> 7 minute read

Packing Your Bags

Taking your camera away on holiday is a great chance to spend some time making creative photography. So the next time you plan to go away, make sure you take everything you need with our handy guide to packing your gear bag.

Whether you want to tell the story of a road trip or document a beautiful location with landscape images, your X Series camera is great for travelling. Let’s have a look at what you need to take with you in your camera bag and how to prepare your kit.

Lens Choice

Deciding which lenses to take with you on a trip can be tricky – you’ll want to cover all of the focal lengths you need, but you might not have enough space to take everything you own. Our advice would be to concentrate on zoom lenses, which give you much more versatility than prime lenses. Pair a standard zoom, like our compact, high-performance XF18-55mm F2.8-4 R LM OIS or XF16-80mmF4 R OIS WR, with a telephoto zoom, such as the XF55-200mmF3.5-4.8 R LM OIS, and you’ll have almost every picture-making opportunity covered with just two lenses that weigh only 890g between them.

If you like the idea of covering almost everything with just one lens, take a look at our 490g XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR zoom. This is a good replacement for your standard zoom, since it takes in the same wide-angle coverage, but extends its telephoto reach to 135mm – enough to bring distant subjects close and pick out details in landscapes.

Spare Batteries and Chargers

Running out of power when you’re out with your camera has to be one of the most frustrating things that can happen on a trip. To avoid this, make sure to pack at least one spare battery in your camera bag and make time to recharge your batteries every night. Don’t forget to pack your battery charger (it’s easily done), and also a travel adapter if you’re going to a country where mains sockets are a different shape.

Some X Series cameras support USB charging, which is really useful if you find yourself caught without power and without access to your mains charger. You can charge your camera from a phone charger or portable power bank with a simple USB lead (either micro USB or USB-C depending on your camera model), so these are all good things to find room for in your bag.

Memory Cards

More storage space on your memory cards means you can make more photos and video clips, which gives you more chance to be creative with your photography. Furthermore, SD cards are not expensive, so take plenty of them with you.

Although you can buy SD cards in huge capacities – up to 1TB and beyond – we prefer to use several medium-sized cards of around 16 to 32GB each. It’s a safer strategy: if a card becomes corrupted or gets lost or stolen, then you’ll only lose some of your pictures, not all of them. Keep your cards together in a purpose-built case and leave those that are full back in the hotel room so they are safe and can’t be mistaken for fresh, new cards when you’re in a hurry.

If your camera has dual memory card slots, then you can also consider using a very large card as a backup for extra peace of mind.

Smart Devices

Although your X Series camera is a much better picture-taking machine than your smartphone, this doesn’t mean there’s no room for such devices in your camera bag. Link your camera to your device with Bluetooth and the FUJIFILM Camera Remote app and you’ll be able to view, edit, and share pictures on the fly using your phone or tablet. You can even configure your camera to auto-transfer images to the device as you shoot, so they’re ready to inspect when you sit down for a rest.

Connect your camera and device before you go and practise transferring files so you’re familiar with how things work. Why not download some picture editing apps, too, so you can share processed images with your followers, family, and friends?

GPS Tagging

It’s nice to be able to remember where you made pictures, so you can caption them in a photobook or revisit the location one day. To make this easier, link your camera to your smartphone running the FUJIFILM Camera Connect app and enable geotagging.

• Press MENU OK and navigate to the SET UP menu.
• Choose CONNECTION SETTING > Bluetooth SETTINGS > SMARTPHONE SYNC. SETTING > LOCATION & TIME.

Your smartphone will keep your camera up-to-date with where you are and your current GPS coordinates will be embedded into every picture you create.

Keeping Things Clean

Sorting out your gear for a trip away is a good chance to clean it. We can’t emphasise enough the importance of cleaning your cameras and lenses – it not only keeps them working well, but also maintains image quality. A fingerprint on the front of the lens is enough to spoil the sharpness that we all strive for, and dust on the sensor can lead to black spots in pictures.

A clean microfibre cloth will clean the camera body and viewscreen without scratching it. For the lens itself, a lens cleaning cloth is the best option. Start at the outside and work inwards to avoid pushing grease and grime into hard-to-reach areas at the edges.

You’ll need special materials to clean the camera’s sensor and this is something you need to do with a great deal of care. Start by gently blowing dust off the sensor with a blower brush. Then you’ll need to clean the sensor surface with a purpose-designed swab that’s been wetted with a few drops of sensor-cleaning solution. Follow the instructions that come with your sensor-cleaning materials carefully.

It’s a good idea to take some cleaning equipment with you in your bag, too – you’ll be using your camera more than usual, and you want to keep your pictures looking clear and sharp.

The Other Things…

Not all of the accessories in a photographer’s bag are designed specifically for photography. There are plenty of other gadgets that come in handy when you’re photographing away from home. Here are a few to consider:

• A notebook and pen will let you plan day trips, make a note of email addresses of people to send pictures to, and write down any field notes.
• A folding multi-tool and miniature screwdrivers are handy for running repairs.
• Water bottles are best kept in the side straps of your bag, and not the main compartment, in case of a leak.
• A plastic bag is great for sitting and kneeling on.
• Wipes and alcohol handwash will keep your hands clean.

Also, have a think about the bag you’re going to use – over-the-shoulder bags are good for street photography or when you need to dip in and out to change lenses. If you’re going to be walking for some distance, a backpack is more comfortable to carry.

Your Next Steps

• CHALLENGE Do you have a favourite gadget that you like to travel with? It can be something photographic or everyday. Tell us about it on social media using the hashtags #learnwithfujifilm. You can also submit your work here for a chance to be featured on our social media channels.