What's In My Camera Bag 2024

Well, here we are again.

My second yearly ‘What’s In My Camera Bag’ post, and yet again there are a few major changes to look at. Mainly an indecision about lenses and you can see last year's post here.

Late in 2023, I had a semi successful photography trip to Barcelona (you can check that out here) and on my return I felt like the RF-s 18-150 lens I had been using all year was not doing me any favours. Maybe the lens wasn’t to blame for the trip being only semi successful at all - maybe it was the dodgy steak that I ate on the first night - but the lens had lost some of its appeal at the very least.

Either way I have found myself again in the throes of many a photographer's nightmare - the impossible quest of finding the perfect camera and lens combination. In an ideal world I would have a compact full frame with the latest autofocus and video capabilities alongside a decent battery life. Then to also have small and light lens options. It just doesn’t exist. A compromise has to be made somewhere.

Despite that, I’m pretty sure of what I’ll be starting the year with, and what other things I might try throughout the year. So, join me as I go into quite some detail and the thought process behind my new daily carry for 2024; maybe you will find some useful information to help with your own decisions within the Canon camera system.

Canon R7

A non-mover for 2024, but it was close. One of my thoughts when I got back from Barcelona was that maybe one of the reasons I wasn’t happy with the setup was because I was missing full frame.

A full frame camera gives better background blur and usually has better low light capabilities; but after testing my Canon RP one afternoon I quickly decided that, for now, my Canon R7 is a much more suitable camera for me. The R7 has silent shutter, much more capable autofocus, better video quality when I need it, a bigger battery capacity, more megapixels and gives me more reach from my lenses with its crop sensor.

Sure, I could upgrade to an R6 or R5, and that was a consideration, but bokeh and out of focus backgrounds are not something I shoot a lot because most of my pictures are slow shutter speed styles with higher apertures. So I think the sensible decision is to base my choice on what suits that, and the focal length advantages along with the 32MP of the crop sensor in the R7 still serve my purpose well.

So with that decided, I started to look at the lens.

Canon RF 70-200mm f4 L IS USM Lens

While the focal range of 18-150 on last year's RF-s lens proved excellent, there was something that just didn’t feel right about it. Not having to change lenses for any of my slow shutter photography was great, it really did it all, but at the same time the experience felt limited somehow and didn’t always provide the results I wanted.

As a total aside, it is a damn ugly lens when attached to the camera, almost phallic!

There is a fear that I will regret parting ways with it if I find myself begrudgingly changing lenses throughout the day, but there is only one way to find out.

When trying to find a replacement for the 18-150 I quickly became fixated on the RF 70-200 f4. A focal range of 70-200 is an unorthodox choice for street photography, but with me using a wheelchair I often find myself creating some distance between me and the subject as I don’t have the luxury of walking past someone and quickly taking a shot. All my shots are taken with me sat stationary, and I tend to look for shots a little further away than most.

One thing I liked about the f4 variant of this lens over the f2.8, is that the zoom ring is bigger and closer to the body - helpful for zoom burst shots. The fact it is smaller, lighter and £1000 helps too. The aperture difference is a moot point for me as my long exposure photography usually sits between f8 and f11.

Although this lens claims to be the world's smallest 70-200, it still isn’t what I would call small or light, and the off-white colour Canon uses on some of these L lenses isn’t exactly stealthy for street photography.

Still, I had my eyes set on this lens, and figured my best option would be to use this when needed, and then have a cheap, small, compact zoom that would cover the wider end and to use when I didn’t want to draw too much attention.

One other thing that influenced my decision is that this lens coupled with the R7 will make an excellent combination on the rare occasions I venture into sport and wildlife photography.

Canon RF 24-50mm f4.5-6.3 IS STM Lens

I really wanted a small, light and inconspicuous zoom lens. The 24-50 fits that bill at around 200g and not much bigger than a ‘nifty fifty’. I did consider the popular 24-105 kit lens because of its better reach, but the physical size doesn’t feel all that much smaller than my new 70-200; and because they cover a lot of the same focal range I worried that my brand new L lens would become nothing more than an expensive paperweight.

Fun fact: I apparently owned and used the 24-105 in late 2022, but for some reason I have no recollection of this and sold it to get the RF-s 18-150 last year, so going back to that lens seems like a step in the wrong direction. After checking all my best photos, a lot of them sat within the 50-80mm range. The full frame equivalent of this 24-50 is around 40-80mm, so it should cover the wider end of my photography quite well. With the high megapixel count of 32 in the Canon R7, I can crop my images further quite comfortably in post and really get the most out of its focal length.

Kit lenses of old had their place, but were often rightly snubbed as being bad lenses for beginners only. The construction was questionable, their apertures leave little to be desired and the picture quality was acceptable at best.

Modern ‘kit’ lenses are sometimes being snubbed for simply falling under the same umbrella - that being a cheap lens bundled together with a new camera - but are we really being fair?

The build quality of lenses sold together with modern mirrorless cameras are much improved; and for the most part their sharpness and picture quality stands up really quite well when paired with the cameras they are designed for. The differences between corner quality and chromatic aberration between modern kit lenses and their professional L series counterparts are much smaller than they were in years past.

It’s small, it’s cheap, it does what I need and doesn’t attract too much attention. So if you find yourself like me, needing a small compact zoom, and aperture isn’t really an issue for the type of photos you need it for, you would be a fool not to consider them. For the price, I’m willing to give it a shot.

Canon RF 50mm f1.8 STM

Canon RF 50mm 1.8 lens sits alone against a white background

Who doesn’t need a small prime in their bag?

The RF mount successor of the legendary ‘nifty fifty’ is perfect for low light and when I want some background separation in everyday street shots.

Now that my daily carry is often going to be two zoom lenses instead of one, I don’t think I will take this out every time, but it’s small enough that it’s never a problem to take if I feel like I might need it.

ND Filters

Last year's decision to stop using variable ND filters was the smartest decision I made. All I used was a Gobe ND16 screw on filter with a f-stop reduction of 4, and it allowed me to take shots at my favourite shutter speeds while keeping the aperture between the sweet spot of 8-11.

After trying a variety of different quality filters over the years, from Neewer, Gobe, Urth and Hoya, I can’t say I’ve noticed any difference between them in terms of picture quality (not that I’ve done any direct side by side comparisons).

With that in mind I’ve gone with a set of cheaper end Neewer ND filters for my 24-50 lens, and to sit atop my lovely new 70-200, I got a good deal on a Hoya filter so went with that. My initial observations are that the Neewer filters are terrible for putting a lens cap on top, and the Hoya works much better in that regard while also screwing on much more smoothly to the lens.

Headphones

Google Pixel Buds A-Series in green on a white background

My headphones of choice are still the Google Pixel Buds A-Series in green. Listening to music while doing street photography enhances the experience for me, and sometimes helps get me ‘into the zone’. These headphones are small and light, with great features like telling me who messages are from - without having to get my phone out.

Considering how many times I drop an ear bud, it’s a miracle I haven’t lost these yet.

GoPro 11 Mini

As I suggested I might in last year’s post, I did indeed upgrade from the Hero Session 5 to the GoPro 11 Mini.

This is one upgrade that has proven invaluable.

The performance and quality upgrade is very noticeable. It’s true what they say, not every 4K is equal and image stabilisation is much improved, so POV’s of me rolling around in my wheelchair are now silky smooth.

Final Thoughts

Another major advantage of me splitting the crop sensor only RF-s lens into two separate zoom lenses is that both of the new ones are suitable for full frame too. So I can put them on my Canon RP and effectively get different focal lengths than on the crop sensor R7. It’s not a game changer, but helped with the decision. The only downside is that lenses designed for full frame tend to be bigger physically.

Can I please stop spending a fortune on photography equipment now and find a setup that I’m 100% in love with… please?