canon cameras

In my camera bag, 2025

Writing a blog for over a quarter of a century means occasionally repeating yourself and/or celebrating anniversaries of things. Back in 2011 a regular follower of my posts used my “Ask Me a Question” link to enquire about what was in my day-to-day camera bag. I duly wrote a post called “In My Camera Bag” in which I listed everything that was in my go-to bag of choice at the time. A couple of Canon EOS5D MkII bodies, two 580ex II flash units and 16-35, 24-70 and 70-200 f2.8 L lenses lived in a LowePro Stealth Reporter 650AW bag along with a Mac laptop and quite a few accessories. That was a heavy bag.

Fast forward seven years to 2018 and my much loved and rather ancient Domke J3 camera bag (pictured above) was filled with two EOS5D MkIV bodies, 16-35, 24-70 and 70-200 f4L lenses with two 600EX RT II flashes. By this time my laptops were carried in a tiny little rucksack because I’d been through some bad experiences with a spinal issue and didn’t necessarily need to carry it all of the time. I’m not sure when I bought the bag but it was well over twenty years ago and when I wrote the 2018 remix version of what I carried in my camera bag of it was already my well-worn favourite.

So, a further seven years on, here are some short updates on a few bits of kit that still spend a considerable amount of time in the same old bag.

  • Canon EOS R6 MkII camera bodies
  • Canon EOS R5 MkII camera bodies
  • Canon RF 14-35 f4L lens
  • Canon RF 24-105 f4L lens
  • Canon RF 70-200 f4L lens
  • Canon RF 100-500 f4.5 – 7.1 L lens
  • Canon EL5 Speedlites
  • Canon ST-E10 Speedlite transmitters

Out of the two R6 MkII and two R5 MkII bodies there will be a total of two in the bag at any given time. I leave it packed with one of each just in case I get a short notice job and need to run out of the door but I rarely work that way and so I will pack the right bodies for the job before I leave and keep the others in the rolling bag with the rest of the spare kit because not all of it can be accommodated at the same time, and even if it could that would be a seriously heavy bag. Laptops live in small rucksacks or a Think Tank rolling bag depending on what I’m doing. I’m not going to mention the other gear sitting in a cupboard in my office but there are a few camera bodies, a dozen or so lenses and more flash units than any sane person should own. So, if you like the shortened version of the kit review – it goes like this:

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