7 Must-Have Items for Travel Bloggers and YouTubers
After surveying top travel bloggers, digital nomads, and YouTubers along with adding our team’s own opinions into the mix, we’ve determined the 7 best items for travel influencers dealing in video and written content.
1) DJI Mavic Pro
We’re kicking off the list with the best camera for capturing aerial footage. This comes in particular handy for those transitional scenes that make any travel video pop. The DJI Mavic Pro captures high quality photos and 4k video, while being compact enough to fit in a small backpack. With just an app and a tiny attachment, you can control this portable drone from your smartphone. It can also detect whether or not you’re in a no-fly zone and what the weather conditions are, which will help you avoid trouble and keep your drone safe from damage.
The DJI Mavic Pro comes with a durable case, extra batteries, and various accessories to get you airborne in a jiff. Extra batteries will be necessary if you’re using the drone away from home.
If the Mavic Pro is out of your budget, the DJI Spark is a smaller option for half the price.
2) Sony a6000
The primary factors our team analyzed when figuring out what camera to include were the quality, the weight, and how compact the camera is for convenience.
For top notch travel content, a smartphone alone isn’t going to cut it. You’re going to need to invest in a superb yet portable camera. Our suggestion is the Sony a6000 Mirrorless Digital Camera to any traveler looking for an affordable and top-of-the-line image-maker.
Being a mirrorless DSLR means that with the Sony a6000, what the viewfinder shows you is what you’re going to get. It also means you can purchase additional lenses for the various types of images you want to make. To top it off, the Sony a6000 captures 1080p video.
For improved portrait quality, we recommend pocking up the Sony 50mm Lens. It performs well even in low light, which will come in handy for those evening and night-time shots where you really need your followers to get excited about your adventures.
The Sony E10 - 18 Optical Steady Zoom Lens is great for clean interior shots to expansive landscapes and captures it all with outstanding precision.
The Sony 18 - 55mm lens affords you stunning capture of landscapes and crisp quality and framing for portraits and snapshots. It also boasts built-in stabilization.
Lastly, a few more accessories we recommend taking a peek at are the Sony PCK-LM17, which prevents fingerprints and screen cracks; the SanDisk Extreme Pro Memory Cards for fast transfer; and the Shure Lenshopper VP83F for better audio.
3) Macbook Pro
Apple creates the sleekest products when it comes to practicality for travel. Apple’s Macbook Pro is lightweight, durable, and works well for video editing and other demanding tasks. The 13-inch 2015 model is the last one with the original USB port. That may be something to consider depending on what other Apple devices you have.
4) GoPro 5
These devices are perfect for action footage and creating a first-person feel for your content. Imagine skiing, snowboarding, or who knows, maybe even jumping from rooftop to rooftop in foreign countries — all while filming every second of it. Go Pros are capable of capturing your wildest moments and they’re durable, which gives you the ability to film underwater, in high heat, and extreme cold.
5) 2TB Seagate External Hard Drive
One of the worst things you can have happen is to lose your hard-earned content. This can happen in dozens of ways: theft, you run out of memory on your device, your device gets damaged...on and on and on. An external hard drive safeguards you against these hard losses.
The 2tb external hard drive from Seagate gives you double the standard 1tb of storage you really need as a remote traveller — oh, and it’s portable and comes at the same price.
6) Selfie Stick
I almost hate including a selfie stick on this list, but it’s still as useful as ever — especially for solo travelers. Maybe you hate asking strangers to take your picture. They’re as practical as they are goofy-looking to use. It’s a bit like wearing crocs. They look ridiculous, but boy, do they serve a purpose.
7) DJI Osmo
All those hyper-lapse videos you see of people walking through the streets are probably utilizing the DJI Osmo. You’ll notice the camera doesn’t get shaky as they walk because it essentially turns a smartphone into a smart motion camera. The DJI Osmo gives every moment you capture that professional look you need to take your content over the top.
