What’s in my camera bag in 2026
I am trying to stay fairly minimal with my camera gear in 2026. My leather messenger bag is too small to overload with too much gear to give me severe backache, but still large enough to carry one full-frame digital camera, one medium format film camera, film, batteries and a spare lens.
Most of the time when going out for a day’s shooting, I load it with:
Leica M10 digital rangefinder camera
Leica 50mm Summiliux ASPH
Voigtlander 28mm Ultron II
Yashica-Mat analog TLR camera
Sekonic light meter
Handcrafted leather battery and SD card holder
Handcrafted leather 120 film pouch
Business cards
Pen
The main breadth of my work these days gets accomplished by my Leica camera and a 50mm or 28mm lens, with the 50mm responsible for about 80% of my shots. It’s what I naturally see at and allows my favourite look for street compositions and location based portraits. I acquired my absolute dream 50mm lens last year with the Summilux ASPH, a lens I hope to shoot with for many years. I have still kept my Summicron though which is currently getting serviced by Leica and I look forward to having back in my possession for more light-weight street shooting.
The 28mm is the go-to when I need a wider shot or simply cannot step back any further. To be honest, it’s a focal length I still struggle to bond with due to the distortion and the mess it can create in the frame. I have created some shots I really do like with it though and it makes the most sense as a companion to the 50 - at least until I find a reasonably priced 24mm or perhaps until I properly try the 35mm.
I was lucky enough to stumple upon the Yashica-Mat last a couple of years ago and wrote about my first summer using it. Since then, I have taken it to many vintage events where it often gets lovely comments for its beautiful aesthetics. I have almost upgraded to a Rolleiflex a few times due to the better lens coatings and nicer wide-open performance but when the situation is right, the Yashica-mat creates amazing photos.
I picked up a used handheld Sekonic light meter (not pictured) to use with the Yashica Mat. It is a little bit of a faff but as 120 film is so expensive, I manually meter almost every shot with it so I’m not wasting any more money than I need to.
My leather battery and film pouches are both beautifully made items that are a much better solution than having the items loose or in a transparent plastic bag like I used to do. I hope both of them last me many years of use.
I have now handed out almost all of my business cards so need to get some more printed for 2026. Very useful when you take a street portrait of someone and don’t want to faff around with a phone trying to swap details.
Lastly - even though almost all film I shoot is at box speed of ISO 400 - I keep a pen in my bag for the rare instance that I decide to push my film and don’t want to forget when it comes to developing time!
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And that is pretty much it for my bag these days. If I know I will not be shooting film that day, I will save a lot of weight and space by removing many of these items. I actually want to try more instances of going out this year with just my Leica, one lens and my battery pouch in my pocket, just to see if this brings any more freedom or speed to my shooting practice.
What does your camera bag look like in 2026 and do you have any additions you would like to make this year?
See ya,
Luke
