What's In My Camera Bag 2025
It doesn’t seem like two minutes ago since I wrote ‘What’s In My Camera Bag 2024’, yet here we are already with 2025’s instalment.
Admittedly - and for reasons out of my control - 2024 was not the most photographically productive year; despite a decent amount of travel to Sicily, Netherlands, Poland, Czechia and a lovely road trip through Wales.
However, I did make some huge changes to my equipment.
Readers of last years ‘What’s In My Camera Bag’ will know that it was a period of gear dissatisfaction and indecision. I’m happy to say that now, after changing camera systems to Fujifilm, I am much happier with my set-up. It’s minimal, cohesive, built well, and looks great!
So let’s run through it.
Fujifilm X-S10
You can read a more in-depth article about why I made the transition from Canon to Fujifilm here. To keep it short, the smaller size of the camera and lenses along with their nice metal bodies at a great price was enough to pull me away from the increasingly plastic laden Canon system.
The Fujifilm X-S10 is a small crop sensor camera that has everything I need - a fully articulating screen, a nice grip for one handed operation, IBIS, 4K video, sufficient autofocus for street photography and even some little extras like a pop-up flash and the famed Fuji simulations if I need them.
Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 Lens
Fujifilm’s legendary standard zoom has proven to be a great lens for me. The all-metal body in a nice compact size is a breath of fresh air compared to the Canon standard zooms I was using. Fujifilm truly is the street photographer’s system. 18-55mm is around 27-84mm in full frame terms, which covers 90% of my shots that usually come in around 40-80mm.
Small Prime Lens
For street photography I have a trio of tiny primes to choose from, and will usually just take one. Small prime lenses are great at avoiding attention and for when you want to isolate subjects with a shallower depth of field. These three are so small you could happily walk around all day with a camera around your neck and barely notice it’s there.
TTArtisan 27mm f2.8 pancake lens - Very small lens with autofocus at my favourite focal length of around 40mm in a full-frame equivalent.
Fujifilm 35mm f2 lens - A classic Fuji autofocus lens for days when image quality and versatility is more important than size. Basically a ‘nifty-fifty’ for Fuji systems.
7Artisans 35mm f1.2 lens - This manual-only lens is extremely small and fun to use. Often described as a ‘character’ lens and is great for days when I’m feeling extra creative or want the f1.2 low light capabilities.
ND Filters
Over time I've found ND64 filters that provide six stops of light reduction to be the sweet spot for the shutter speeds and settings I use the most. So, for my 18-55mm zoom I’ve gone with a single ND64 filter by K&F Concept that is also magnetic. This allows me to take the filter off quickly for when I want to shoot without it.
Both my 35mm prime lenses have a 43mm filter thread, and because I couldn’t find a magnetic one at this size, I opted for a small set of Gobe ND filters. These stack together and include ND8, ND64 and ND1000 so if I want to do much longer exposures I have that option. My 27mm pancake lens (annoyingly) has a different filter thread of 39mm, but I got around that by buying a cheap step-up ring, converting it into a 43mm thread so I can use the same filters for whichever small prime lens I use.
GoPro 11 Mini
The only thing that has stayed the same from the 2024 article. There has been no reason to upgrade here as it does exactly what it needs to do; which is to be a steady 4K POV camera.
Tenba Skyline V2 Shoulder Bag
With much smaller equipment to carry, I invested in a smaller bag to put it all in. The Tenba is tiny, and yet fits everything in that I need along with a few extras like batteries, memory cards and a USB cable. Apart from being very well made, it fits perfectly behind my legs on my wheelchair - keeping my gear safe and out of the way.
Final Thoughts
I ended last year’s article with the line “Can I please stop spending a fortune on photography equipment now and find a set-up that I’m 100% in love with…please?”
Well, by Jove I think I’ve got it!
This set-up is certainly cheaper, and serves my needs very well. I can only hope that continues into the future with minimal changes, and when those changes do happen, it will be in the way of essential upgrades rather than whole system changes.
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