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Camera Gear

(tender music) This is kind of my self-designed kit cube. I made it with Mountain Smith a couple years ago. The point was that you could potentially put straps on here and just have this very, very bare bonds kit that could hold one camera, two lenses, or potentially three lenses, if they're small enough. Or you can throw it inside of a lumbar pack and have a little more security, a few more attachment points. But what is this really built to cover? Well, or built to carry, right? It's built to carry a couple batteries in the front, probably a memory card holder that has maybe one or two memory cards. And then in here, I'd probably also put like some sort of a little cleansing cloth, okay? Just like for wiping the lens. Inside this bag, this is going to be a R-IV Sony Alpha 24 to 70, 16 to 35. The only things I might bring in here would be a graduated neutral density filter, which again is a clear glass or resin filter that is dark at the top and clear at the bottom, okay. Typically ...

not something you're gonna be using if you have a door off in the plane and it's shaking and vibrating, but occasionally you do have those kind of calm moments where you might want something like this. It's really not a huge priority nor something you need to bring, and what I would really recommend is stripping this kit down to just the bare essentials. So these grads not really needed, but you could have 'em in your kit. Again, one other big lens cloth in case you're getting condensation or something like that. And you wanna be able to wipe that thing off. Good to have in here. So now this is empty, bare bones, right? Super light, packs kind of a way to nothing. Again, if you don't wanna have the full lumbar kit and you just wanna use this kit cube, you can have a bunch of different attachment points right here, that would allow you to attach this to a harness or I've attached it to a seatbelt or something along those lines or under the seat. Just something that you kind of have, that's not gonna fall over or roll over on you. Now I wanna go over kind of the essentials of this kit and what makes it important. This is as stripped down as you're gonna get. Now, what other lenses would I use and what other cameras could you use? We're gonna talk about that in a second. But I just want to really show you first and foremost, if price wasn't an option and I could go with anything, this is what I would go with right here. Right? When I'm shooting in the air again, don't change cards. Don't do it. Just put in a fresh card, 128 Meg or 512, whatever it is, and then just use one of these. Like super simple, like just have one of these as a backup, but really do not consider changing a card. It's the last thing you wanna do is be popping something open when you're thousands and thousands of feet above the ground. But always good to have a backup. Batteries too. I cannot imagine or cannot remember a single flight where I actually burned through an entire battery. Just start with a fresh one, but of course bring a backup, right? So one battery, one extra card. Cool, very, very minimal. What I would highly suggest, if you are shooting in a situation where the door's off and you don't have your kind of kit in front of you, you don't have all this space in the front of the plane, is to put that battery and that card, maybe in a pocket right here. Why? Because the less you can get into your bag, the less you can adjust things and move things around when the doors are off and the wind is hitting you, the better, right? And if it's right here, the chance of you being able to just get into it and be able to swap that card, to swap that battery, it's way, way, way easier. Okay? 'Cause you're gonna be popping off your glove, you're gonna be digging into something. So that's kind of one of the highest suggestions I could recommend is put everything you need kind of on body. This bag is really just a storage unit, for really an extra lens or maybe an extra camera. Now, 16 to 35, probably my favorite all around lens for any type of landscape photography. When it comes to aerial photography, what I want you to realize is that the wider the lens, the more challenging the shot. What do I mean by that? Well, let me explain that when you are in a sasnag and you're shooting out of a small window, the wider you are, the chances of you getting the tail or the wing or the strut or anything in the shot is very, very high, right? So it's easier to use a longer lens, like a 70 to or something along those lines, which I will show you in a second here. But if I could choose anything when I'm shooting with a skilled pilot, and I feel like my expertise is where I want it to be, I love shooting with a wide lens. Because it gives me this intimacy. It kind of brings me closer to the subject. There's nothing cooler to me than having this hard banking turn, where I'm shooting it like 16 or something super wide. And I'm just, the landscape is just kind of falling away right here, and I'm getting, water, ocean, mountains, everything. I mean, that is super cool. There's nothing actually more interesting to me. Now it's a different style of shooting where you're kind of picking off moments with a 70 to or a longer lens. I think it's a little bit easier, and what I would suggest is the first time you fly, bringing a longer lens, bringing a more compressed lens, a 70 to 200 or 24 to 70 is gonna be way, way, way easier. This is probably a little slightly more advanced and a little more specific as to a certain style. With every lens, again, 24 to 70, 16 to 35, this is my basic kit. This is pretty much all I would bring, all I would need. Do I want more? Yeah, I do. I would love to have 10 lenses, but the problem is, is the more lenses, the more weight, the more chance of failure, the more times you have to take them on and off, that becomes a pain. This is an exercise in minimalism. You need to bring just what you need and nothing more. And you'll realize that you will get more by having less. The important thing is that you have the best of what you can get. And with that, I always have a polarizer on my lens. Now, a polarizer, what is it, right? It is a circular glass filter that allows you to spin. And by spinning this polarizing filter, it cuts reflection. And it also cuts through basically water, so you can see down, it enhances clouds, and it kind of contrasts whites against blues. Super important why? Because oftentimes, almost always when you're shooting in the air, you're looking down at water or something that has reflection. You're looking down at a river, and you wanna see that true color of blue, like in my Iceland at glacial river images, I always use a polarizer, every single shot. And yes, it can be challenging 'cause you're shooting and you're kind of spinning this thing and you're spinning it back and forth, which is why it's so important to set your camera up in a way that allows you to fiddle with as few of the features as possible. Now this right here, this is a Sony A7R IV. The R means resolution, they have a bunch of models. And again, I'm not here to tell you, you need to buy a Sony to shoot your photography at all. Use your phone for that matter, I've done it. I've even shot an iPad in the air, out of a plane before for a campaign. So any camera will work. I have chosen to use this system because for me it is the best. The mirrorless system is just has better internal stabilization, meaning that the sensor itself has like basically four kind of small gyros so that you don't get vibration as bad. This is something that I trust and I've used for the last nine years. Really before there was even a Sony artist in program and I've come to love these things. Now the R represents resolution. The reason I like this camera is 'cause it shoots 60 megapixels. One of the features that I think I really look forward to is shooting that full 60 megapixel, shooting full frame wide angle, and then being able to crop in a little bit, if I need to. If I get a little bit of the strut, no big deal, if I get a little bit of the wing, no big deal, but my ability to shoot and make sure I'm maximizing resolution is huge. Another important thing about this, is that you'll realize after being up in the air, that it kind of feels like you're going slow, but to be honest, you're going pretty quickly. And a lot of times there can pick up wind vibration, whether it's from the helicopter blade going downwards, so downward vibration that kind of makes your camera go like this, or forward vibration, or forward movement from a sasnag where you're sticking your camera out of the window and you're getting wind coming at you. So these cameras are taking the brunt of a lot more vibration than you think. Now there are a bunch of other tools that you might use an actual gyro, right? That needs to be plugged in and run off a power supply. I used to use those all the time. And in fact, later today I will show you what that looks like. That's a tool where it basically creates a stabilization by weights or magnets moving around in a circle. And it adds what feels like an extra 20 pounds. That extra 20 pounds gives you the feeling or sensation of more weightiness. Now these cameras are light, so the moment you stick them out the window of any type of craft, they're going to start to vibrate. Which is why I rely deeply upon the internal stabilization and the sensor that is stabilized on a four axis or five axis stabilizer to basically compensate for that vibration. What I also try to do, is I also try to make sure I'm always shooting slightly faster than I think. If I'm like, oh man, I could shoot handheld right now at 250th of a second, bump it up a little bit more to 320 or something along those lines. The other advantage you have to shooting something along the lines of a wide angle, a 16 to 35, is that the wider the angle, the less chance of vibration you're gonna have. Because that lens, that wide angle is going to appear or be more stabilized, right? Because one thing you'll notice too, is if you stick this thing out the plane and all of a sudden you're shooting into the wind, you feel great, everything's good. And all of a sudden you turn it a little bit, you're fighting. The wind is pushing this camera and fighting it. So same thing as a 7,200, same thing as really any big lens. It's one of the disadvantages of a big lens is that you're gonna have more wind. It's like kinda like a sail. With a wider angle obviously, it's more sleek, it's gonna cut the wind a little bit better, and it allows you to have basically kind of a more, it's fabricated, but it's a greater vibration reduction. Shooting at fish-eye, you don't see as much movement in the landscape because that landscape is so much further away. So this would be my ultimate go-to kit for shooting in the air. It's really the only thing I bring up. But I wanna share a couple other pieces of equipment that I might use or a beginner might use on their first trip out. All right. So here's a much bigger kit. We would never bring this in the plane unless you were shooting in like some massive thing, but I wanna show you a couple other pieces of equipment that I might rely upon or use to basically get the shots that I need. And one thing that I think cannot be understated enough is the importance of a camera strap. Get yourself a good one. I use the peak designs because these things come off really easily. They stow away. And when you need to, you can just pop 'em right back on. They're nice because in case you need to go under a seatbelt or over a seatbelt or something like that, the fact that they can just pop on, pop off, is super useful. So what are some other tools? Well, let's pull those out here. The first thing, when it comes to other tools I might use, which of course I'm not bringing on every flight. Why? Because most planes, helicopters, they have a safety beacon of some sort or an SOS. If I'm say flying with a paraglider pilot somewhere, or a power paraglider or a trike, I wanna make sure I have an SOS signal of some sort. So a little tiny garment in reach, this is dewarm an older one. Just something that can alert your family members that you're okay, or if you've crash or something along those lines, good to have, always important to basically take responsibility for the fact that you're out there and you can't always, or you don't always wanna rely purely on the pilot for that safety. So taking advantage of having something like this. What are some of these other tools here? Well, I understand that the A7R IV might be a little higher price for camera for most people. And Hey, you wanna get up in the air and you don't really wanna, you don't need to have that type of camera or those types of lenses to get the job done. There are a bunch of other tools you can use, and I wanna kinda go over them in succession here. So I would say that the starter kit for me is always kind of a smaller APS-C mirrorless camera. This is the A6500. Again, APS-C mirrorless camera, so it's smaller than full frame. This is a 10 to 18, which is basically a 16 to 35 equivalent, super wide angle lens. So same as that lens, I'd put a polarizer on this. And then this is a sweet little tiny lens. It's a 55 to two 10, which is basically like a 70 to 300 lens. Right? The nice thing about this whole setup is it's so small and it's so light that the wind is gonna cut by it a lot easier than this bigger setup. Now this is gonna be your ultimate budget camera. That's going to get you incredible photographs that can be blown up huge and still be used commercially and whatnot. And it's going to be something that you can just tuck into a pocket. Now, one of the coolest things about a camera like this, when you do have a puffy jacket on is having this around your neck and being able to just slide it in here and then pull it out when you need it, right? Not having to have a dedicated bag or anything like that. Another system, which would be maybe kind of a step above this APS-C sensor, but maybe a step below this R-IV, would be like the 7C. This is a full frame camera, but it's actually, if you look at it, it's sized right between the two. So it's full frame, and it has a lot of the advantages of full frame, huge sensor, great shooting speeds, articulating screen, et cetera, et cetera. But what it doesn't feature is, is as high quality of a sensor. So it's not 60 megapixels there. It doesn't have as good of a readout display on the digital readout. But you do put full frame lenses on it. So it could still take these higher quality lenses, it could still take, a big 70 to 200 or something like that, but it's a smaller package. So again, cheaper price point, still super high quality. And I would say both of these could work. Now, I'm also showing you another R-IV. Why? Because the dream setup would be to really have two cameras mounted to two lenses. Why? Because it sucks changing lenses inside of a plane or any type of craft. I cannot express to you enough, the chances of you having something fail or fall out or break or whatever, it's gonna happen when you're actually changing these lenses. I've lost a lot of polarizers. I've spun them right off the front of this thing, trying to like put this thing in and I'm putting the lens on, and all of a sudden I'm spinning the polarizer, and I spin the thing right off, right? And that is a bummer. So ultimately limiting the amount of dust, limiting the amount of exposure to the sensor, you can really do that by having two cameras mounted to two lenses. And then there's no need to ever change, right? You just have them all dialed in. So this is kind of my preferred method if you can. Another option would be to have the 7C which is small, mounted to another lens. Maybe your lesser favorite lens or the lens you don't see yourself using as much. And just having that there as a backup, right? One more thing you might wanna consider, this is kinda when you're starting to get into specialty stuff, is maybe you're shooting the plane itself. The plane that you're in. Maybe what you wanna create is something where you're actually are seeing the wing or the struts. Sometimes there's beautiful reflections along the edge of the plane at sunset. You can actually see the reflection of the water or something like that. This is a ultra wide angle, this is basically a 12 to 24 full frame lens. So obviously wider than the 16 to 35. This would be cool where maybe you do wanna get the inside of the plane. Maybe you do wanna get the plane itself. Again, you're kind of hoping to get some of those aspects, 'cause there's no way to hide it using this lens, right? It's almost always gonna be in there. So this would be kind of a specialty piece of equipment you might wanna consider. And then again, the other thing I would say is that this 70 to 200, this is a 70 to 200, right? This is kind of the I would say in many ways, one of the most tried and trusted lenses that any photographer can use. I do have a polarizer on the front of this thing. It is very Bulletproof, it works really well. One of the things I love about this is that as a beginner, this lens is just super comfortable and easy to use, reason being is because it's always an uncomfortable experience sticking your camera out of the window or sticking your camera out of the door of the heli, right? A lot of times, if you want, you can kind of sit back and just open that door, open that little hatch, or even have the door off, but kind of sit inside of the safety of the cockpit or whatever it is, and just sort of zoom in, right? Allow yourself to basically kind of zoom in on your subject from afar, and it's gonna get you great images. It might get you that awesome shot of that tractor moving through a field or another plane, if you're shooting plane to plane. And or it could kinda get you those detail shots, the shadow of a tree. This is a beautiful tool to have. I tend to wanna get in the air and shoot a wide landscape, that's just my personal style. But this can be an amazing tool for getting a different perspective. And I would absolutely say that that those who use them, use them really well and can shoot some amazing stuff. One of my mentors within this space, Ragnar Axelsson, a photographer from Iceland, he loves using this, because he loves looking for patterns on the glacier. And this is one of the tools that you'd use a lot. I would not recommend going much bigger than this. The 100 to 400 or something along those lines, the longer the lens and the more you're sticking that out of the plane, the greater chance that this thing is going to have to be throttled by the wind. So there's a sweet spot in that this is nice and heavy, and feels stable, but if that lens extends more and more and more, it's kind of like holding a sledgehammer from your wrist, right? You can barely move the thing around, and it's just gonna be constantly moved around. So I think there's a sweet spot here. And I would trust that you might not wanna go much more above that. Now, very last thing I wanna share when it comes to kinda tools, kit, gear, all that, is just making sure that you have a jacket, right? An outer layer. Okay? So this is, would be like my expedition Canada in the winter, super, super thick puffy. These are great, but a puffy is awesome, until you have it in 80 mile an hour wind. So what I typically would do, is in my own bag or in a duffle bag with me, I'll usually, if I'm going somewhere in the winter or in late fall, I will bring this. Or I would bring some sort of like a ski jacket. And this is an insulated puffy that also has kind of a waterproof or windproof layer on the outside. This would be a great scenario for a fall day in California. Or again, if you're shooting in New York somewhere, you wanna just have something that also potentially has pockets, right? Because you don't, if you can avoid it, you don't wanna have all this crap just on your lap or anywhere. But if you can put maybe batteries here and a filter here or something like that, great, it's easier to dive in there. Last two things would be basically a lighter weight puffy. This is kind of something where I would just, no matter what always have this on hand. This can just tuck away into its own pocket. It's obviously less heavy weight than the other one I showed you, but it'll work great for fall days in California and whatnot. A wind shell or rain shell. Most important thing you're fighting up there is the wind. Okay? So having an actual rain shell or something that really does cut through wind, this is crucial. I mean, this is what's gonna really save your butt up there because that wind and the effect of that wind penetrating, it'll just cut through those down jackets. So having something that can go over the outside of that, is crucial. Lastly, this is just another lightweight kind of ball of clover, like a buff so to say. A really good tool to have around your head or to even like, just have kind of wrapped around your wrist here in case you wanna like wipe off your lens or something like that. Just another good little piece of equipment to have there. I would say that in the end, testing this kit is what's really gonna save you. You don't ever wanna get up in the air, never having used any of this gear, never having worn any of this equipment. Make sure you're comfortable in it, make sure you feel comfortable, make sure you're not getting yourself in a situation where you feel unsafe, or you're just blindly trusting a pilot. And understand that full well that at a certain point, when you're in the air, you're gonna have to trust that pilot, that's just part of the process. But if you can feel more secure in your equipment, more secure in your safety equipment, and more secure that you yourself do have a backup SOS, I think that you're gonna be more self-sufficient. That self-sufficiency is gonna really lead to more creativity. It's gonna open you up to a greater sense of being able to explore new perspectives, and really to be able to kinda push your camera equipment a little further, maybe further out that door to get that really unique view. So all this is something that comes with time. Don't worry, you don't have to buy all this right now. This is something where I think that you use what is given to you and you go out and experiment, and eventually you'll figure out the perfect system that works for you.