What’s In Our Camera Bag? All The Gear We Use As Part-Time Travel Creators

Interested in what’s in our camera bag and what we use as part time travel content creators? Whether you’re just curious or looking for the best beginner content creator gear – you’ve come to the right place. Here is every piece of content creation photography and videography gear we have in our collection as part time content creators.

David’s Camera

David is a huge Nikon fan and he uses a Nikon Z6 for all of his photography. For his lens, David uses a Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. We typically shoot in 24mm as it gives the Instagram influencer look I love.

Now David had been shooting on this camera for many years prior to us starting this blog. If you’re a beginner, we wouldn’t recommend a camera like this until much further down the road if you become serious about photography.

For accessories, we have a camera strap so David can carry hands free as well as a polarizer filter for the lens. A polarizer is super helpful when shooting in bright sunlight. It reduces glare and enhances color saturation.

Stella’s Camera

My camera is a Nikon Z30, which is primarily a vlogging camera – though it of course takes great photos as well. I chose this camera because the screen flips out, so you can see yourself while filming.

Although I love this camera, I honestly don’t use it anymore when we travel. I found my video footage was far too shaky when I was holding it handheld. So now I use it for “talking head” style videos, on a tripod. Plus, it’s just so much easier to pull out my iPhone to shoot videos as we are on the go.

For accessories, I have the Z30 creator kit, which has a small tripod, clicker, and a “dead cat” microphone. I also have a camera strap, a polarizer filter, and a gimbal for this camera. We don’t use the gimbal very often because it’s cumbersome to use while traveling.

David & Stella’s iPhones

You may be surprised to know that we shoot a majority of our YouTube videos on iPhones rather than on our cameras – everything from an iPhone 8 up to our most recent iPhone 17 Pros. It’s just so much easier to grab a phone and shoot while traveling than having to pull out a bunch of gear. For that reason, a good quality phone is our #1 recommendation for new content creators.

For accessories, we also have polarizing filters for our iPhones as well. You’ll need a mount to attach the filter to the phone. I use a Moment universal screw-on mount paired with an Apple case and Apple crossbody strap. David uses a Neewer case mounting system specific to his phone.

We also have the DJI Osmo Pocket 6 phone gimbal for steady footage and are obsessed with it. This is how we shoot our resort walkthrough tours. Plus, it has an auto-tracking feature that will move the camera to follow it’s subject when shooting video. This is a game changer for solo or couples creators.

Action Cameras

We have two action cameras in our collection, and the GoPro Hero 8 is our go to. We take this in the ocean, snorkeling, and even mount it to our car to take driving videos. The Hero 8 model is older and no longer easily available – we’d recommend the Hero 10 now, as it’s generally the same price.

If you’re wanting to take Instagram worthy half-in, half-out underwater shots, then you will need to get a GoPro dome like the one we have below. When we’re not using the dome for these types of photos, we attach our Go Pro to the handle. The handle floats and has a wrist strap, so it’s perfect for snorkeling.

We also recently got an Insta360 camera, which films 360 degrees of footage. So far we haven’t done too much with our Insta360 footage as the camera and editing software is kind of confusing, but we will be playing around more with it soon.

Drone

We have the DJI Mini SE, which is one of the smaller and more lightweight drones. This is a fantastic drone for beginners that takes up very little space and meets many countries drone weight restrictions. Although we’ve been wanting to upgrade our drone for a while now, unfortunately there is now a DJI product ban in the US!

Audio Equipment

Good quality audio is incredibly important if you’re making video content. And if you’re filming on an iPhone, we highly recommend a wireless microphone set. Over the last few years, we’ve been using a Neewer lavalier microphone and it’s worked very well. The only drawback is that the wind screens don’t fit in the carrying case, which doesn’t make sense.

Recently, we upgraded our mic to the DJI Mini 2. We love it because the microphones are smaller, and everything fits inside the case. Note we find the quality to be very similar between these two brands of microphones.

I also recently bought a microphone for recording voiceovers on edited content, although if I’m honest, I haven’t even used it yet. Instead I have been using our wireless mics to record. This microphone would be an awesome option for beginner streamers, podcasters, and more.

Lighting Equipment

We have some lighting equipment we use both at home and on the road. First up is a ring light, which is essential for filming vlogs and short form video.

Recently we purchased this RGB constant light for David’s camera. We’ve found it helpful for filming talking segments at night and we’ve also been playing around with different colors for night photos. Also, I’m not going to lie — we use it as a flashlight at night.

Our most recent lighting gear addition is a flash for David’s Nikon Z6 camera. This purchase included the flash itself, a flash trigger for his camera, and a soft box. We have been experimenting with flash photography at the beach during harsh noon sun and so far have loved the results. However, I would say this is a much more advanced set up.

Tech Accessories

In order to use all this gear on the go, we also have a ton of chargers, memory cards, and external hard drives. We’ve been through a ton of different brands of these, but right now we are loving the SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD external hard drive along with its matching case. Note that the prices have skyrocketed in 2026 unfortunately. They’ve literally doubled!

Backpacks

You may be wondering how we transport all this gear, especially considering we travel carry on only. Well, David and I each carry a camera backpack that we use as our personal item on flights. We also have matching crossbody slings bags that we can slip into our backpacks when traveling.

I’m obsessed with my Brevite Jumper camera bag, which is designed with removable and adjustable dividers to accommodate photography gear. I actually have this in both the regular and large size to ensure I can meet the carry on size limits for different airlines.

David uses the Nomatic Peter McKinnon backpack and he gets a ton of compliments on it. He also has two different size matching Nomatic sling bags for carrying gear on the go.

Beginner Creator Recommendations

Now that you’ve seen all of the travel content creator gear that we own, I’m sure you’re wondering what gear do you need if you’re interested in creating content. Well, you really don’t much to get started. We recommend just the basics below and upgrading over time.

THAT’S IT! Don’t spend too much money upfront on gear like we did. We recommend saving your money and upgrade overtime as you start earning money from your content (which for us, was years down the road after starting!)

We hope this guide has been helpful. If you have any questions about our gear, need recommendations, or want to know what we use in a specific video, leave a comment below.