Last year my photography gear for Europe weighed 26lbs. I absolutely hated it and found out I didn’t even need that much gear. This time around I took a lot of things out, replaced a lot of things with lighter models, and even got a new bag altogether. I’m not worried about missing a shot because I’m bringing a kit that’s useful for all shooting I may do. I’ll show you how I managed to shed 10lbs from my kit.

Unfortunately since drone laws around the world are getting more strict, I won’t be carrying my drone on this trip. At least that shaves off a huge chunk of weight from my kit.

Bag

If you read about my mistakes I made in Europe post from last year, you’ll remember that I had some of my things stolen. Stupid mistake on my part but I’m taking security a bit more seriously this time around. That’s why I’m going with a Pacsafe Camsafe V25. This bag has a lot of security features that I’m hoping don’t get tested. It’s slash proof, all the zippers clip into something so it makes it just a bit more difficult to pickpocket the bag and it even has an RFID blocking pocket. Pretty much everything I would want out of this bag and all my photography gear for Europe fits nicely inside with plenty of room still.

Tripod

This is another spot where I saved some weight. I used to carry around a MeFoto GlobeTrotter Classic in aluminum. This tripod weighs 4.6lbs by itself. It was so heavy I didn’t even want to carry it on my back and would usually leave it in my hotel room. It sure was a sturdy tripod though and is rated to support up to 26.4 lbs but my gear doesn’t weigh that much so I don’t need to carry this tripod around.

I replaced it with a Sirui T-024x carbon fiber tripod and I couldn’t be happier. This tripod folds up smaller and only weighs 2.1lbs. That’s under half of what the other tripod weighs. It does have some drawbacks though, it’s not as stable as the other one and it feels kind of springy. Luckily it has a hook at the bottom of the center column so I can hang my camera bag off of it to give it a bit more stability.

Camera and Lenses

As always I’m carrying around my Nikon D600. I had it sent back to Nikon after my last trip because I was having front focusing issues with it. Nikon replaced my shutter, cleaned the sensor and calibrated it for me. The front focus issues are all pretty much gone now.

For lenses this time I’m not carrying 2/3 Nikon “Holy Trinity” lenses. I’m going with a lighter Sigma 24-105 F4. It’s not pictured above because it’s currently at Sigma for front focusing issues. Sure it’s slower but I found most of my shots were stopped down anyways, especially when I’m doing landscape work, so I didn’t need the 2.8. Good thing because each of those “Holy Trinity” lenses weighs at least 2lbs. I’m also bringing along a new lens I just bought last month, a Nikkor 20mm F1.8. I found last year that 24mm wasn’t wide enough for some shots I wanted. This should do the trick and it’s fast glass in case I need to shoot indoors where the lighting isn’t ideal and according to reviews it’s a great lens. It’s the widest I’ve ever shot and took some getting used to at first so I’m practicing with it before I head to Europe.

Filter System

Out of all my photography gear for Europe, this is my favorite. I’ve loved long exposure photography ever since I went to Iceland a few years ago. Up until last year though I was using round screw in filters. They were really annoying with a 10 stop because it was too dark to focus with it on. So every shot I would have to screw the filter off, focus and then screw it back on before taking another shot.

To save myself some time I went with the Formatt Hitech Firecrest holder and square filters. It makes it so much easier because now I just need to clip the holder on and it’s fast to take off, no more screwing filters in with cold hands that can’t function properly. Another great thing about square filters is I can now use graduated filters. If you’re unfamiliar with them it’s an ND filter with a gradient that fades to clear. If the sky is too bright compared to the foreground, the graduated filters will take care of that.

I’m bringing along a 6 stop, 10 stop, 3 stop hard edge graduated filter, a 2 stop soft edge graduated filter and a circular polarizer.

One thing though is these square filters are more expensive. I bought mine off the Formatt Hitech website but I waited for black friday. They were offering 25% off but they have deals with some bloggers that offer better discounts. I found one blogger who had a discount code for I think it was 35% off.

Osmo Mobile

I suspect this is going to be my least used piece of photography gear for Europe. I’m not very big on making videos, for the simple fact that I suck at it. I bring this along though just in case I want to try. It uses the camera from my smart phone and stabilizes the footage so I don’t give you guys motion sickness with my walking videos.

It’s also great because the DJI app lets me make time lapse videos so I don’t have to wear down the shutter on my D600. It can also be used as a photography tool because it can take panoramas and stitch it into a photograph for me without needing to go into photoshop.

So there we go guys, that’s all my photography gear for Europe. I’ve been carrying my kit fully packed around my city while I practice and I gotta tell you, shaving off over 10lbs is the best decision ever.

That’s it for now, if you guys have any questions or share some ideas on your perfect travel kit, then just leave a message in the comments section.