What landscape photography and videography gear do I use and why?
Welcome to my landscape photography gear page! Here, I will give you information about the tools and equipment that accompany me on my photographic adventures. I must admit, I absolutely love new gear. The excitement of unboxing a shiny new camera or lens is hard to beat. But as I’ve grown as a photographer, I’ve learned that the gear alone doesn’t make the magic happen. It’s all about capturing the essence of a breathtaking landscape and telling a story through the lens. So, while gear does play a part, it’s the creativity and skill behind the camera that really matters.
Photography
Camera
Getting on a bit now, but still a fantastic camera for Landscape Photography. 42mp is more than enough to capture stunning detail in the landscape and leaves me with enough room to still crop my images where needed. It has incredible dynamic range, allowing me to expose for the highlights in an image and easily bring the shadows up in post with no real loss in quality (however I still bracket most of my photos as a bit of an insurance policy) Unlike older Sony cameras the battery life is phenomenal! I can’t see myself changing the camera for a while… Having said that the Sony A7Rv is very tempting with it’s flippy screen!
Lenses
A relatively new purchase, replacing my Sony 24-105mm – Incredibly sharp across the frame at all focal lengths and an extremely light lens at only 488gms. I love the versatility of this lens, being able to shoot all the way from 20mm to 70mm (105mm in crop mode). With weather sealing throughout the lens I can feel confident taking the lens with me on most of my shoots, I can see this lens living on my camera most of the time.
Sony FE 16-35mm F4 – Power Zoom – SELP1635G
Predominantly purchased as my main vlogging lens, but I’ve included it here as it also doubles down as an excellent ultra wide photography lens. Extremely sharp edge to edge, weather sealed and extremely light at only 353gms. The power zoom functionality works great for vlogging, but takes a little getting used to for photography.
My favourite lens, I absolutely love shooting at longer focal lengths, picking out details in the landscape, especially on days where the light and conditions aren’t conducive to the wider images. An extremely sharp lens with a relatively low weight (for a 100-400mm) at 1140gms, I never leave the house without it!
My most recent purchase and perhaps a new direction for my photography? While I still love the bigger vista’s and woodland views, I’ve come to really enjoy exploring the understory of the woodland floor, Fungi. I’m really enjoying this new challenge at the minute and seeing a lot of cross over with compositions between Macro and Landscape photography. An incredibly sharp lens and will now come with me on every woodland trip.
Tripods/Heads
An absolute BEAST of a tripod, with the centre column extended, reaching over 7ft tall! It has been my main tripod now for over 3 years and seen a lot of use, but I’m not getting any younger and the weight is getting a bit much for me. I’ll still be using the tripod for some woodland trips, trips where I don’t need to walk far or trips where I know the wind is going to be high, but I have been trying out a smaller, lighter tripod which may become my main go-to.
K&F Concept by Kentfaith – X284-C4 – Carbon Fibre Tripod – Use code MHPH on checkout to get 10% off your order!
Kentfaith recently sent me this tripod for review. It’s one of their newer X-series design tripods, 1.7m in height (centre column extended) it is not a small tripod by any measure, but it only weights 1.7kgs! The built quality is excellent using a nice matte texture on all metal parts and thick chunky grips on the twist locks. All in a package that only costs £148 (at the time of writing). Honestly it’s a bargain for such a great package.
K&F Concept by Kentfaith – 3-Way Geared Tripod Head – Use code MHPH on checkout to get 10% off your order!
Kentfaith recently sent me this gear head to review and I absolutely love it! The quality and price is competitive against the Benro equivalent. I’ve recently come back from a weekend in the Lake District and abused this tripod head and it never skipped a beat, I cannot recommend it enough! – You can watch the full review here – Kentfaith K&F Concept Geared Head Review
Bag
Shimoda bags need no real introduction, incredible quality, water resistant and incredibly comfortable (if a bit pricey), If I was in the market for a new bag I’d opt for the Shimoda Action X50 due to all the gear I carry.
Accessories
3-Legged Thing Ellie PD – L-Bracket
For me an L-Bracket is a MUST for any landscape photographer, the ability to quickly shift from landscape to portrait orientation when the light is kicking off makes life so much easier! This L-Bracket from 3-Legged Thing comes with the added bonus of the Peak Design capture clip built in, so you can quickly and easily attach it to the capture clip.
This really useful clip attaches to the your camera bag strap and ensures you have your camera to hand in an instant, especially useful to grab a quick image when it’s all kicking off!
Video
Cameras
Massive overkill for my YouTube channel, it’s effectively a Sony A7Siii in a smaller form factor, full frame and capable of shooting at insane ISO numbers with little noise to the image. But I cannot complain as I was extremely fortunate to win this camera in a competition on Instagram from one of Sony’s Ambassadors – Mike Will – Check out his content on Instagram, It’s phenomenal! https://instagram.com/m.visuals
The camera I first used to start my YouTube channel and still used today where using my big camera isn’t practical. Excellent image quality, robust, waterproof and takes up no room in my bag.
Lens
Sony FE 16-35mm F4 – Power Zoom – SELP1635G
Extremely sharp edge to edge, weather sealed and extremely light at only 353gms. The power zoom functionality works great for vlogging and capturing cinematic shots.
Drone
At less than 250gms, this little powerhouse of a drone comes with me on most adventures, great at capturing cinematic shots and at a pinch can take some really nice photos.
Microphones
Sound is arguably more important than video quality on YouTube videos, I know myself if the sound quality is awful on a video I’ve often skipped watching a video. The DJI Mic’s are a game changer with their charging case, 2 transmitters and 1 receiver, it gives me enough battery power to get through a full days shoot, but allows me to use my microphones creatively, mic’ing up friends while out on adventures, or wirelessly mic’ing up my shotgun mic for sound effects.
The microphone I’ve been using since I first started my YouTube channel, a simple but effectively shotgun microphone, perfect for vlogging. It’s been everywhere with me and encountered some brutal conditions but never had any issues, except wind noise that can be a bit problematic at times.
Vlogging Tripod
K&F Concept by Kentfaith – SA255C1
My vlogging tripod for a couple of years now, extremely lightweight at 1.3kgs and goes to a decent enough height for vlogging, I’ve absolutely abused this tripod, often using it not only for it’s intended purpose but as a walking stick to help me keep my balance when crossing streams or to give a bit of relief during a long hike.
Accessories
A great little cage for my main vlogging camera, makes the camera much more comfortable to hold, adds a bit of protection to the camera and gives me so many mounting options for lights, microphones etc.
