What’s In My Camera Bag? A Review of All My Photographic Camera Equipment

This video post will go over all of my photographic equipment, including DSLR cameras, lenses, flashes, light stands, tripods, audio and how to record high quality sound with a DSLR, and various camera accessories.

CAMERAS:

Nikon D300s: This was the best camera on the market for me, but I ultimately dislike  all cameras available on the market because of this reason.

Nikon D50: My first DSLR. Still use it for panoramas and infrared work with the infrared filter.

Canon HF M300 Camcorder (not discussed): I use this to record video now 🙂 Main thing I really don’t like about it is that it doesn’t have a standard hotshoe mount on the top, and there isn’t a full-on manual mode where you can adjust the shutter speed and aperture at the same time, and the shutterspeed is sorta limited in terms of length. Other than that it seems to be pretty good! 30fps/1080p beats the 24fps/720p on the Nikon D300s hehe

LENSES:

AF-S DX Nikkor ED 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G: I use this about 90% of the time. I should probably get the one with Vibration Reduction, but whatever, this is fine for now.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8 D: Really good for low light photography, shallow depth of field, and macro photography when combined with the lens reverser adapter ring.

Nikon Lens Series E 50mm 1:1.8

Tokina SD 70-210mm 1:4-5.6: Never use it really, but might start using it again.

Tamron 18-200mm: Mainly use this for video.

Tokina 80-200: Not even mine, rarely used, but I bet it would look really cool when doing video work.

Lens Reverser Adapter Ring: This thing lets me turn any 52mm threaded lens into a macro lens by mounting the lens on backwards on the camera. The exact one I have that is on Amazon is like $50 but I got this used for about $10-$20.

FILTERS:

Hoya R72 Infrared Filter: My favorite filter hehe

Hoya ND400: Super dark filter to get around 30 seconds in pure daylight at F22, ISO100, etc. I can get even longer if I combine this filter with the R72 and the ND8 and Polarizer.

Canon Polarizer: Very good filter for removing glare and saturating colors with CORRECT color. Awesome filter.

Nikon ND 8x: Another darkening filter, just not as extreme.

Quantaray 6X-Cross: This is a star cross filter that slices the light up into a cross shape.

Quantaray Foggilizer Adds a really foggy look to your photos.

LIGHTS:

Sunpak auto 433 D Thyristor: Full-blast flash, doesn’t seem to be adjustable to 1/2 power, 1/4th, 1/8th, power etc. Only full power apparently.

Sunpak auto 344 D Thyristor: I use this outside or quickly when on the go. Can be adjusted from full power to 1/16th power.

RF602 Wireless Flash Trigger: This is used to wirelessly trigger my 344 flash (or my Photogenic studio light). Works only at 1/160th of a second or slower.

Photogenic StudioMax III 160: Big studio light that plugs into the wall. I won this in a photo competition on a website called Photographer’s Warehouse.

Photo Basics 402 uLite Video Lighting Kit: Got this from Amazon, the lights are bright and hot. Haven’t used the green screen too much.

Large Umbrella

Reflector: Reflects lights and diffuses light~!

TRIPODS / LIGHT STAND KIT:

Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod: Awesome tripod. Legs and extender pole can go all over the place.

Manfrotto 496RC2 BallHead: Ballhead seems to be really good, I am liking it more compared to the tilt-and-pan.

Monopod: Not mine, came from a cheap tripod, but pretty useful

Sunset PR-5500 Tripod: This was my main tripod but I brought it into the ocean with me one time and the sand got into the grooves and ruined it.

Velbon VS-3 Tripod: Same thing… got messed up from the sand and the legs can’t slide in and out easily…

2 Broken small tripods: These were really crappy to begin with because they were originally made for telescopes lol

Fancier WT803 Light Stand+Umbrella+Clamp KIT: Kits comes with a light stand, a small umbrealla, and a clamp so you can attach the flash and umbella at the top of the stand. Great deal.

AUDIO:

Zoom H4n: Awesome high quality sound field recorder.

Adjustable Swivel Shoe Mount: I use this to attach to my Zoom H4n to my Nikon D300s .

LN2MIC-ZOOMH4N 3.5mm Audio Cord: I use this to sync the sound into the D300s so the sound and video are combined together

Azden SMX-10 Microphone: I may sometimes use this along with my Zoom H4n now.

ATR-3350 Lavalier microphone: I am using this for video work. Seems to work OKAY, only records sound in the left channel and is omnidirectional. Seems to make a slight buzzing noise but it was the cheapest one I could find that looked reasonably good.

RANDOM STUFF:

Gray card: Use the big gray patch on the back for white balance color correction

BP1500 Calumet Backpack: Love this bag, just got it.

UN Blow Brush: Old blower brush thing

Sima Lenspen: Love the non-brush side. Use air instead of the brush to brush little speckles off your lens.

ML-L3 Nikon Remote: Wireless remote for the Nikon D50, it can also be used to lock the shutter so you can record an exposure beyond 30 seconds in duration. This works with lower end Nikon DSLRs.

Remote Shutter Release Cord: For taking exposures longer than 30 seconds. This works with higher end Nikon DSLR cameras.

Roscolux: You can place these on your flash to change the color of the light.

SOFTWARE:

Photoshop CS5: This is pretty much the ultimate photography editing software. Don’t need anything else.

Photomatix (Get 15% off with coupon code “photoex”): I use this when I do HDR stuff.

All the links above are my Amazon affiliate links, so if you click on one of them and make a purchase, I will get a small commission. This helps me continue create more high quality videos for you 🙂 I literally spent 2 full entire days filming this video, editing it, and creating this massive list.