What’s in my Camera Bag (2026 Edition)

I recently made some changes to my camera kit, so it’s time for an updated look at what’s in my camera bag. I realized I wasn’t happy with a couple of my existing lenses — they were good lenses but they didn’t really cover the ranges I wanted to shoot with them, Because of that, I decided to make some changes, and three rarely used lenses went out the door. Replacing them were two incoming lenses: Sigma’s new 25-200mm F3.5-63 DG and Tamron’s new 90mm F2.8 Macro. I also wanted to have something smaller and lighter than the A7rIV to match with the Sigma as a light and easy to carry around setup, and after some consideration, I bought a used Sony A6700 body.

I’ve always preferred a two body setup, so I could put my primary lens on my main body but have the other (often the wide angle/landscape) on a second body so I could use it quickly and easily use it without lens changes in the field — really important with Sony cameras since their sensors are serious dust magnets. This allows me to also have a street/landscape kit set up and ready to go, and a second kit set up for my bird photography, and be able to grab and go without always carrying the big (heavy) bag if I only planned on shooting street style work,

I ended up setting up two bags as my day to day carry: my big bag is the ThinkTank Walker Pro 30 liter backpack. For the street kit I ended up getting an Amazon Basics bag that is about 15 liters capacity and is surprisingly nice for the price. it’s a typical shoulder bag style.

This is what the inside of the Think Tank looks like. The left column has my Kase 77mm Filters (circular ND plus three different strength ND, plus adaptor rings for the lenses). Below those are two JJC two battery packs, and a Pelican hard case holding my memory cars. The Memory cards are all 128Gb cards, either either Lexar or SanDisk and all at least 280MB/sec transfer. Below that is a small utility bag full of useful things (described below).

The middle column has the Tamron 90mm Macro, and the Sony A7rIV with the Sony FE 100-400mm F4.5-6.5 GM OSS lens plus the Sony 1.4x teleconverter. It has a Smallrig L-bracket attached to the body, and an Arca-Swiss Style plate on the lens.

The right column has my BlackRapid sling strap, an air blower and lens pen, and a stack of extension tubes from Neewer. Below that is the A6700 with the Sigma attached. This is how the bag is packed when I have both kits in this bigger bag.

Most of the time, though, the A6700 and the Sigma lens live in the smaller bag, and it looks like this, with a BlackRapid strap, a battery pack and an SD card case in the top are, and the camera with the lens attached below it. Under then camera is the Kase filter pack.

I also have a third bag, a Shimodo 40 liter backpack. It’s larger than I need at this point, but I’m keeping it around because on a longer trip, I can pack everything into it, along with some extra essentials while on the road like chargers and sensor clean ing tools.

This is what the two cameras look like side by side, with the A7rVI above with the 100-400 and 1.4X teleconverter. Below that is the A6700 with the Sigma lens attached.

The reason I chose to go with the A6700 should be obvious: it’s a lot smaller and lighter than the A7rIV body, perfect for carrying around while wandering around a town. The A7rIV is a good body, but working with it can feel like driving a delivery truck: it’ll definitely get the job done for you, but it’s not exactly nimble or exciting to drive. As I write this, I haven’t worked a lot with the new lens or body, but I’ve enjoyed handling it in limited shooting time and I’ve been very happy with the results so far.

The other lens I have is the Tamron 90mm Macro. I’ve been wanting to experiment with macro again for a while, and I’d bought a different macro lens that was good, but I realized a manual focus lens was impractical for doing focus stacking, so I ended up selling it and replaced it with this, As I write this, I’m just starting to get to know it, so stay tuned for a more informed opinion of it.

Accessories

I’ve tried to pare back what I carry, I’m more interested in light and flexible than trying to cover every possible situation, so as part of this change to my kit, I went through everything in my bags and got rid of the things I haven’t been using. What I have left is, I think, the core, key things to help me keep the camera setup functioning well

First up are a set of extension tubes (by Neewer), my blower and my lens pen (did I point out just how much of a dust magnet Sony sensors are compared to my old Fuji gear?), and two other minor necessities: a remote trigger and a rain shield for the camera. Not shown but loving in a side pocket with the rain shield is one for the bag as well. The remote trigger is a basic, push the button type, no smarts and no special features you can never remember how to program the way you want.

The other things I carry are a BlackRapid sling strap, my SD card case, and a couple of JJC battery holders, each carrying two batteries. There’s also a small utility pack. Not shown are my business cards, so I have something to share with my name and web site on it, and a forehead flashlight as well as a small standard flashlight.

Finally, that utility pack: It carries a few useful necessities, including an emergency whistle and a compass, a small first aid pack of mostly bandages, tweezers and splinter removal tools, Purell Wipes and a mask. Not shown is that I also usually carry hand warmers, except I realized mine expired in 2022 and I need to buy a new pack (oops). I do keep a more complete first aid kit in the car, so there’s always one no more than a quick walk away.

Also kept in the care are a couple of tripods, both carbon fiber. One is the peak design travel tripod, which is really expensive but super stable (but no, I wouldn’t buy it again, there are equally good and less expensive alternatives). The other is from Neewer cost under $100 and is almost as good. I keep both because I sometimes have both the camera and a spotting scope on tripods at the same time, so it makes sense to have both handy.

And that’s about it. I’m carrying a lot less stuff than I did five years ago, but I think overall it’s a nicer kit that still gets the job done for me.