Recently I was asked what cam­era equip­ment I use? Below is a list cam­era equip­ment I use. How­ever you may have dif­fer­ent needs than I have. There are many top rate cam­era sys­tems out there like Nikon and Canon among oth­ers. Just remem­ber it’s the pho­tog­ra­pher that takes the pic­tures not the camera.

Cam­era body:

Nikon D300s SLR Dig­i­tal Camera

lenses:

Nikon 12-24mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor AF Lens

Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5–5.6G ED VR AF-S DX Nikkor Lens

With B+W 67mm Cir­cu­lar Polar­izer Multi-Resistant Coated (MRC) Filter

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR Lens (Old Ver­sion) This in the New Ver­sion. Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II Lens

Kirk LP-45 Replace­ment Arca-Type Quick Release Lens Plate/Foot — for the Nikon 70-200mm lens

Nikon TC-20E II 2x Tele­con­verter for AF-S (Old Ver­sion) This in the New Ver­sion. Nikon TC-20E III 2x Tele­con­verter for AF-S & AF-I Lenses

Canon 77mm 500D Close-up Lens

Note: You can use the 500D close-up lens on any brand lens that has a 77mm fil­ter thread on the front of the lens. I use this close-up lens on my 70–200 mm . The 500D screws right onto the front of my 70–200 mm lens. This is a great macro lens adapter with good depth of field.

Kenko Auto Exten­sion Tube Set DG (12, 20 & 36mm Tubes) for Nikon Dig­i­tal and Film Cameras

with Nikon 70-200mm lens, the exten­sion tubes and the Canon 77 mm 500 D you can get really close to your subject.

Fil­ters:

Nikon 77mm Cir­cu­lar Polar­izer Glass Fil­ter II (Slim) for my 12-24mm lens

With B+W 67mm Cir­cu­lar Polar­izer Multi-Resistant Coated (MRC) Fil­ter for my 16-85mm lens

With B+W 77mm Cir­cu­lar Polar­izer Fil­ter (Sin­gle Coated) for my 70-200mm lens

B+W 77mm #103 Neu­tral Den­sity (ND) 0.9 Filter

B+W 77mm #106 Neu­tral Den­sity (ND) 1.8 Filter

I have two neu­tral den­sity fil­ters one light and one lit­tle darker depend­ing on the light­ing sit­u­a­tions. I like to use this fil­ter when I am shoot­ing water­falls and streams to give you that milky smooth water look.

Acces­sories:

Nikon SB-600 flash unit.

This is an older Nikon flash but is ade­quate for the shoot­ing I do. I would rec­om­mend get­ting new Nikon SB-900

Pho­to­genic Chameleon Col­lapsi­ble Reflec­tor 5-in-1 — 22″ Cir­cu­lar — Black, Sil­ver, White, Gold and Translucent

The cir­cu­lar reflec­tors col­lapse and will fit in your back­pack. They work great in dif­fi­cult light­ing sit­u­a­tions where all you need is a lit­tle reflec­tion or diffusion.

Visual Echoes FX4 Bet­ter Beamer Flash Exten­der for Use with Tele­photo Lenses — for Nikon SB-800 & SB-600

This lit­tle device mount on your flash and it con­cen­trates the light into a nar­row beam. So if you’re tak­ing a pic­ture of a small bird that is 40 or 50 feet away or fur­ther. The bird is illu­mi­nated even though the flash nor­mally would not be able to reach that distance.

Nikon MC-30 Remote Trig­ger Release

This is a must. Along with a good cam­era tri­pod and remote trig­ger release.This allows you to get the sharpest images pos­si­ble from your camera.

B+W Step-Up Ring (Lens to Fil­ter) 67mm — 77mm

This B+W Step Up Ring enables a fil­ter with an attach­ment size of 77mm to be used with a lens with an attach­ment size of 67mm. Like on my 16-85mm Nikon lens.

Lowe­pro Pro Run­ner 200 AW Back­pack (Black)

Sort of a medium small back­pack. I love this back­pack for every­day use I can pack every­thing I need for that par­tic­u­lar day of shoot­ing its light weight and easy to take on a day hike.

Porter Case PCi Deluxe Cam­era Divider Case with Cart

This is the case I use when I travel on air­planes. It meets FAA Specs for Carry-on Lug­gage at least here in the US. It also opens up into a lug­gage cart which can carry three or four other bags on top of it. The new ver­sions now has TSA locks on them. Inside there are Vel­cro dividers and enough room to hold most of my equipment.

Hood­man H-EyeN22S Hood­eye for Nikon square 22nn SLR Line

This is a lit­tle eye­cup that mounts on the back of the camera’s iee piece. that helps keep the light on the camera.

Hood­man H-LPP3 Hood­loupe 3.0 Pro­fes­sional 3 inch screen loupe

This is a handy lit­tle piece of equip­ment. It allows you to view the LCD screen on the back your cam­era in bright light situations.

EN-EL3e AC/DC Com­pact Dig­i­tal Cam­era Bat­tery Charge

This is a handy lit­tle charger that works by plug­ging in or has a car adapter. Great for travel.

Pear­stone EN-EL3e Lithium-Ion Bat­tery Pack for Select Nikon DSLRs (7.4V, 1500mAh)

I always carry a cou­ple extra bat­ter­ies. Espe­cially in an area where you can’t charge up the batteries.

SDHC Mem­ory Cards

Kingston Sd10/16gb Sdhc Gen 2 (class 10)

Kingston Sd10/8gb Sdhc Gen 2 (class 10)

Com­pact­Flash

Kingston 16GB Ulti­mate Com­pact­Flash 600x Mem­ory Card

Tran­scend 8GB 600X Com­pact­Flash Extreme Plus UDMA Card

The Nikon D300s cam­era takes both Com­pact­Flash and SD cards along with SDHC cards. I usu­ally carry a half dozen of these cards with me when I travel. Usu­ally 4,8 or 16 GB.

tripods:

Man­frotto 055XPROB Alu­minum Tri­pod Legs (Black)

Giot­tos MH-1300 Pro Series II Large Ball­head with MH-657 Quick Release Sys­tem — Sup­ports 25 lbs (11.3 kg) ( Arca Swiss stan­dard
Kirk BL-D300 Com­pact L-Bracket for Nikon D300 Cam­era Body

A tri­pod is nec­es­sary for good out­door pho­tog­ra­phy. This one is tall sturdy and does a good job. The ball head that I use is heavy-duty and han­dles all my cam­eras and lenses. It uses Arca Swiss type quick release plate. Which works with my Kirk right angle bracket And a quick release plate for my 70–200 mm lens.