Best Gear for Travel Creators in 2023

When I broke the world record for the youngest person to travel to every country in the world, I launched my YouTube channel and that was nearly exactly three years ago now. As my channel started to grow, I invested in top-of-the-line camera gear. High quality gear isn't necessarily a prerequisite for success. There's so many videos I've taken on just my phone that have been amazing to use in But if having a better setup will make your content, let's say 10% better, and you have the budget, it's always worth putting that money back into your business. Being a full-time travel creator for three years now, I've tested a lot of different kinds of gear in tough environments while capturing my adventures and sharing them with our community, The Limitless Army. So now let's jump into what gear I've replaced, what gear didn't stand the test of time and harsh conditions, as well as the gear that I will never travel without going into 2023. As you can see, I have basically every different piece of gear and equipment that I bring with me on every single one of my trips. So in this video, I'm going to be breaking down specifically my travel gear since when I'm back in the studio, like I am today, I use basically an entirely different set of gear from the lighting, monitor, teleprompter, etc. A big key difference that makes travel photography and videography unique from other types of content is that when you're on the road, all of your gear needs to fit on your back. A really important golden rule is that you should never check any of your gear. So it's carry-on only, baby. So now let's just talk about travel bags. A good camera bag is important for keeping your gear safe, clean, and efficiently organized while shooting. Lowepro and Peak Design are great camera bag brands. Having a backpack that zips from the back is really great for photographers who are changing lenses all the time. But since I'm mainly vlogging, I like to use my Peak Design sling bag so that I can easily pull out my camera without having to take my backpack on and off for every shot. This is the largest sling bag that they make and it perfectly fits my laptop, camera, microphone, and tripod inside of it. There's also these type of dividers. You'll see this in most camera bags to kind of sort a little slot out for all of your different lenses. I have really enjoyed this one and I mainly use it for when I am on day shoots. When I'm traveling, walking around a city, going on a hike, I will bring that bag because it just slides in and out very easily. But when I am actually traveling, this is my bag that I slide everything inside of. It's got a really nice little back slot here that you can actually link to a carry-on because I personally have really bad back issues from carrying heavy bags and backpacking for so many years. So I will avoid having heavy weight on my shoulders as much as possible. I recommend that you should as well if you don't want to have shoulder and neck problems like I do. So this thing really carries a lot of the weight on my carry-on like rolling bag when I'm traveling through airports. It's also got some nice hip straps to disperse the weight as well. There's a back slot for my laptop as well as a ton of different little pockets here in the front. This backpack specifically, I'm a sucker for Tumi luggage so I love this backpack. It's not specifically tailored for a camera bag but I don't really shoot with backpacks on. I'm more of a sling person. Everybody's different. You gotta find what's best for you. But I basically just wrap all of my lenses and my camera gear up and then put them in this backpack. And when it's time to shoot, I switch back to the daily sling. Now let's talk about cameras. I am currently filming this video on my trusty Sony a7S III and I now use this Sony a7R III as a backup camera in case there's something broken, stolen, lost while traveling. One of the worst nightmares I can imagine is being on a paid work trip while traveling and not having a camera to shoot on because something bad happened to my main camera. So it can be a little bit inconvenient to take a whole other camera with you when you're traveling, especially if you're only traveling with a carry-on, but it really protects you from the worst case scenario. And actually this Sony a7R III is what I filmed with primarily for two years but what I learned is that this is primarily more of a photo camera. It can take video but there's 12 megapixels on the a7S III which is actually less than the a7R III but megapixels with video you kind of don't want or need that many megapixels because it shows the ISO more meaning it can look more grainy or almost lower quality in my opinion. The a7R III only goes up to 32,000 ISO whereas the a7S III goes up to 102,400 ISO which really comes out if you're shooting at night. And side note, as far as lights go for photography and videography while traveling, I don't personally travel with small lights. I usually opt for shooting during the best times for natural light. If I know that I'm going to be filming scenes at night like I did in the Peru Amazon video, I'll bring a small... Oh my god! I will bring a small LED panel light or just some light like this. I don't even know what brand this is but I'll bring something like that with me if I know I'm going to be filming at night but it's just not something that I bring on it. But anyway, back to the cameras. All specs aside, the flip out screen on the Sony a7S III was the number one reason why I switched cameras. Being a vlogger without a flip screen was a terrible experience. I missed out on so many shots because they weren't in focus when you know you're doing the vlogging and you're filming towards yourself. So there's 300 or so more focus points than the a7R III with the S III so it's much snappier, much more... It has better focusing ability overall. The in-camera stabilization on the a7S III is also amazing which is another feature that the R III did not have. So overall, I'm so happy with this change that I made in the past year. The R III, no shade, still an amazing camera specifically for photo but if you are getting into making videos, I highly recommend the Sony a7S III. All right, moving on to lenses. This is the Sony G Master 16-35mm f2.8 lens. In my opinion, the holy grail of lenses that I use while traveling, it's the best for run-and-gun shooting. Most of the time, I'm filming in hectic, dusty environments where it's not ideal to be switching lenses so I would say about 90% of my travel videos are filmed with this lens alone. If you're filming less vlog-style videos and more cinematic content, the Sony 24-70mm is also one of the best lenses available. It's a good alternative but I love filming vlog scenes talking to camera with this lens at 16mm so it's not quite as tight on my face as the 24mm. Some people do vlog at 24 but my arm is much stronger when I'm just at 16. I don't have to crank it farther away from my face. I won't get as tired holding it up from vlogging for hours so I absolutely love this lens. If I only ever had this lens for the rest of time, I would probably do just fine. My second lens, I recently got it maybe six months ago and it was more of a splurge because it's so beautiful, is the Sony, oh wait, sorry, not Sony. It's the Sigma Art Lens, the 50mm 1.4 and this lens is the one that I'm using to film right now. I shoot all of my studio content with the 50mm and it creates amazingly cinematic videos for details when shooting. It's got that beautiful f1.4 so it's more of a luxury than an essential lens but the f1.4 is what gives you that nice blurred background that you see in videos. So I do highly recommend all of the Sigma Art Lenses. They're really beautiful. But if I could actually buy another lens today, it would be nice to have a telephoto lens like the G Master 70-200 for those really far away shots like wildlife but I just honestly don't take those shots often enough to warrant the weight added to my already heavy gear bag. Another thing that's amazing about these kind of telephoto lenses is that the compression is amazing. Compression is the compressing of a scene so that the background appears closer to the subject and larger in comparison to what it actually looks like which is a really amazing thing especially for photos. I actually use the telephoto lens on the iPhone all of the time because I just really love that look but again they're expensive lenses and it's just not something that I use every single day. My last note on lenses is that it can be great to have a variable ND filter for certain filming situations. I'm not going to go into that in depth. I have worked with photographers and videographers who love their variable NDs but for me personally it hasn't been essential but if you have the extra budget it could be good to invest in one of those as well. Next up, I cannot stress enough how having a reliable laptop is an essential part of being a travel content creator and working remotely. My laptop is the thread that connects me to my business no matter where I am in the world and the 2022 LG Gram is where all of the magic happens. I've had it with me for the past several trips this year so here are a few of my favorite features. The laptop connects seamlessly with the network attached drive I use to store all of my 20 terabytes of footage. I can access basically every photo and video I've ever taken right from the LG Gram and make beautiful content with it. The screen is anti-glare so I can use it to edit photos for my Instagram while being outdoors which is such an important feature when you're constantly on the road and working from all sorts of locations. The battery lasts for a really long time which comes in handy for long flights or working in places without charging outlets. I also use it for working on writing projects such as my Instagram captions, YouTube video scripts, as well as the manuscript for my upcoming book. It's comfortable and lightweight so I can keep it with me in my backpack and grab it whenever inspiration strikes. I am able to organize all the book rough drafts and stay in touch with my editing team with different versions as we move through the updates of the book. The LG Gram has a very large screen for a laptop so I'm able to split it and research new locations while taking notes or having video calls with my production team at the same time. It is also amazing for editing or watching movies when the workday is over. To learn more about the LG Gram and other products for working on the move, check out their Instagram and website linked in the description below. Another piece of gear that seems pretty obvious but has become something I use every single day for content is the iPhone. I have the iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhones have become essential for travel creators with the rise of short-form content. I love the 3x lens on the iPhone when I'm traveling. I use it for compression shots even almost as often as I use the regular 1x lens. I also tested out the DJI Osmo which is a gimbal for your iPhone for better stabilization and honestly it hasn't been worth the investment. I learned that it's just better to figure out how to walk with like more stability. I call it like the gimbal arms since taking this thing out and setting it up for every shot that you want to take on your phone is just too time-consuming and it hasn't become like a practical thing to use. It does make it stable but I just didn't really enjoy the user experience with the Osmo and making sure that it's charged and ready to go. It's just a bit too much for a quick iPhone shot. I also use a tripod now that is specifically for my phone. This is a great one that I just found on Amazon. With all the people making TikToks these days there's a lot of different iPhone tripods to choose from but it is something that has become very important and very convenient for Instagram stories, for filming reels, TikTok, YouTube shorts, all that fun stuff. Next up is action cameras. I have the Hero 10 GoPro and it is essential to travel with an action camera in my opinion. I have the vlogging case on this one which includes a built-in microphone which is nice. If you want it to be fully waterproof you'll have to switch to a case like this one and whatever you do don't lose the little door on that side. I need to get mine replaced because it's still... There's a bit of an issue when the GoPro itself isn't waterproof obviously without the back door that closes and you have to remove the back door to use this vlogging case. There's a little bit of a trade-off there as far as just needing to keep track of your gear which can get a little bit difficult when you're on the road. I have also been using the Insta360 quite a lot and it's an awesome camera. With the 360 it literally shoots everything. You don't even have to really worry about which direction it's facing so there is definitely a beauty to the Insta360. I personally really dislike, and also speaking for my editors here, they really don't like editing the Insta360 footage. It's just not quite as straightforward as just like a regular video file since you have to kind of keyframe and figure out exactly which angles you want for like every second of the shot. And I also still prefer the look of the footage from the GoPro but if it is something where a 360 camera makes sense and is going to add value to that very wide fisheye like overall landscape look, it's really great. And also you can actually use a 360 on a super long pole to get shots that almost look like a drone. So if you're going to a country where drones are not allowed you can get the Insta360 and just a massive 10-foot pole and it looks like a drone. So that's a pretty great hack. And speaking of drones, having drones is something that I think every travel creator should have with them. When possible, drones just give an amazing aerial perspective of a country and a new landscape. And it also helps the audience get an idea of where you are and gives context to your video. Drones are amazing for storytelling but bringing a drone really depends on the drone laws of each country. So triple check that drone laws are allowed before traveling with them to your destination. I've had to leave drones at airports in Egypt, in Rwanda, in a bunch of different places and it is such a pain to deal with like security officers who, you know, aren't gonna let your drone through and then tracking them down at the end of your trip, it's a big hassle. So definitely do your homework ahead of time. I originally started with the OG Mavic Pro and this has been a great drone for traveling but it's maybe... I think I've had this drone for maybe four or five years now, something like that. And I was starting to notice how terrible the low light ability is even for shooting in a... I mean drones are not great for low light in general but even shooting a relatively bright sunset, this footage looked absolutely terrible. So I decided to upgrade for a slightly smaller, lighter drone, the Mavic Air 2S which I've been really happy with this drone. I was hoping that the difference of switching between the Mavic Pro and the Air 2S would actually save me room in my backpack but the travel cases are basically the exact same size. So there's not really much of a size benefit when it comes to switching to the Air if you're still going to have the Fly More pack. So also keep in mind if you are going to be switching from the Pro to one of the smaller DJI drones, there is such a shorter battery life on these drones that I literally crashed this drone on my first ever flight. It coincidentally landed on a rooftop somewhere and I had to go follow the map and climb to the top of a roof to rescue it. It landed itself perfectly on the corner of a building Very stressful and now I'm very much going to be paranoid about how long I'm flying for and making sure you pay attention to how far that drone is away from you if your battery is getting low. And because the battery lasts for not very long, you're going to want three of these extra batteries. Now let's talk about tripods. This Joby Gorillapod is a lifesaver. I would not be able to vlog at the caliber that I do without this tripod because like we were talking about with the lenses, the 16 millimeter, just getting a bit of that extra length for vlogging does wonders for that vlog style talking to camera shot. So I bring this with me everywhere. I highly recommend it. This is the biggest model that they carry. I recommend getting the bigger the better because the smaller ones I've heard are a bit less durable and they break really easily. But I've put this thing through the wringer and it's never never broken and you can also, you know, wrap these type of like legs around tree trunks and make it a nice little tripod to use everywhere. And I personally have this tripod. I don't even know. Yeah, it's Promaster tripod. I've probably had this for 10 years. So it's lasting. There's some like legs missing. I think one of the notches at the bottom doesn't really work anymore. But because I'm fortunate enough to be able to work with videographers when I'm traveling and filming content now, I rarely have a use for a tripod like this. I only bring a big tripod like this on the trips that I'm going on completely solo. So keep that in mind that if you have other people to help shoot with you, you might not need to bring it. I've also, you know, got the iPhone one, but these just take up so much space. And if you are a solo photographer videographer, try to find a backpack that you can potentially fit the tripod or strap it in outside of your backpack and you're going to save so, so much room. But overall, this Joby, I wouldn't want to live without this one. Next up, we have microphones. I am currently filming this video again with my Rode shotgun mic. That thing is a trooper. I have used that mic in the pouring rain. I can't believe actually how wet I've gotten that microphone and the, you know, soft, let me call it like a dead cat, like the mouse, the microphone protector. I've got that thing completely soaked, pouring rain in the Amazon and it survived. So that, this type of microphone is amazing for travel vlogging. I recommend it for anyone who's making vlogs. And I am also starting to use lav mics more and more. I haven't figured out a perfect balance between lav mic and the shotgun mic quite yet. I do think that the quality of lav mic is better for situations like this where it's just mainly one speaker. But when I am doing some travel vlogging, talking to locals, trying to capture multiple people in a scene, I still think that the shotgun mic is best. And also for voiceovers, I have this nice little Rode voiceover mic as well. Rode is really the best brand when it comes to microphones. This one is great. It also has a little scratch protector and I usually record all of my voiceovers on that microphone if I am traveling for work. And I know that I'm gonna be doing some voiceovers for like a brand review or something like that. I'll bring that one with me. But for the most part, this one stays in the studio. But sometimes I'll bring it in my backpack if I have a little bit extra room. And now last but not least, let's talk about something really important, which is hard drives. Understanding what kind of trip you're going on before you go and how long you're gonna be shooting, what kind of file sizes you're working with. And everything like this is going to be very important for planning your storage space accordingly. I use the Samsung SSD drives, which in my opinion are less breakable. There's less moving parts in this type of SSD, a solid state drive, rather than the, I think they call it HDD, HHDD? Whatever kind of abbreviation it is for the other type of drive. I really like the solid states. This one is a terabyte and I usually have three or four of these completely empty for each of the trips when I'm going for a few weeks at a time. At this point, I basically don't even leave the house without three terabytes of storage because when I'm shooting 4K, 120 frames per second and raw images for weeks at a time, those terabytes start to add up quick and it's very important to have enough storage at hand to maintain that. I always back up all of my footage onto two separate drives. When possible, I try to carry the different drives like these ones in two different locations. Maybe I'll leave one in the hotel room and I'll take the other one in my backpack or something to that extent. I try to carry them separately because I am absolutely terrified of losing my footage. How you decide to back up and store your footage is almost as important as how you film it. When I'm traveling with a videographer and working on shoots, I'm even more strict about how we manage the footage because there are so many cameras involved. The best practice is to store all of your data in three separate places. You can do that locally on your laptop and also on a hard drive and then if the internet access allows, which it rarely does when you're traveling, but if you can, you can also upload it to the cloud. This is one of those situations where being paranoid can really save you. I'm not gonna dive too deep into file structure or data management right now, but trust me, you are going to need a system for organizing all of your footage by location, day, camera, photo, video, everything, and be very diligent about keeping it all organized while you're in the moment because you're not gonna remember later. I promise you, you won't remember later. I have made a huge mistake for years by just backing up all of the different things that I was filming without properly labeling or organizing it and it took my team and I months, multiple months to organize everything by country and year and photo and video. But we were losing our freaking minds trying to organize this old footage because it's impossible to remember what was happening in the moment. So set yourself up for success by doing the organization on that night. Even if you're tired after a long day of travel, you will definitely thank yourself later. And also specifically for travel creators, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have extra everything as far as your gear. I'm talking minimum two batteries per device, extra hard drives, extra SD cards, extra cables, extra chargers for your laptops and cameras and extra universal travel adapters or converters. I mean, I even travel with two cameras and an extra iPhone just in case because I actually have had my phone stolen while on a paid project that I needed to be posting for and shooting for on my phone. So I learned that lesson very painfully because think about if you accidentally forgot your camera charger in a hotel, which is very easy to do and you have to run around some random city looking for a camera shop to replace it if that's even possible. So that's going to put a major setback in your day if that happens. So do yourself a favor and make yourself bulletproof for any issues that could come up along the way. That is it for today's video. I hope I was able to give you a comprehensive overview of all of the different things that you may need to become a full-time travel content creator. This is by far, in my opinion, the best job in the world. Being able to travel to exotic places and take beautiful photos and videos to share with your community. There's really nothing better in my opinion than being able to connect with people and tell stories that matter to you in this way. But hopefully this helped give you a little bit of an overview of how to keep your gear safe and clean and organized in the high stress situations that inevitably come with travel. So again, thank you for watching and until next time, let's push our limits.