The author sporting most of the gear mentioned here on a day hike in the Canadian Rockies.

Love nature, hiking, and photography? There are a mountain (excuse the pun) of equipment choices available to you beyond the camera and lenses that you bring on your excursions into the wild, and the right picks can significantly improve both your enjoyment and photography results.

A quality backpack tailored to nature photography, a lightweight tripod, and a few filters and accessories can really make all the difference between getting the shots that you want and wishing that you’d left your gear at home.

Click the “read more” button to learn about some of my picks for the best nature photography gear available.

Just a quick note before I jump into my guide—I shoot with Canon gear, so my camera and lens recommendations will mostly be for Canon products, because that is what I’m familiar with. I’ve had the pleasure of using Nikon systems in the past, and they’re fine products as well. So please, no Canon vs. Nikon hate mail! =)

Hiking & nature photography gear guide

The Camera

I’m not going to spend too much time on the camera, but your ideal pick for nature landscapes is something with a full-frame sensor so that you’re able to get the full benefit of your wide-angle lenses. If you’re on a budget and looking for a bargain, then give serious consideration to a used first-generation Canon 5D. They can be had for about $600 from multiple sellers on Amazon, and while they lack some of the features on newer models, the image quality of the original 5D still rivals the best cameras of today. If your primary concern is shooting spectacular landscape images, and you can live without video, built-in WiFi & GPS, multiple card slots, and some of the other conveniences of newer models, get yourself a used or refurbished 5D.

If you’ve got some cash to spend, and/or you’re looking for something new, then you can’t go wrong with either of the current “prosumer” full-frame Canon cameras: the 5D Mark III and the smaller, lighter 6D. Between the two, the 6D offers about 90% of the features of the 5D Mark III at about half the price, so from a value standpoint the 6D wins handily. Plus, the 6D is in a smaller & lighter package, which is a big plus when you’re carrying it around all day.

At the end of the day, nearly any modern DSLR is capable of taking amazing images, so don’t blow your entire budget on the camera!

The Lenses

As a Canon shooter, this one is really easy. The Canon 17-40mm f/4L is pretty much exactly what you want for nature & landscape photography. The 17mm end is sufficiently wide to capture sprawling vistas with ease, while the rest of the zoom range gives you some flexibility in capturing details and people. This lens is famous for it’s excellent performance: captures show saturated color and deep contrast, sharpness is excellent beyond some minor edge softness when shot wide open, and barrel distortion is minimal at the wide end and non-existent past 20mm or so. The majority of the time I’m out shooting nature, this is the only lens that I bring with me, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The only serious alternative for nature & landscape photography in the Canon line is the 16-35mm F/2.8L. The most-cited drawback of the 17-40mm is the f/4 maximum aperture, and the 16-35mm gives you another full stop, with a f/2.8 maximum aperture (although for landscape photographers, it’s debatable how valuable the extra stop is, given that much of our shooting is done at f/8 or more). In addition, 16mm really is noticeably wider than 17mm. Whether or not these advantages are worth a $1,000 premium in purchase price compared to the 17-40mm is up to you to decide. Keep in mind that the 16-35mm is slightly heavier than the 17-40mm, too!

While I normally recommend packing light and just bringing one wide-angle zoom lens on most day hikes, if you’re expecting to see a lot of interesting plant and/or insect life, and you may want to pack a macro lens in your bag as well. Canon’s 100mm f/2.8 macro lens is a great choice here (as well as the updated “L” version with image stabilization). I also own the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro and it’s a superb performer as well. The longer macro lenses (the 180mm Canon and 150mm Sigma), while excellent, are probably too heavy for most people to lug around on a hike.

The Backpack

If you’re going to be out in nature for a long day, a comfortable pack to carry all of your gear around in can really make the difference between having a blast and wishing you’d left all of your stuff at home. Unfortunately, finding a good hiking pack that is suitable for your camera gear is quite challenging, and finding a good camera bag that is suitable for hiking even more so.

Fortunately, there is at least one excellent hybrid camera/hiking pack: the Clik Elite Probody Sport. I’ve used more camera packs than I can count, and this is the only one that I’ve fallen in love with. It’s a bit on the smaller side, but it very comfortably holds a full-size DSLR and two lenses (plus accessories like memory cards, lens hoods, a remote, etc) in its lower  dedicated camera gear compartment. The upper compartment is large enough for your day’s food, a lightweight jacket, and a few other odds and ends. A tripod can be easily lashed to the outside of the bag, and there are several additional outer pockets for other miscellaneous stuff. One of the best features is a built-in hydration compartment that will comfortably and conveniently hold your Camelbak or other water bladder (up to 70 oz.). Wearing it for a full day never becomes uncomfortable, even when packed to capacity with a full water bladder and tripod attached.

The Tripod

If you’re serious about nature photography, then a quality tripod is an indispensable tool, especially if waterfalls are on the agenda. For hiking, you’ll want something that is very lightweight, yet sturdy, and ideally that means something constructed of carbon fiber.

There are a lot of choices here, but if you’ve got the budget for it, one of the best options is the Gitzo GT0531. Its maximum height is 52 inches (the head will add a few more inches), it’s rated to support over 11 pounds, yet it only weighs an incredible 1.5 pounds! If you’re looking for something inexpensive, the Manfrotto 190XDB is a popular low-cost choice, and still relatively lightweight at 3.5 pounds.

For the tripod head, anything lightweight that incorporates a quick-release mechanism should do. Most people (myself included) prefer ball heads, but there are a lot of options to choose from. You can go pretty crazy price-wise springing for an exotic tripod head, but I have no complaints at all with my Manfrotto 496RC2. It weighs less than a pound, is quite sturdy (rated to support over 13 pounds), and it’s easy to use.

 Miscellaneous Gear

Here are some other useful pieces of gear that might have a place in your bag:

• A circular polarizer for your lens. Circular polarizers increase saturation and reduce reflections, and make excellent general-purpose nature filters. Mine is pretty much permanently attached to my 17-40mm, and only comes off if I need a specialized filter. If you use filters, make sure to use a quality brand like the B+W that I’ve linked—there is no sense spending $1000+ on a lens and then sticking a $20 piece of cheap glass in front of it!
• Speaking of specialized filters, if you plan to shoot waterfalls, then a neutral density filter will become your best friend. Neutral density (ND) filters reduce the amount of light entering the lens, allowing you to use long shutter speeds even on bright sunny days. In nature, you can shoot some amazing effects involving moving water with the use of a ND filter.
• A remote shutter release. Super useful for removing camera vibration on tripod shots without having to resort to setting a 10-second shutter delay. Make sure that the remote you get is compatible with your camera!
• An Op/Tech camera strap. Easily the most comfortable camera strap I’ve ever used. Please ditch the camera strap that came with your camera if you’re still using it; the difference is night and day!
• Extra memory cards—you can never have enough of these. Most Canon cameras use compactflash, but some of the newer ones take SD cards.
• An extra battery—there is nothing worse than running out of juice before the end of the day! Most of the newer Canon cameras use the LP-E6; the older cameras mostly use the BP-511.

You can browse some of my nature photography on Flickr.