I often get asked about the equipment that I use to make my images and videos. I thought I’d put together a list of items that I use on a regular basis along with a brief summary of what I like about a particular piece of kit. Most of these I’ve purchased and some of them I rent.

If you’re considering purchasing any of these items please use the links provided on this page as I receive a tiny commission which helps me to continue running this site. It won’t cost you a penny more to purchase via these links and it might mean I can afford to pay next months bill from Adobe 😉

My Drone: DJI Mavic 3 Cine Premium Combo

I often get asked, “What drone do you use?” A couple of years ago, I bought the DJI Mavic 3 Cine Premium Combo, and although it was expensive, I’d say it was worth every penny. The footage that comes out of this gadget looks so awesome that I rarely even bother with colour grading.

Don’t even think about getting a DJI drone without splashing out on the DJI Mavic 3 RC Pro Remote Controller, which is part of this premium combo and the reason I went for it. Gone are the days of faffing around with a phone and being lucky if your drone can even fly. Since I bought this package, the drone has never once failed to fly, the footage looks better than Hollywood and has added another level of production value to my Youtube videos as you can see in this episode here.

I also paid extra for the DJI Care Refresh insurance, which I’m happy to say I haven’t needed to use so far.

You’ll also need a screen protector for the remote if you plan on carrying it in your camera bag. My screen has got a little scratched up so I’ve just purchased this DJI Mavic 3 RC Screen Protector.

Buy on Amazon

Hasselblad X2D Medium Format Camera

I now have a policy of not allowing my photography students to try out this camera during my workshops because whenever they do, they want to buy one, and it’s not cheap. They curse me every time.

Not only is the Hasselblad X2D a joy to use but the images it produces are the best I have ever seen. The detail is spectacular, and the colours look better than any camera system I’ve ever used, yes, even better than Canon. There are only three drawbacks that I have encountered with the Hasselblad system and these are:

• Lack of a telephoto zoom in the lens lineup
• No video recording function (photography purests don’t care)
• Slow FPS for action shooting

Other than these three gripes, I will opt to use the X2D whenever I can and it’s almost always my first choice. Another way that this camera system shines is the combination of in-body image stabilization used with the leaf shutter lenses. I can shoot relatively long exposures (up to 1″) without a tripod and still capture super sharp images. This alone has changed my style of photography and brings back more of the fun I remember from the days before I became tethered to a tripod.

Buy on Amazon

Sony Alpha 1 Full Frame Camera

I shouldn’t have bought this camera. The Sony A1 is complete overkill for 90% of what I shoot. My motivation for buying this camera was the super fast 30fps frame rates when in burst mode so that I can capture crashing wave images. The first time I used it for that purpose I immediately realized that 30 FPS is way too much.  Having to wade through 30 frames per second takes too long and uses up too much disk space. I can see how it might be useful for birders though.

I also expected that I’d use the 120 fps 4K video more often than I actually do.

One thing I do love about this camera is the auto-focus when recording tutorials of myself waffling at the camera. I set it to centre focus with ‘eye detect’ and bang, that’s it. There’s also a load of customizable buttons and controls to which you can assign any function which makes it very easy to use.

Image quality is not as good as the Sony A7R1V but for most situations it’s good enough. I should probably have waited 18 months and bought the Sony A7RV

Buy at Amazon

Shimoda Action X 50 Camera Bag

This is the most rugged camera bag I’ve ever had. I’ve used and abused this camera bag for years now and I’m still using the same one. It even survived being Impaled on a piece of rebar that missed my clay pipe by 1 inch.

As a vlogger, I need a slightly larger bag than most photographers due to the ridiculous amount of gear required to film each episode. The Action X comes in a variety of sizes to suit your needs. I love the expandable roll-top so that I can de-layer while hiking up hills. The side panel gives easy access to the Twirl bars and Mini-eggs required to fuel such photography adventures.

You can save 10% on your order by using the coupon code FOTOTRIPPER10.

Buy at Shimoda

Sony A7RIV Mirrorless Camera

Having over 60 megapixels might be overkill but what I love about that is how easy it is to switch to crop mode with one assigned button and still produce 25 megapixel RAW files.

Battery life is more usable and results in less outbursts of rage. The My Menu function is a tolerable workaround for the atrocious Sony menu system.

Whenever possible, I use this as my vlogging camera as the video quality is superb and I love the shallow DOF I can get when using certain lenses wide open (see lenses below).

Buy at Amazon

The DJI OSMO Pocket 3

Honestly, I miss my Pocket 2. I bought the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 because of it’s superior image quality and it’s ability to connect two wireless mics.

My issue with the Pocket 3 is the gimbal. Every time I switch the camera on I have to manually lower the gimbal to a natural looking position because it defaults to looking upwards too much (unlike the Pocket 2). While I’m shooting, I often find myself sliding out of the frame even in FPV mode which again was not a problem in the Pocket 2.

There’s also the infuriating interface glitches that get in the way of recording and often results in loosing the moment. Hopefully they can fix these issues with a firmware update but if they don’t do that before this camera dies on me (which is inevitable given the punishment I dish out) I’ll be replacing it with the older Pocket 2.

Buy Pocket 3 at Amazon
Buy Pocket 2 at Amazon

FLM Tripods

Without doubt, FLM tripods are the best quality tripods I’ve ever used and they stand up to some major punishment. I’ve had the same tripod for four years and I’ve cleaned it only twice. I use three different models which I combine with a RRS ball head and in my experience nothing beats this combo.

Get a 10% discount when buying these tripods by using code: Gavin10

You can get them direct from FLM Canada

Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM

Not only is this a super sharp lens but it’s plenty fast enough for astrophotography and delivers great sun stars if you like that kind of thing.

I find that the zoom range of 16-35mm on a full frame camera is the closest thing to what I see with the naked eye so it’s really easy to compose the shots that I see in my head.

I also use this lens for vlogging because at f/2.8 the background blur is just enough that your subjects pop with a lovely 3D quality while you can still make out what’s going on the background.

Buy at Amazon

Canon 24-105mm f/4.0

I originally bought the Canon 24-105mm as a kit lens with my Canon 5D MK II way back in 2010 and to be honest it never really impressed me in terms of sharpness.

That quickly changed when I used it on my Sony A7R for the first time and saw the true capabilities of this superb lens.

Now it’s my ‘go to’ lens when I need sharpness and a little more reach than my super wide lenses.

As an all rounder landscape lens, the Canon 24-105mm is worth every penny when used with the right camera.

Buy at Amazon

My BENQ Image Editing Monitor

I’ve been using a BENQ monitor for a little while now and I love the way my images and videos look on this device. Sure, there are more high end monitors available out there but for the price, this UHD Monitor performs brilliantly and feels like a high quality piece of kit.

I edit all of my images and videos on this screen and overall I find it a joy to use. I’ll be honest though, I haven’t yet felt a need to install the shading hood.

Buy at Amazon

Excire Foto 2024 – Image Management Software

This software is a life saver. I have over 12 terabytes of landscape photography images and in all honesty, it’s not very well organized. Despite my best efforts some files end up in the wrong folder and are seemingly lost forever.

That’s where Excire Foto has come to my rescue. Their slogan is “if you can describe it, you can find it”. Excire Foto uses advanced AI technology to study your image files and figure out what it is. It can tell the difference between a misty landscape and a clear landscape. It can detect faces, animals, sunsets, icebergs, vehicles and pretty much anything you can describe. Once Excire Foto has scanned your image folders it automatically tags your image files without touching the files themselves or the image location.

Here’s a video of Excire Foto in action.

Basically it’s mind-blowingly powerful software that could potentially safe your project from disaster. Imagine you’re a wedding photographer and you’ve accidentally copied some images to the wrong disk or folder and now you’ve got to inform your client that you’ve messed up? With Excire Foto there’s a strong chance you’ll be able to locate those lost images if you can describe the content of the moment.

There’s also a Lightroom Plugin version called Excire Search 2024 and the discount code below applies to that too if you’re interested.

Use code FOTOTRIPPER15 to get a discount when you buy at Excire

Luminar Neo

When Skylum first contacted me years ago with the hopes of having me promote their software, I turned them down. This was a potentially lucrative partnership that could have made me lots of money but at that time I felt that the software wasn’t advanced enough for my needs. That is no longer the case.

Not only have Skylum made massive improvements to Luminar Neo but they actually listen to my feedback and develop tools that I request. I can’t say this for any other image editing corporation. The updates that came out in 2024 have lifted Luminar Neo into a viable alternative to Photoshop with powerful tools like Luminosity Masks and Object selection. The dust removal tool is a life saver and there’s a long list of creative enhancements that simply cannot be found in Photoshop.

Right now, I use Luminar Neo as a regular extension to Photoshop but if the rate of improvement continues its current trajectory I can see Luminar Neo one day replacing Photoshop entirely.

Get 10% Off with FOTOTRIPPER10 at  Skylum

Here’s a quick tutorial showing some of the powerful tools you’ll find in Luminar Neo

Topaz Photo AI

This unbelievable software is nothing short of witchcraft! I was out shooting the total solar eclipse with Simon d’Entremont and I was complaining about the lack of resolution and detail in my images of the eclipse. Even at 400mm in crop mode I still didn’t have enough detail and resolution in my images when compared to Simons 800mm bazooka.

Simon mentioned that Topaz Photo AI could fix that in a jiffy but I was skeptical.

When I got the RAW files home I was even more disturbed to find that the images were not as sharp as they should have been due to camera vibration. I really should have used a remote but I got caught up in the moment and totally forgot about the remote. I was desperate. My eclipse images looked like crap and I couldn’t see any way to fix them. Then I remembered Simons recommendation and thought “what have I got to loose?”.

I downloaded a demo of Topaz Photo AI and the results were amazing. I then tested it out on some older images of birds that were photographed perfectly but were lacking in resolution and once again, the results were spectacular. With shaking hands I whipped out my credit card and paid full price for Topaz Photo AI and immediately emailed them to see if they had an affiliate system.

Eight weeks later I received a response (not sure why it took almost two months to answer an email but whatever) and as a fully evangelical convert I’m delighted to say that I’m now an affiliate for Topaz Photo AI.

Download the demo and try it for yourself, you’ll be amazed.

Learn more at Topaz