The Essential Backpacking Photography Accessories

Backpacking is one of my favorite ways to experience the outdoors.

Something about hiking miles in the wilderness with friends along with everything you need is extremely rewarding. Backpacking also gives us opportunity to see places that are otherwise completely inaccessible. This is why I never leave my camera behind.

Though this usually means I pack in a little heavier, the images of wildlife and wilderness landscapes make the added weight completely worthwhile. I’ve been experimenting with various gear over the years to help make backpacking easier while carrying a DSLR. I’ve finally found a stable setup that keeps my gear minimal while being convenient for most situations.

Here are the 8 accessories I use myself and highly recommend. I typically don’t leave without these items on my backpacking trips.

1) Capture Clip

If you haven’t heard of the capture clip by now, you’ve been missing out.

This is Peak Design’s quick release system that can be added to a backpack or belt loop. I don’t know about you, but I was very happy to say goodbye the neck strap. When hiking up mountain with a neck strap the camera is always bobbing around and annoyingly strains your neck. While neck straps are great for general usage, I always prefer the capture clip quick release system with a backpack. These are especially good if you use trekking poles while backpacking and need your hands to be free most of the time. Even if you don’t use trekking poles, it really is an understated luxury to have our hands be free. The capture clip is also capable of using a QR plate such as the Manfroto RC2 system, so you don’t have to worry about swapping out plates during your trips.

https://www.peakdesign.com/collections/clips

View on Amazon

2) Travel Tripod

I used to love the Joby Gorilla pod for backpacking. It’s versatile and difficult to beat in terms of weight. The more I backpacked with it however, the more I found myself restricted in getting the shot I wanted. They seem great at first because you feel that you can attach the tripod anywhere and get any shot. More often than not though I found myself stuck with ground level shots. Or the branch you found is too thick, or it’s unstable unless the legs are in the perfect configuration because there are infinite configurations, or the tripod slides around a pole you fixed it on and your lens is the first thing to get smashed. Alright, end of rant.

After ditching the Gorilla Pod, I looked for an affordable and lightweight set of tripod legs to compliment an existing tripod head. Browsing the market for quite a bit, I found that a full tripod weight around or under 3lbs provided a good balance of cost and functionality. I also noticed that the cost to weight savings ratio of carbon fiber travel tripods are just not extremely impressive. I ended up going with the Slik Pro 340DX Tripod Legs. The legs come in at 2.6 lbs, and I plan to pair this up with the Manfrotto 492 Center Ball Head which only weighs 7oz, with the total weight coming in at 3.0 lbs, perfect! This combination has a pretty standard weight capacity of 8.8lbs.

This tripod head uses the RC2 system, and is fully compatible with the Peak Design Capture Clip mentioned above!

View the Slik Pro 340DX Tripod Legs on Amazon
View the Manfrotto 492 Ball Head on Amazon

3) Camera Strap

If you’re using a Capture clip, there is no real reason to have a neck strap anymore, as the camera’s home is either your backpack or belt. A neck strap can be relatively bulky and might even be annoying if attached to your camera while being attached to your backpack. Ditching any type of strap entirely makes me uneasy though, so I moved to a much lighter wrist strap. This ends up pairing perfectly with the capture clip. It’s easy to on and off of your wrist, and removes a ton of bulk compared to the neck strap.

Now you don’t have to worry about having a death grip on your camera with the lack of a neck strap. You can be a little more confident putting your camera over ledges and water to get those high risk shots. I personally use a Joby hand strap, but any light and strong hand strap will give you the convenience I describe here.

View Camera Wrist Straps on Amazon

4) Quick Release for Hand Strap

This one is specifically an accessory for the hand strap above, or straps in general. The anchor quick links by Peak Design are essentially quick release joints for your camera straps. Peak Design has really identified the pain points of photographers and satisfy all our “quick release” needs with very elegant solutions.

You first attach the base links to your camera and install the matching female links onto your hand or neck strap. Now your camera is capable of swapping straps in a matter of seconds. When I’m getting ready for backpacking trip, I simply unclip my neck strap from both quick links, then click in my hand strap onto the side link. Too easy! If the hand strap is ever getting in your way or slapping around your tripod in the wind, its super quick to momentarily remove the strap and reconnect when ready. No more routing belts through your camera’s strap mounts every time you want to change things up.

https://www.peakdesign.com/products/anchor-links

5) Microfiber Cloth

Being in the wilderness and camping for multiple days in a row, there is a big concern for camera cleanliness. Especially if you baby your camera gear like me. There are tons of cleaning supplies out there for cameras these days. Air blowers, lens pens, lens cleaning solution, q-tips, alcohol pads etc.. The list goes on. I found, even on my most rough and dirt prone trips, all I really needed was one quality microfiber cloth. I must put strong emphasis on the cloth being of high quality, especially because this is the only cleaning item on your trip. Microfiber cloths can remove dust and debris with light passes, and they can also effectively remove oils and smudges from your glass.

Though it would be nice to have a lens pen or an air blower, they are certainly not necessary for 1-2 week trips. You will certainly survive and be capable of taking quality photos without your entire cleaning kit. There is also some joy in the simplicity of not carrying everything that lives in your camera bag.

View Microfiber Cloths on Amazon

6) UV Filter

First off, if you’re wondering if a UV filter affects optical quality, YES, it can. With that being said, UV filters offer very important protection in the wilderness and hiking environment. Multiple times have I scraped my UV filter across rocks and had my camera fall on my lens face, and more that I am not proud of. I would gladly sacrifice a nearly unnoticeable amount of optical quality for the longevity my glass. We’ve all spent perhaps too much money on lenses, but we do this because we know our lenses should outlast our cameras many times over. The UV filter gives a bit more security to our lens’ life.

If you’re in a studio environment, or simply walking around the city, it makes more sense to remove a UV filter. I know a lot of photographers who usually order a UV filter with their lens, and have never used said lens without the filter due to the protection. I definitely understand this, and the risks are certainly amplified while backpacking for multiple days.

7) Camera Sleeve

Whenever the camera is not on your capture clip, you’ll need a safe place to store it. This includes during camp at night or even when traveling by car/air before and after the trip. Camera sleeves are minimal pouches that only accommodate a camera and an attached lens. These are made to take up the least amount of space as possible while providing good protection.

While I don’t own a camera shaped one as in the link, I found another solution with an item lying around the house. This is a tablet sleeve that ended up fitting my full frame Canon 6D Mark II with an attached lens. There is actually a bit of extra room here too because of the rectangular shape, and I am able to store an extra battery and SD card as well. Another bonus, this tablet sleeve came with an integrated microfiber cloth. However, it is a poor quality cloth and won’t replace the one mentioned in #5.

View DSLR Sleeves on Amazon

8) Dry Sack

If you foresee wet conditions on your trip, a dry sack is a must. A dry sack is waterproof, unlike the camera sleeve. This is not only limited to bad weather. Many of my backpacking trips involved hiking through rivers and around waterfalls. We all know from one experience or another that water can find its way anywhere. Dry sacks are very lightweight, and provide an important additional layer of protection when used with the camera sleeve above.

View Dry Sacks on Amazon

9) Electronics Case

This last item is a small bonus that is not absolutely necessary, but you most likely already have a small electronics pouch if you backpack. If you have a few other electronics with you, such as a powerbank, charging cables etc. it makes sense to add your camera electronics as well. This gives you a consolidated pouch that keeps the electronics all in one place. This can also be thrown into your dry sack above if you’re expecting bad weather. I also use a small soft drawstring sack that works as well.