What's in the bag?

We occasionally get asked what kind of camera equipment we use. Here is a list.

  • Canon EOS 70D

  • Canon EOS 80D

  • Canon EOS D5 Mark IV

  • Canon EF 16-36 mm f/1.2 LII lens

  • Canon EF 24-105 mm f/1.4 LII lens

  • Canon EF 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 L lens

  • Canon EF extender 1.4x III

  • Two Canon GP-E2 shoe-mounted GPS receivers

  • Canon EFS 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

  • Canon EFS 55-250 mm f/4-5.6 lens

  • A couple of tripods and a monopod

  • Various lens filters, including UV and polarizers

  • Lightweight, foldable light reflector for panels that are half-shaded.

  • expodisc v3 white balance filter.*

Sean uses the 70D and the EFS lenses. The smaller lens fits in a cargo pocket, so he’s usually only lugging the camera, an extra lens, and a battery. It makes him a bit more agile than me, who has all my equipment in a backpack. He’s also much younger and able to get closer to the rock art panels than I am, so it works well for us.

The D5 Mark IV usually has the 24-105 mm lens attached, which is my favorite and most used configuration. The 80D usually has the 100-400 mm lens attached. The 80D is my go-to camera for panels high on the mountainside or otherwise distant. I really like having two cameras ready to go at all times.

I use the 80D for the high magnification shots because it has a crop sensor, meaning the 100-400 mm lens becomes a 160-640 mm lens. If I really need to reach out for a photo, I’ll throw on the 1.4x extender, making the magnification 224-896 mm. Putting the extender on does reduce the aperture by a full stop, so the lens becomes f/6.3-8, meaning there has to be a lot of light if I don’t want to push the ISO. I don’t particularly like pushing the ISO, so the camera slows down the shutter speed (we both usually shoot in aperture priority). So, a tripod is an absolute necessity when using super-high magnification. Remember, if your lens has image stabilization (IS), turn it off when the camera is mounted on a tripod. IS goes wild when it doesn’t detect any camera movement and can blur your shots.

The GPS receivers are for the 70D and 80D. We have a GPS receiver, but it’s a pain to record the GPS location of shots. I want that information in the properties of each photo. The 5D Mark IV has a built-in GPS.

Melissa uses her phone and takes better pictures than either of us.

* Recently, Sean and I were photographing in Moab. At the first panel, we each took a photo from within a foot or so of one another and at nearly the same time. The settings for both cameras were identical except Sean's aperture was set at f/8, and mine was set at f/4, and the focal lengths were a few millimeters different. Despite the different apertures, the cameras both used the same shutter speed. We both had our cameras set on auto white balance. When we downloaded the photos, the reds were very different. The only conclusion we could reach is that in the three years between the release of his camera and mine, Canon changed the setting for white balance. Now we use the expodisc to make sure the white balance settings are correct all of the time.

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