What’s in the bag?
What camera do you use? I must get asked this question more than any other. Whether it is a budding photographers or curious friends, lots of people are interested to know what equipment I use for my photography.
So that’s what I will answer here. I will try and run through each bit of equipment and outline why it makes it into my bag.
Camera Bodies:
Sony A9 Mk1 – RRP: £3500
The A9 is my action body and when shooting motorsport events I will use two of them.
The A9 Mk1 is a few years old now, however newer generations have not brought any meaningful upgrade and this 24megapixel pro body still outruns almost any other sports camera for Autofocus speed and accuracy. It is capable of shooting RAW images at 20 fps (frames per second) however I very very rarely find the need to shoot more than the lower 10fps setting.
Sony A7R4A – RRP: £3000
The A7R4 is my go to location or studio camera where medium format is not needed.
It’s 60mp Full frame sensor gives my clients all of the resolution they could require for cropping in to their images. I have the camera body mounted to a camera cage that allows me to easily attach the camera to a car for car to car photography.
Lenses:
Sony 400mm F2.8 G – RRP: £10,500
This lens is a staple part of my motorsport equipment. Without it I would not be able to shoot lots of the larger grand prix circuits that I work at. The fast f2.8 aperture also allows me to work at night whilst maintaining a sensible ISO, where as slower f5.6 lenses would not be able to, delivering noisy or no images.
What about a filter? The lens features a drop in filter slot, this allows the use of a circular polariser which can be adjusted at the camera end of the lens as you look through the viewfinder.
Sony 70-200mm F2.8 – RRP: £2500
The 70-200 f2.8 is the go-to action lens for most photographers. This super versatile lens will stay on one of my cameras at all times. Whether it is an Automotive shoot, motorsport shoot or a press conference. This lens covers such a well used focal length that it is invaluable.
Sigma 105mm F1.4 Art – RRP: £1249
This lens is my guilty pleasure. I had one when I shot Canon and it was the first lens I bought when I switched to Sony. Whilst the 70-200mm already covers this focal length, there isn’t a lens like it for it’s shallow depth of field. When shooting interior details of a car or portraits in a Pitlane this lens is incredible. And with the F1.4 aperture it is able to work in near pitch black.
It is however heavy and has a HUGE 105mm filter, so it doesn’t come out of the bag as much as it should.
Sony 50mm F1.4 Zeiss Planar T – RRP: £1300
This 50mm is the best 50mm lens I have ever used. I would say it is massively underrated, the image quality this produces would be considered good in a lens 4x it’s cost. Much like the 70-200 this lens spends a lot of time on my cameras. It is the perfect portrait lens if working in Pitlane, it is also a very flattering focal length for cars when shooting Automotive images.
Sony 24mm F1.4 G master – RRP: £1300
This 24mm lens is my go to wide lens. If I need to shoot a car interior or a wide pan then this lens is the one. Much like the 50mm, it is optically incredible (can you see a theme here with Sony lenses!) and is a very small and light lens which is good for the back on those high mileage races.
Sigma 14mm F1.8 – RRP: £1400
Much like the 105mm Sigma, this lens is big and heavy and doesn’t come out to play often. However when you need a razor sharp, super wide angle for a tight interior or the pan at La Source (Spa Circuit) this is the lens you need.
Accessories:
- Filters – I carry a polarising filter for all of my lenses
- 1.4x Teleconverter – this is a super useful piece of equipment. When used on a fast lens like the
- 400mm f2.8 it can give you a 560mm F4 without almost any noticeable drop in AF speed or image quality.
- Spare cards. I carry at least 200gb of space cards with me at all times.
- Sensor cleaning equipment
- Togtech Laptop hood
- Think tank Pouches
- Think tank all weather covers
Laptop:
