2024 Camera & Travel Bag (Long Term Slow Travel)

When I first started to travel full time I wanted to have everything in one bag and one configuration. However as time went on and I became more experienced, I found that this isn’t the most efficient way to travel and shoot. Instead I decided to pack differently for different trips with the three main ones being long term slow travel, road trips and backpacking.

This blog is a supplement to the video that you can watch here.

In this blog I will cover what I bring with me for my longer term slow trips that can last multiple months and include longer stays in each location of typically 2+ weeks. This is a vastly different setup to how I would pack for a backpacking trip or a road trip and since I have both of these coming up in 2024, I will make separate blogs for each. This specific trip will be around 5 months including warm and cold environments which for me is the worst packing scenario because you need more stuff. This is also a photo / video heavy trip so I will need to bring more gear than I’d like. This blog will remain high level however there are many individual blogs for most of the items here so do check those out.

Bags

The first bag is a small Bellroy 2.5L sling. This is what I keep on me during travel days and it contains my passport, phone, charger, wallet and other essentials I’d usually keep in my pockets. I find this a more secure option than to fill my pockets and since it’s always on me, I never panic about where I put something essential. The second bag is a Bellroy 26L Venture backpack. This is where I will carry all camera gear and electronics. The backpack comes in handy for day trips, hikes or when I want to carry more gear. Inside the backpack is a Bellroy 10L camera sling. This is my go to day bag for when I’m out exploring and shooting in a city. It also doubles up as a camera cube when the strap is removed and neatly slides into the backpack. I also have a Peak Design packable tote bag is great for shopping, going to the beach or throwing the laptop in and going to a coffee shop. When it comes to accessory pouches, I have two Bellroy pouches. One for electronics and one for toiletries. Finally I have three Peak Design packing cubes. One of them is for trainers while the other two are compression cubes for clothes. Compression cubes allow for the entire packing cube to compress using a zip thus taking up less room.

Camera Gear

The Fujifilm XH2 which is my photo first camera and the XH2s is my video first camera. The XH2 has a higher resolution sensor while the XH2s has more dynamic range, faster readout and better autofocus. Between these two I am covered for all scenarios and they can easily replace each other if one goes down. Given this is a photo / video heavy trip I need a solid backup. If this was more of a casual trip, then I would have probably picked the XT5 as the photo camera.

The DJI Pocket 3 is my go to vlogging camera and while the quality is no where near as good as the Fuji cameras, it fits in my pocket and makes outdoor filming a breeze. The Fuji’s are for getting high quality footage for processing and editing into a more polished video later while the DJI is for getting raw in the moment videos for YouTube. I also have a small set of ND filters for this camera.

The final camera is my iPhone 15 Pro Max. I know some photography snobs will scoff at this but the iPhone is an insanely capable camera. I use it a lot and many times found myself going to shoot with just the phone if I don’t want to carry any cameras with me. I went for the Pro Max specifically due to the 120mm telephoto lens.

In total I have 4 lenses. The first is a Fuji 18mm f1.4. This is my establishing wide angle lens. Second lens is a Fuji 33 f1.4 that I use for most of my photography. Third lens is the 90mm f2 that I use for details and subjects far away. It can really come in handy on hikes. Finally is a Fuji 16-55 f2.8 general zoom because it’s always useful when travelling and is a backup for the primes.

Finally I use Urth magnetic ND and CPL filters. They also come with a magnetic lens cap that can be used on its own and is a joy to use.

Electronics

My laptop is an M2 14” MacBook Pro with 4tb of storage. Although it’s an expensive option, this laptop is the lifeblood of everything I do and I’m happy to spend money on this. Previously I had an iPad Pro with me as a backup computer and to be able to take to coffee shops with me. The first half of this year I am trying to go without it and instead use my phone and laptop. This is mostly due to me not using the iPad that much to justify having it.

Below is a list of all the other electronics:

Anker Thundebolt 3 cables x4
USB C adaptors (USB C to USB A etc)
Macbook cable
Minix travel charger x2
Fuji battery charger and 2 batteries
Anker USB C power bank
CF Express and SD card reader
KU XIU 3 in 1 wireless charger for phone, watch and headphones
Apple AirPods Pro 2
Normal wired headphones
DJI Mic + audio cables
2 x Peak design wrist straps for cameras
Neck strap
Small flash
Smallrig multitool

Clothes

This of course varies for everyone but I prefer simple basic clothes with most of mine coming from Uniqlo. The main rule is to have a capsule wardrobe which in essence means that all clothing items can go with each other. As mentioned at the start, this list of clothes is for longer term travel and covers everything from 0C above. If it was just warm countries, it would be half the size.