Since we’ve been getting more questions lately on what photography gear we use, we figured it’s about time to talk about the best cameras for bloggers.
We used to run a wedding photography business just shy of a decade, so a lot of our gear is on the higher end, but we also wrote out some great options for those of you starting out that want to improve your images for your blog. Though they sometimes help, it’s not about the camera. It’s about the photographer.
THE BEST CAMERAS FOR BLOGGERS
VLOG CAMERA / POINT AND SHOOT
Canon G7X – We recently added this to our camera family. For our hikes, we’ve been trying to leave our heavy DSLR behind and use the G7X instead. It’s been amazing especially for vlogging! We took all our Gold Strike Hot Springs outing photos and video on the G7X. Check out our vlog footage from the hike:
DSLR CAMERA
We recommend the Canon Rebel T5i and the Nikon D5300 as great entry-level DSLRs if you’re hoping to get your feet wet with DSLR photography. We currently use a Canon Mark III for most of our photos on the blog and for videos but only recommend it if you’re generating enough income from photography or blogging. My personal preference has always been Canon over Nikon because of color. They both have their pros and cons and are very comparable.
CAMERA LENS GUIDE
Now that you know about the best cameras for bloggers, we can talk about lenses. A good rule for photographers is to invest in lenses over camera bodies. Lenses don’t depreciate in value as camera bodies do, and investing the same amount of money in nicer glass will make more of a difference in photo quality than upgrading to a nicer body. We recommend starting off with the first two lenses listed here which covers most types of photography you would use for your blog. After you get a good handle on these two, the others are for more specialized photos.
Canon 50 mm f/1.8 II (Nikon’s 50)
Although our eyes work differently than lenses do, this is almost the equivalent focal length of what we see (on a full-frame camera). Almost every beginner photographer starts out with this prime lens. It gives you the pretty blurry background when shooting at 1.8. I started out with this lens and eventually upgraded a few years later to the 1.2L.
Canon 24-70 mm f/2.8L or 24-105 mm f/4L (Nikon’s 24-70 and 24-120)
These are great versatile lenses great for lifestyle or travel photos. We used the 24-105 as our sole lens while hiking Machu Picchu a few years back. Having the ability to zoom is great if you can’t be as mobile. The 24-70 is the better lens, but both are great depending on your budget.
Canon 35 mm f/1.4L (Nikon’s 35)
We’ve been using this as our main lens the past few years and have gone on some trips with only this lens.
Canon 70-200 mm f/2.8L (Nikon’s 70-200)
When we went to the Galapagos, 90% of our photos were taken with a 70-200. You should use this lens anytime you’re shooting objects far away like wildlife. It’s quite heavy, so I don’t recommend taking it on a hike unless you’re dedicated to taking wildlife photography.
100 mm f/2.8L Macro
We use this lens for macro photography, which is great for shooting jewelry or smaller products. As far as macro lenses go, I’ve had a much better experience using this than our 50 mm macro.
TRIPOD
We have a carbon fiber Manfrotto tripod with this ball head for photography and this one for video that does smooth pans. We also have the more affordable Ravelli tripod that we take on day hikes, but we still use the Manfrotto ball head. I like to be mobile with just my camera, so most of the time I’m not using a tripod. However, when we do hikes to waterfalls or astrophotography, we bring one along so that we can get our slow shutter shots like the one below.
SHUTTER RELEASE REMOTE
You use a shutter release remote for long exposure photography (for example the one above) so that you don’t move the camera with your finger on the shutter. We use this one with a cable. We heard reviews that wireless remotes sometimes don’t fire, so we’re in no rush, but we’ll eventually have to find out for ourselves. Do you use one that you absolutely love? (P.S. Also pick yourself up an ND filter for long exposure shots in the day, so you don’t have to shoot at high aperture).
STUDIO PHOTOS WITH A SEAMLESS WHITE BACKGROUND
If you’re doing product reviews, this seamless background will make your life so much easier. We bought this professional tabletop studio kit to shoot products for reviews, since it’s not legal to be pulling images from online without permission. The quality is pretty good for the price. See our full review here.
EDITING SOFTWARE
- Adobe Lightroom – does all my color correcting and 99% of my edits.
- Adobe Photoshop – We rarely use PS on our travel photos. If you’re shooting more products/lifestyle / portraits on your blog, it’s great to have if you want to remove blemishes on faces or take out a piece of trash in a landscape, etc. Content-Aware is amazing!
- iMovie – When Jacob was starting out in editing video, he used mainly iMovie to edit. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles but can do most simple video edits. Many of our massive youtuber friends used iMovie until they could hire a team to shoot and edit videos.
- Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut – these two are the industry standard for video editing, and Premiere is what we currently use. Premiere is great if you need a more in-depth editing process with precision in cutting, ability to color correct, and manipulate footage.
- WP My Cloud EX4100 – Backs up our photos at home. Click though to see full review.
- Crashplan – We use this service to backup all our photos and video to make sure we have it if our hard drives crash or gets stolen.
CAMERA BAGS & ACCESSORIES
iPHONE
They say the best camera is the one you have with you. We don’t always enjoy ugging around a giant camera. Most of our instagrams are taken from an iPhone. We also took only our iPhone on our kayaking adventure in Monterey and loved how our photos turned out.
You can also buy external lenses for your iPhone. We have the Pixter Pro Lenses Pack (set of 4). It gives us the option to add a Fisheye, Wide-Angle, Macro, or Telephoto (60mm) lens! The clip on system makes it really easy to use and change vs the screw on system. These are some tiny flowers (each are a few mm). To the left, you can see how close you can get with the iPhone alone. To the right, we took it with the macro lens.
FILM CAMERA
I wouldn’t necessarily recommend film cameras as the best cameras for bloggers, since the turnaround time is not fast enough for this digital age, but I included it on the list in case you are looking to get back into film like I am. Jacob recently got me the Canon AE-1, and it’s a great camera to start out with if you’re wanting to shoot film. :) I’ll have to do a post when I finally develop my film.
What type of photos do you like to shoot most?
Are there any others that should be added to our list of the best cameras for bloggers?
