““Which camera do you guys use?””
This question is probably one of the most frequent we are asked.
Which is the reason this post was created, gosh, nearly five years ago. Yet as with anything that you become passionate about, kit tends to be upgraded and as such, this current list bears no resemblance to that first incarnation, created when all that hung from our - admittedly, more well-toned - shoulders was a canny Canon G15 and a battered 500D that had seen better days.
What you’ll find in this post are all the cameras and lenses we currently use on the road, plus the photography items, specialist insurance, editing software that are essential for our photography, our blog, and our sanity.
But we haven’t forgotten where we started. We’ve loved every camera we’ve ever owned, and for that moment in our photography career, they were perfect. So instead of simply deleting the old equipment, the stuff relegated to a dusty shelf or passed down, we’ve left the links for you - so no matter where you are in your travel photography journey, you can find something perfect for you too.
Cameras
Sony a7r iii
We resisted doing video for some time, fearful of having to start at the bottom again after we we’d improved our photography so much. We filmed a couple of things on our Canon cameras, but as they were older models, they just weren’t up to the task - we knew that if videography was something we were going to actively pursue, we needed a camera that could cope.
And so we invested in the Sony a7r iii, a top the range mirrorless camera. What Andrew didn’t expect to find however was a camera he loved shooting photos on as much as our Canons. It’s now his favourite!
The other great thing is that given it’s mirrorless, when it has a small lens attached, it’s super light and much less obvious when taking street photos.
. . .
Canon 5D MK IV
When we first began taking our photography seriously, this was the camera that Emily dreamed about. And, finally, back in 2019, we were able to buy it.
With a retail price of around £2500, it’s not a cheap bit of kit - but for Canon loving pros, it’s the camera of choice. And boy does it deliver. With 30.4MP, the ability to shoot 4K video and an exceptional level of precision and quality, this is likely to be one of our main camera bodies for many years to come.
Absolutely worth the wait!
. . .
Our previous Cameras
Canon Lenses
CANON EF 24-70mm F/2.8L II USM
Bought 2018
The daddy of all lenses for us.
It's one that a lot of travel photographers swear by (although some of them will own the more expensive F/1.4), and it had long been a dream of Emily's to buy this lens.
It certainly isn't cheap, but we've definitely seen the step up in quality since we invested in this at the beginning of 2018.
It's now our go-to lens for street photography, landscapes, portraits and everything in between.
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4
Bought 2011
We love this lens. If it was attached to a full-frame SLR, I think it would never be removed. Unfortunately, the equivalent focal range on our camera means it's not ideal for street photography, but when it gets the shot - by god does it get the shot.
For those on a crop-frame but a little more serious about their photography, this is your reasonably priced (it retails at around £250) option for taking professional quality, jaw-droppingly beautiful images. And, when you're ready to upgrade your camera, the 50mm lens will still fit full-frame models.
It's an essential bit of kit for any aspiring photographer.
…
our previous lenses
Camera Insurance
Even the best travel insurance in the world wouldn't cover the loss of our camera equipment - and one of the most common mistakes when buying travel insurance is expecting it to cover a lot of your specialist tech. Most general travel plans will only insure single items to a value of £200-£300 and have very onerous terms and conditions for claims.
So, our main travel insurance policies with True Traveller are not to cover our photography or blogging equipment.
However, many off-the-shelf photography insurance plans will not provide extensive coverage for the travel element of what we do, restricting coverage for our equipment to 30 days maximum out of the UK.
We had to do a lot of research to find a specialist photography insurer which would provide good, affordable coverage for our laptops, lenses, and camera bodies, alongside catering to our travels. The best option overall appeared to be Photoshield, which provides professional and semi-professional photography and videography insurance.
They offer standard plans from £99 - £299 a year - if you do go with them, please use our refer-a-friend code PHO/9600144!
Thankfully we haven't ever had to claim on a policy yet, but we wouldn't dream of travelling without it.
ACCESSORIES
Tripod
Ever noticed how there are pretty much no photos of us together on the blog? Well, after several years of hopeless selfies with far too much arm, things are about to change - we've finally invested in a decent tripod!
What we didn't realise at the time however, is quite how expensive a piece of kit this could be. For those of you, like us, looking for the best combination of functionality, design and price, we've discovered our perfect tripod - the Prima PHTR001 Foldable Tripod. It extends to 153cm, it's got a ball head, it's strong enough to hold an SLR plus a heavy lens but lightweight enough for hand-luggage and it costs only £79.99.
Seriously, this is nearly half the price of better known brand models, like the excellent Manfrotto travel tripod.
Canon Remote
Unless we wanted to spend all our time running to and from the camera, relying on the shutter timer (and we all know how well those shots work out!), once we'd sorted the tripod, the obvious next purchase with the tripod was the Canon Remote.
Whilst in only works if you're standing on front of the camera - as opposed to at the side - it is the perfect gadget to ensure we can capture a shot or two of us, as a couple, in all these amazing places we visit.
LensPen
If you're anything like us, you're frequently finding bits of dust and the odd smudge on your lenses - no matter how careful you are.
Finally frustrated with using the edge of a clean t-shirt trick, we invested in this Classic Lens Pen. It's great at removing finger-prints and debris at absolutely no risk to your expensive lenses.
Transcend 1TB Hard Drive
Within 24 hours of leaving for Mexico, one of the worst things that could happen to a photographer happened - our hard drive died. Thankfully, the HD was new and had only a few GBs of data on it, but it could have been so much worse. The culprit? A WD My Passport HD. Apparently, this is not uncommon with this brand - avoid them at all costs!
So, we needed a replacement. It took a little while for the trust to be rebuilt but we couldn't be happier with our alternative. The Transcend 1TB is apparently military tested and can be dropped from all sort of crazy heights. Whilst we wouldn't recommend chucking it out of the side of a building, it does seem pretty resilient.
Definitely a keeper, and we now own eight of these.
SanDisk Memory Card
We're pretty vigilant about getting photos off of our camera as soon as possible, but for those times when you know you're not going to make it to a computer for a while, or when you expect to take A LOT of photos on a particularly special day trip, it doesn't hurt to carry a few back up memory cards with you.
We've both been fans of SanDisk, having upgraded to bigger storage capacities over the last few years as we got more interested in photography. We now don’t buy anything with lower storage than 64 or 128 GB - with this 95MB/s 64 GB SD card our most purchased*.
When travelling, we have at least four SD cards.
*Tip - never buy your SD cards last minute on the high street or at the airport as the mark up on price is huge. Buying from the official SanDisk Amazon store is by far the cheapest option (although they limit you to about 4-5 SD card purchases at the same time as it’s so much cheaper than everywhere else).
SD Card Holder
You really don't want to know how long Andrew spent looking for an SD card holder. Seriously. Disappointed at the functionality and hold of our previous cheap aluminium one, which felt like it was just a business card holder with some foam stuck in, we upgraded at the start of 2018 to this beast.
It was the right choice. For a start, the case and clip are extremely solid. Secondly, it's got space for both our main SD cards and our smaller SD ones, and lots of them at once. Lastly, it holds those cards in place very tightly (which means you do have to be a little careful pulling them out).
In short, it's exactly what we wanted in an SD card holder for our travels both on and off the beaten track.
Transcend Card Reader
We carry a lot of gadgets, which means we have an obscenely large number of cables - anything we can do to reduce the size of the 'cable bag' (yes, we really have to have a special bag) is greatly appreciated. Also, the memory card reader on Andrew's Mac is very hit and miss - we needed something more reliable.
Enter, the fantastic Transcend Memory Card Reader. Instead of having to carry around a separate cord to attach each camera to the computer, this hand little device does the job nicely instead with a pull-out USB connection. Also accepts a couple of other different cards for even more versatility.
CAMERA STRAP
Bored with the standard black strap which comes with our SLRs, we decided to make them a little more interesting with a multi-colour camera strap. The one in the picture is the one we have, but there are a bunch of different patterns and colours available.
With a strap costing less than £10/$10, it's one of the best ways to personalise your little baby (and it means potential thieves aren't automatically aware of your camera brand and model!)
Update May 2019: These straps have been with us for three years now and are still going strong!
Photo Editing
ADOBE LIGHTROOM
We have learned over the years how integral the editing process is to taking and creating better travel photos. It’s been a long old learning process however, with various free programmes and mobile apps used along the way (from Picassa to VSCO, iPhoto, and Snapseed).
We invested in Lightroom for our desktop editing a few years ago, and we 100% recommend it to aspiring travel photographers. Although it can take a number of YoutTube tutorials and evenings spent tinkering to find your own style and flow, it’s the programme we use to edit all the images you see on Along Dusty Roads using our own presets.
The powerful mobile app which comes with the programme is also fantastic. It’s really powerful for editing images on the go from your mobile, or imported over our camera’s wifi, and we can also use our own desktop-built presets within the mobile app.
Lightroom used to be a standalone piece of software, but it’s now a monthly subscription from Adobe Creative Cloud, starting at £9.99 / month. You can view more details on Lightroom here, or click below to get a 7-day free trial.
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