What’s In My Kitbag (Early 2015)

The kit I carry around for my work varies over time. But on the whole, I like to carry everything that enables me to talk, train and document. Tools not toys.

This next month sees me speaking at the BBC in London and MojoCon in Dublin. I’ll be training  and consulting in Chicago and LA and soon after documenting in the wilds of Canada.

For public speaking I need projector adapters and a remote to trigger Keynote slides. For training it’s the same.

When documenting I’m happy with just a phone and extra battery. But when I have a bag, I like to be ready for every eventuality and when off grid things look very different. I’ll save the solar tech and outdoor gear for another post.

This month I’m mostly carrying the following:

The bag is an Azo Equipment Bashilo 15

Designed and made in the UK I really appreciate the build quality and materials used by these guys. This bag has been with me in some desperate places and always performed. As it’s effectively a tube with a laptop sleeve and organiser I tend to pack my kit into easily retrievable pouches.

Inside the bag:

2013 11″ Macbook Air 1.7 GHz Intel Core i7 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 (I had to look that up) This has been my day to day workhorse for heavy editing of audio and video.

A FujiFilm X-A2 digital camera  This is a pre-production loan camera from FujiFilm UK. I recently blogged my initial experiments.

iPhone6  The normal sized one. I opted for the smaller sized iPhone as it has a pocketable familiar form factor. Although bigger than the 5s it’s still easy to handle when recording audio, video and photos.

Tom Bihn 3d Mesh Bag  I use a lot of Tom Bihn gear. I can travel internationally for 5 days or more with my Tom Bin TriStar Mid Sized Carry-on. Well made heavy duty gear. This pouch looks after the occasionally-used-but-must-not-be-without-stuff. Things like HDMI/Display port adapter, headphone lead, small CAT5 cable, Lightning Modem, SD card adapter etc.

Anker 2nd Gen Portable Battery Pack. Anyone using their mobile device to share or even just view multimedia most likely needs to charge their battery at some point in the day. I use this three port charger when ever I’m away from a wall socket or just want to keep mobile while shooting. The three ports come in handy for simultaneously charging multiple devices.

Zoom H5 Handy Recorder  I mainly record audio and upload using either Audioboom or Audio Copy into SoundCloud. When I need high quality long form audio I use this.  This is my 3rd Zoom audio recorder. I sold the the 2 and the 2n and gave away the 4n. All have been amazing and this is the best.

Black Diamond Spot Headlamp  Light is handy. When I travel, when I film, when I just want to see. Like when I came across an abandoned mineshaft a few weeks ago. This head torch is not only super bright. It’s also packed with handy features.

Scottevest Blackout Pocket  Protecting the RFID’s in your passport and cards from being skimmed is just one reason for having one of these. You may also find yourself traveling in areas where you need your phone to be untraceable. Hard to do if you can’t remove the battery. Easy to do with this.

Røde Lavalier Microphone  This is a great quality mic. I mainly use it with the Micon-11 iPhone adapter to record video interviews. If the price is too rich, you can sacrifice a some quality and save a load of cash by getting the Rode Smart Lav+.

Eneloop Rechargeable Batteries  Audio recorders can eat batteries. Especially when using XLR and phantom power. In my opinion these are the best rechargeables and deserve a decent smart charger.

Jabra Revo Wireless Headphones  I use these for daily podcast listening, hands free phone calls and monitoring my audio recording with the Zoom H5.

Mu Duo Charger in Black  Super compact in the bag and handy for hotel rooms and trains when you want to charge two devices at once.

MiFi  I currently use an unlocked Huawei MiFi. Handy for delivering data to your devices via a local sim when travelling. Or just backing up your current phone sim with an alternative to guarentee connectivity.

Power Leads  An necessary evil weighing down my bag.

iPhone Clamp and Handle  Great for adding some ergonomics to a phone when filming.

Joby Gorilla Pod Micro 250  So small it almost doesn’t exist. Handy if you need to leave a phone or camera in place for time-lapse or video blogging.

Kensington Presenter  This also has a Laser. Nuff said.

Klean Kanteen Bamboo  This saves me from using countless plastic water bottles. It’s paid for itself many many times over.

SanDisk Connect Wireless Flashdrive  I bought this in an airport as a way of getting audio files from a micro SD card and onto my phone without a computer. So far I have only managed it with mp3. There are other options I plan to explore. Still testing.

Kingston USB3 Multi Cardreader  The downside of the 11″ MacBook Air is the lack of a card slot. This is super fast and takes both SD and Micro SD.

Midori Passport Sized Travellers Notebook  To-Do lists work better for me on paper. Also this little organiser keeps my paper scraps and receipts when travelling. It’s also good to doodle in.

In my pockets

Easy ACC Pocket Charger. This 3000mAh USB charger also has a handy LED torch. With a short Lightening cable it’s super handy when both away from mains power and my main power pack in my bag.

Mu 2.4Amp Tablet Charger  This single port USB charger is much faster than the ‘Duel’ version and never leaves my body. This means that if I head out with just my phone, the time it takes to have a coffee next to a mains plug will have my phone battery boosted a decent amount. As it’s flat the unit and two charge cables take up very little space.

Leatherman Style PS  I can’t tell you how many times this has come in handy. As it has no blade I still carry a little UK legal folder but nine times out of ten it’s this that’s doing the work. It can also travel hand luggage on planes.

Trove Ultra Slim Wallet  I have no idea why I ever used a big and bulky wallet. This is made in the UK and looks after my cards while a titanium money clip looks after my folding cash.

If you’d like to see any of this gear close up, come and say hi at MoJoCon (The Mobile Journalism Conference) in Dublin on the 27th of March.

This page.. Documentally.com/kit has my kitlist updated more regularly.

Any questions please leave a comment or I’m @Documentally on Twitter.

[Many of the embedded links in this page are amazon affiliate links.  If Amazon is in a good mood I may get a few pennies in store credit. It costs you no extra to use them but if you do plan buy something.. please make sure you actually need it.]