So, what items should be included when building your digital creator toolkit?
As a digital media professional, one of the questions I frequently encounter is what kind of gear or equipment I use.
While you don’t need much to get started, there are a handful of items essential to capturing your creative vision and should be considered when building your digital creator toolkit.
But before diving into the details, I want to address the idea that to do great work you need the very best equipment. In my experience, this is largely a myth. The truth is there are a lot of good options available these days when it comes to camera gear to fit your budget, and having the very best equipment does not always equate to having the best final product.
What’s most important is knowing how to use the equipment you do have and building core skills of photography and videography to execute your projects. I’m talking about things like nailing exposure, crafting a narrative, shot selection, composition and lighting. A strong foundation with these types of skills will open a door to more and more creative techniques for crafting better visual stories and will take you much further than simply having the shiniest toys.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at what items I carry in my gear bag for virtually every project and why you may want to consider adding them to yours.
What’s in the bag?
Camera Body and Memory Cards
Of course, we start with the most important item when building your digital creator toolkit, your camera body. There are countless camera options available on the market, but for the purposes of this article, I’m going to focus on the two most common types: mirrorless and DSLR (digital single-lens reflex).
Over the last few years, the camera industry has gradually shifted its focus away from the traditional DSLR-style camera bodies to mirrorless bodies. While DSLRs are still a great option and produce quality results, they tend to be a bit bulkier. For this reason, I like mirrorless cameras for their compact design and because they often come with all the features we creators desire, including 4K video, advanced autofocus and high-frames-per-second shooting for stills.
The added benefit is that mirrorless cameras don’t have a mechanical mirror inside, which DSLRs use to reflect the image from the lens to the viewfinder. That means mirrorless cameras have one less physical component that can be damaged if dropped or worn out over time.
Still not sure which is a better option for you? Here are some additional things to consider.
I typically carry two camera bodies whenever I go out shooting. It’s a luxury, but super helpful when you want to record an interview with multiple angles or when photographing a busy environment and you don’t have time to put your camera down to switch lenses. Having two cameras at the ready helps ensure you can capture the moment as it unfolds without missing the shot.
You’re also going to want to have multiple memory cards in your bag. You can get by with just one, but having several will give you peace of mind knowing that if one gets filled up while shooting, you can easily pop a fresh card in and resume. Due to the large file sizes of 4K footage these days, I’d also recommend using cards no smaller than 64 gigabytes.
Lenses
When it comes to lenses, I typically carry a few options in my camera bag with a selection of focal ranges. Having multiple focal range options ensures I can capture most subjects, no matter how close I am to them. I like to think about this in terms of covering your wide, medium and long shots.
For wide shots where I’m very close to the subject and still want to capture the environment too, I use a 15-35mm lens.
For medium shots, I choose a 24-105mm lens. This is also my “all-purpose” lens that I use most of the time while shooting and would be my top choice if I could only carry one lens.
For longer shots, I like a 70-200mm lens. This is a great focal range for portraits or when you want to be more discrete and capture images from a distance.
Like camera bodies, there are many different kinds of lenses and focal ranges available. For example, there are prime lenses particularly well suited for video or portraits, super telephoto lenses for wildlife or sports, tilt-shift lenses for architecture, or macro lenses for getting those super fine details. But having a selection similar to what is highlighted above will give you the flexibility you need to get the job done in most situations.
If you want to dig deeper into lens options check out this helpful video.
Neutral Density Filters
If you want to shoot video, include a set of ND filters (neutral density) when building your digital creator toolkit. ND filters attach to the the front of your camera lens. They act like a pair of sunglasses that help dial in an accurate exposure. With an ND filter, you reduce the amount of light entering the camera lens, which is critical when shooting video in bright conditions with low shutter speeds or wide open apertures. See it in action here.
It’s important to know that not all lenses are the same diameter in size. So a single filter will likely not fit on all of your lenses. That’s why I carry several ND filters with a range of thread sizes.
Note that a lens’ thread size is measured in millimeters (mm), similar to focal range. These can easily be confused. However, thread size and focal range are different. For example, you may have a lens with a focal range of 70-200mm and a thread size of 77mm.
The most common thread sizes for filters are 49mm, 55mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm, 77mm and 82mm.
Microphones
Want clean crisp audio for your video? Then you’re going to want to pack a microphone or two in your digital creator toolkit.
There are three different kinds of microphones that I most often use. These are a shotgun microphone, a set of wireless microphone transmitters with a receiver and a lavalier microphone.
The shotgun microphone is great when filming b-roll and you want to capture ambient sounds of your environment. It mounts directly to the camera hot shoe and plugs into your camera’s 3.5mm TRS input.
A wireless transmitter-receiver microphone set gives you the flexibility to mic up people for interviews where the camera is at a distance from the subject. You simply plug the receiver into the camera’s 3.5mm TRS input, then clip one of the transmitters to the subject. To improve the sound quality even more, you can add a lavalier microphone to the mix.
Batteries
Nothing is worse than being in the middle of shoot and realizing your camera battery is about die. That’s why I keep a few extras on hand with charge. To be safe, I always carry about twice the amount I think I will need. Keep it all organized with a simple camera cable pouch.
Tripod
A tripod is a must for setting up interviews with a stationary camera or taking long exposure photos. I prefer something light and compact. For that, a simple aluminum travel tripod with a rotating ball head is the way to go.
Be sure to also have one or two extra tripod plates on hand. I keep one connected to my camera at all times. But on occasion I will take them off for one reason or another and forget to reattach it, which essentially renders the tripod useless. Keeping an extra in the bag will prevent that situation from happening to you.
Cables & Extras
Most items that we rely on as creators need some kind of power source. Having a set of electronic cables and charges when building your creator toolkit is always a good idea to make sure you’re prepared in case you need a little extra juice in the field.
For that reason I like to keep a small electronics pouch on hand with a variety of cables, charging blocks, a portable battery bank, and headphones to monitor sound while shooting video.
Camera Strap
Maybe the least high-tech of all the items in your bag, but none the less an important one, will be a quality camera strap. It’s essential for when you need to be hands-free or want to have two cameras on you at the same time.
I’m a big fan of this particular strap from Peak Design. It’s robust, adjustable, and even has a few quick release tabs so you can remove the strap from your camera with ease.
Gear Bag
Last but certainly not least, you’re going to want something to carry and protect all your sensitive electronic gear when building your digital creator toolkit.
Again, there’s lots of great options on the market, but there are a few things to consider when choosing what bag is right for you. How much storage space do you need? Do you want a hard-sided case or soft-sided bag? Does it need to be able to meet FAA requirements as a carry on? Is it comfortable enough to wear for several hours of the day?
I’ve owned close to 10 camera bags in my career and the one that has checked off all these boxes and still my favorite to this day is the Wandrd HEXAD Access Duffle. It’s durable and has lots of space inside.
