What was in my camera bag for our 5-month Europe Trip
2023 was a big travel year for our family. We spent 23 weeks, or five and a half months, traveling mainly in Europe with a small detour in Africa and Asia, setting our footprints on 18 countries.
When I left the US with two kids in the end of June to visit my husband, who had stayed in Germany since March, I only finalized itinerary for the first six weeks. Without knowing exactly where we’d go and photograph for the rest of the trip, anything was possible on my photo list.
So, I packed the following camera gear in the beginning.
What I Packed
It was the same equipment list as I packed for our northern light trip in Norway in 2022.
Three cameras:
Canon EOS R5
Sony A7IV
DJI mini 2 drone
Five lenses:
Canon RF15-35mm, f2.8, Canon RF24-70mm f2.8, Canon RF70-200mm f2.8 for Canon EOS R5
Sony 24mm f1.4, Sony 35mm f1.4 for Sony A7IV
Mulitiple filters:
2 NiSi 1-5 stop variable ND filters. One with 82mm diameter that will fit two of my Canon lenses, one with 67mm diameter that will fit two of my Sony lenses. I attached the filters to my lenses all the time, in order to handle strong light in the summer
One Lee 10-stop ND filter (Lee Big Stopper) for long exposure
Three Lee Gradient ND filters for landscape photography
A pack of filters for DJI drone
Two Tripods
I had my two tripods for over 10 years, mainly photographing landscape. I used to have two cameras setting on two tripods at the same time in order to photograph landscape in different compositions. That was something I did far more often before I had kids.
Another reason for bringing both tripods are I wanted to try taking more videos. Perhaps using one tripod taking photos and another for videos. This, as it turned out, stayed in the dream for this trip.
The original plan was to travel together as a family, but things didn’t work out with my husband’s schedule. He had to stay in Germany for longer than we expected and even had to return to the US for a trip before he could join us.
Instead of coming back with him and having the kids to go through jet lags, I decided to stay in Europe with the kids. Neither of us knew this wait ended up lasting more weeks and months than expected.
In short, I ended up traveling with my kids for nearly 4 months across 15 countries in Europe. Alone!
This changed my photo activities significantly. For safety and convenience, I picked mostly urban locations as our travel destinations. I wanted to minimize luggage and weight while traveling with two kids full time.
My kids and I each traveled with one carryon suitcase, and a backpack. Since most of our flights were within a couple of hours, most of the airplanes we took were small and our carryon suitcase was limited to either 8 or 10lbs.
What I Shipped Back
Beyond my first six weeks, we made a big decision to ship some of our belongings, including part of my photography gear, back to the US, including:
1 - MeFoTo tripod
This tripod was always my backup tripod over the past 10 years. There was barely any chance for me to use tripod, and there was absolutely no reason to keep 2 tripods
2 - DJI mini 2 drone
I was never a serious drone photographer. I bought this a few years ago right before our Bahamas trip. As it turned out, that was the only trip I intensively used this drone, as I left my entire camera bag in the Seattle airport and could only use the drone and an iPhone to document that trip (check out our Bahamas travel video).
I never used this drone often afterwards, partly because it is an amateur level photo equipment that does not meet my quality standard, especially in low light settings (check out my Mirrorless Camera Ultimate Buying Guide to understand which part of your camera gear is most critical in determining your photo quality). Anyway, it wasn’t realistic to fly a drone in busy and touristic urban scenes in Europe.
3 - Sony 35mm f1.4
I had two Canon lenses covering 35mm, so this was redundant. Between Sony 24mm and 35mm, I used 24mm more often, as it is quite versatile for indoor tight spaces, low light scenarios, videography as well as astrophotography. 35mm to me is great for street photography, but not as versatile for landscape and astrophotography.
4 - Three Lee Gradient ND filters
This was used mostly for landscape photography during sunrise and sunset. But these days I rarely used them. I could darken the sky in post processing instead of having to physically use the filter to cover the sky during photo shoot.
5 - A pack of filters for DJI drone
Apparently this had to return with the drone
What I Used
After this downsizing, I only had Canon EOS R5 with two Canon lenses (RF24-70mm and RF70-200mm), and Sony A7IV with one lens (Sony 24mm f1.4 prime) left.
As a matter of fact, my Gitzo tripod was sitting with my husband most of the time in Germany while I traveled with kids. I didn’t expect to have too many landscape photo opportunities while traveling with kids in crowded urban scenes.
Last but not least, even we played around the idea of traveling to Africa, I didn’t want to go with my kids alone. I would definitely not go without a super-telephoto lens for the Africa safari.
That’s why we ended up staying in Europe for the bulk of the trip (with a slight detour in Morocco, Africa and Cappadocia, Asia), and stayed till when we had to come back to the US, right before our luggage delivery.
Now, back to my photo data.
Camera Usage
Canon EOS R5
49685, 91% of all photos
Since my first Canon film SLR in 2000, I’ve been using Canon for over 20 years. Even I deviated from the Canon system and adopted Sony A7iii in 2018 and later upgraded to Sony A7IV, I’ve been comfortable using both Canon and Sony systems.
However, I have very distinctive use between my Canon EOS R5 and Sony A7IV. As you could tell from my gear list, all my Sony lenses are prime lenses, and all my Canon lenses are zoom lenses.
Whenever I need something lighter and more compact, or would like to photograph in dim light scenarios, such as in a restaurant, aquarium or museum, I would carry my Sony. Otherwise, I use Canon.
During our trip last summer, there were very few days we would spend the whole day in dim light conditions. Therefore, I use my Canon with one or two zoom lenses most of the time. It was just so much easier to use zoom lens to do my type of travel photography, which was typically in candid and street style. (see above video for more details)
Sony A7IV
5117, 9% of all photos
I kept Sony as a backup camera. Since I only had the 24mm wide angle prime, and I wasn’t taking any videos, or night sky photography such as Milky Way or northern lights. I rarely needed my Sony A7IV for this trip.
In fact, for the second half of the trip, Apollo, my then 8-yo was carrying this camera most of the time.
Lens Usage
Canon RF15-35mm f2.8
5227, 10% of all photos
This was my favorite lens for landscape photography. Since I knew there wouldn’t be too many landscape photography opportunities when I traveled with two kids, I left the lens with my husband for the first four months.
When I finally used it in the last three countries, road tripping throughout Romania, Morocco and Ireland, I couldn’t be happier.
Beyond typical nature and landscape, this lens was also perfect for urban wide scenes, as well as architecture and interior shots.
Don’t be mistaken you can only use wide angle lens to photograph places. You can certainly photograph people with this lens as well, especially in tight indoor spaces.
The photo below right was taken in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping gallery in our 2 day trip in Milan. The place was incredibly crowded, and I had to hold my camera right in front of my boy to snap this shot at 15mm focal length, thanks to this wide angle lens.
Last but not least, wide angle at least 24mm or wider was perfect for starry sky or Milky Way shot. I hadn’t particularly planned to photography Milky Way, but it happened to be hanging right above us at a tiny house airbnb we stayed in Ireland. It was one of the best experiences for our kids, and certainly a pleasant surprise and a high plus photo experience for me. The photo above on the left was also shot at 15mm.
Canon RF24-70mm f2.8
29498, 54% of all photos
As the data showed, this was my power horse lens.
It is an all-purpose lens that you can use for almost any photo scenarios, indoors, outdoors, portrait, landscape, even astrophotography. Except for wild animals in a safari, you may be able to use this lens for any photo subjects.
It’s probably not the best lens for any categories above, but none of the winner lenses in any particular category can beat this lens for versatility.
When I wasn’t sure what I’d see and photograph for a particular day, I would bring this Canon RF24-70mm f2.8 due to its unique advantage of being an excellent all-purpose lens.
I’ve used it to photograph:
From landscape to people…
From full body to closeup...
From strong light to low light…
From outdoors to indoors…
There was no occasion on this trip this lens couldn’t serve me well.
If I had to bring only one camera and one lens for this entire trip, undoubtedly it would be my Canon R5 and this RF24-70mm f2.8 lens, even they were bulkier and heavier compared to my Sony camera plus prime lens setup.
In case you are not aware, 2023 was the planet's warmest year on record. For the first three months, we regularly got hot temperatures at mid to high 90s Fahrenheit (or 35C or above).
I couldn’t be bothered to carry a camera backpack with multiple lenses while walking around in the scorching sun with my two boys. I couldn’t be bothered to fumble around in the street to change cameras or lenses in the sweat.
For many days, I would just carry one camera and one lens. As mentioned before, Apollo sometimes voluntarily carried the second camera Sony A7IV with the Sony 24mm f1.4, as they were smaller and lighter. Thanks to him, we got more pictures of me in this trip than any family trips before.
Canon RF70-200mm f2.8
14960, 27% of all photos
If you are new to mirrorless or DSLR photography, and if you want instant gratification from a lens, this would be one of your top choices. 70-200mm f2.8 lenses have been my long term favorite outdoor portrait lenses. Many of my personal favorite photos from this trip were from this lens, although it was not used most often.
The key reason was simple. When we traveled in crowded urban scenes, using a long lens was oftentimes challenging. You have to keep yourself at a distance from your subjects when using a long lens, but when you are surrounded by crowd, it’s very easy for someone to walk into your frame. In addition, I was traveling with my two kids alone, it was impractical to keep a long distance from them in the street.
Another shortcoming of 70-200mm lens is it can be used mostly in open or outdoor spaces. Even for outdoor scenarios, for example on a crowded beach, it could be a bit awkward using such a large lens. We celebrated my younger son’s 6 yo birthday in the south coast of Portugal. I took a whole bunch of beach photos while he had a blast playing with the water. Although I pointed my camera to him, but the fact I stood far away and pointing my camera to him through the crowd, it might make some people uncomfortable.
Check out my top 10 tips how to take great travel photos in crowded touristic scenes.
Sony 24mm f1.4
5117, 9% of all photos
The Sony 24mm f1.4 lens is great for low light indoor scenarios as well as for astrophotography. In the past, when I photographed northern lights, or milky way, 24mm prime was a great choice due to its wide aperture. I could use a lot shorter shutter speed to photograph night photography with this lens than my Canon wide angle zoom lenses, which have larger aperture of f2.8.
Accessories
2 NiSi 1-5 stop variable ND filters
Beyond camera and lenses, my most used accessories are two NiSi 1-5 stop variable ND filters (check out details in my gear list). One of them has 82mm diameter that can fit two of my Canon lenses. Because both of my 24-70mm f2.8 and 15-35mm f2.8 zoom lenses from Canon have the same thread size.
The other NiSi filter is the same 1-5 stop variable ND filter, just with smaller thread of 67mm diameter. It can fit both of my Sony prime lenses and was mounted on my 24mm f1.4 the whole time during this trip.
These two filters were always mounted on my lenses for this trip, as I typically shot in the widest aperture for people, and using the filter allows me to do that even in the strongest sunlight last summer.
Lee big stopper
One more filter I also kept was my Lee big stopper which I purchased over 10 years ago for landscape photography. Different from the NiSi variable ND filters which were mounted on my lenses all the time, I only used this 10-stop filter in the last month of this trip, when my husband brought this along with my wide angle lens, and tripod.
I use 10-stop filter for specific landscape photos with water scenes, particularly ocean waves or sometimes waterfalls. It allows you to slow down your shutter to 1 minute, 2 minutes or even longer, smoothing out the water surface, and giving you a tranquil, serene scene.
Camera Backpacks
Last but not least, I’ll show you how I packed my photography gear when I traveled with my kids alone. When we took the flight, each of us have a carryon suitcase, and a backpack. All my camera equipment, including both Canon and Sony body, and 3 lenses were in my Fstop camera bag with medium ICU. I purchased this camera bag over 10 years ago (check out this video I made back then), and it’s still in perfect shape.
When we settle in a location, I typically only bring my Canon R5 with one lens, most often 24-70mm f2.8, and have maximum one additional lens in a day backpack. You can purchase a camera insert to put in your existing backpack if you don’t have lots of gear.
Please don’t be mistaken that more camera gear means better travel photos. In fact, if you are a mirrorless/DSLR newbie, it’s better to use less, and allow yourself familiar with the equipment you have.
You just need to be mindful of what each equipment is best at, and make use of its advantage to create your best photos.
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