quality
Compact and Lightweight
Captures 90% of all the shots we want.
The gear’s beauty is a bonus.
My husband and I have bought and tested a LOT of gear, and we are friends with many professional photographers, so are always discussing the best gear to own. It goes without saying that we’ve spent a lot of time refining this gear list. The best part is that it and all fits in one backpack, though we usually spread it across two when traveling to the location, then pick the gear for the day so that we can carry the least possible amount in one. Our previous gear is all included in another blog post, as our current gear is pretty pricey. Let’s get started!
Camera Bodies:
When Sony announced their Sony A-1, M decided that this was the camera to end all cameras, and we switched entirely to Sony. The photos that come out of these cameras are unbelievable.
This is Sony’s flagship “do it all” camera. It shoots 50mp photos, records 8k30p and 4k120p footage, and does it all nearly perfectly. It’s definitely a splurge, but if you want to travel with ONE body that can produce professional level results for photo and video, in our opinion, there’s nothing better.
They recently released the Sony Alpha 1 II, which has a flip out screen, but we haven’t upgraded yet. Our friend has, though, and loves it.
We upgraded from the Sony Alpha 7C, which we still own and use at home, just not while traveling. M still uses the 7C for his webcam setup (extreme, I know). More details on his full webcam setup can be found here.
On a recent, 6-week trip, we only brought this camera for filming (it has that flip out screen) and the next one.
This camera has become our go-to for walking around. It looks nice everywhere from walking on the street to fine dining, and the lens quality is amazing.
Lenses:
After many years of debating whether to buy a 24-70mm, we finally bit the bullet and love it. 24mm is generally wide enough for whatever we need (equivalent to an iPhone’s 1x camera), and 70mm gives good zoom capability.
This is our favorite vlog lens. Weight matters so much when vlogging and this lens is crazy light. Fast enough at f/2.8 to get great low light shots and wide enough at 20mm for almost all vlog shots you can think of, including the two of us when handheld backwards. Fantastic and very affordable lens.
Other lenses we have but aren’t using as often these days:
We used to shoot with this lens 90% of the time. The zoom lens is the perfect walking around lens because it’s wide enough to capture landscapes and scenery, while still being zoomed in enough to emphasize the people in that scene. It’s also fast enough to shoot in low light, razor sharp, and to quote M, “just awesome.”
If you’re looking for the perfect portrait lens, this is it. Everything that comes out of this lens just looks better. Just point it at a subject and watch the magic happen. The f/1.4 gives amazing depth of field, bokeh, and low-light performance. One of my favorite lenses ever.
We also own a 70-200mm f/2.8 and a Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-f/6.3 for safari or other wildlife photography. More details on that can be found here.
Other:
Lightweight and portable, this drone comes with us everywhere. It folds up really small, and shoots HD video at 120 fps, or 4k60, but we mostly use it for the very high quality 5.4k video. We previously had the DJI Spark (which doesn't film 4k) and the DJI Mavic Air (which we crashed), but had issues with the range and connection quality with both of these. The Air 2S has been (again to quote M), “rock solid.”
It’s shocking that GoPro is now on the HERO11, because it feels like yesterday that we got our GoPro. But we use it all the time when we go on adventurous travels (primarily water or air), and it’s the best for capturing underwater life while snorkeling.
This is the lightest, most compact tripod that is still strong enough to support our gear, and is insanely affordable for a carbon-fiber tripod. My only gripe is that it sometimes isn’t tall enough.
SD Cards
You can’t film 8k on a regular SD card, so we use a super fast one for all the Sony videos.
And then a fast Sony SD 128gb for photos.
We like the 20L because it's not too big, even for me, to carry. It fits all our gear, including an extra water bottle and jacket.
Peak Design 15L Everyday Backpack Zip
We got this smaller, 15L backpack for days when we don’t need as much gear. When we fly, I carry this one and M carries the 20L.
We used to use the full neck strap, but now only use the hand strap. This does means we are either holding the camera and actively shooting, or it’s put away in the backpack, vs just slung across our bodies indefinitely.
We used to also carry a gimbal, a microphone, extra batteries, and another camera body, but have since cut those out of our lineup. The A1 has in-body stabilization, so the gimbal isn’t really needed, and the one we had doesn’t support the weight of this camera anyway. As mentioned above, our 2nd camera body is usually left at home, mounted above M’s monitor. If we go on safari or something, we might bring it.
Editing:
This computer is super fast and lightweight, and makes editing a breeze. M got it earlier this year when he was tired of how slow his previous one was.
11-inch iPad Pro (with Apple Pencil and Keyboard)
I love this machine, and use it all the time, to take notes, sketch ideas, and review photos quickly. I’ve had it for 6 years and still use it regularly.
Honestly, I do so much editing on my phone these days it would be unfair to not include it here. M has the 14 Pro, and I have a 16 Pro.
We added another SSD hard drive to our lineup, so we own this 4TB one and this 2TB one. An SSD that weighs next to nothing, writes stupidly fast and stores a lot is critical, especially on longer trips (our typical trip length is 3-6 weeks). If you’re not taking as many photos/videos, you probably only need 1TB at most.
I’m sure you’ve heard how valuable AirTags can be, and we travel with 4 of them — one for each of our bags, and one for each of our suitcases. They are so easy to use and the battery lasts for about a year. We’ve even used them at home when we couldn’t find a backpack once (it was hidden under a large storage unit we have).
This is the main software I use for any kind of photo editing. I usually start with a preset I’ve made to do a first pass on my photos, then tweak them to my liking.
This is what we edit all our videos in. Its not the most user friendly, but it's super customizable and a powerful video editor.
Other:
For our other travel-musts, I’ll be updating my 2022 Travel Gear blog post (can’t believe it’s been 3 years since I wrote it!) soon.