This week, I’m off to CES 2018 in Las Vegas, and this is all the different stuff I’m taking with me in my CES tech travel bag.
Everything I talk about will of course be listed and linked down below in the video description if you happen to see something you might need for yourself. Some people might think this is overkill, but I know a lot of other people who end up bringing 10 times more stuff than me, this just what I need to make some videos and enjoy the show, so without further ado lets get into.
Panasonic Lumix G7 (Amazon Link)
Batteries (Amazon Link)
Lexar 32GB SD Card (Amazon Link)
Dolica Tripod (Amazon Link)
2013 MacBook Pro (Amazon Link)
Blockhead Adapter (Official Website)
Blue Bluebird Mic (Amazon Link)
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (Amazon Link)
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x (Amazon Link)
iPhone X (Amazon Link)
Native Union Cable (Amazon Link)
Native Union Jump (Amazon Link)
The camera I’ll have with me is my Panasonic LUMIX G7, and this has actually been my one and only camera for YouTube videos for the last couple years now. It’s relatively inexpensive, it shoots 4K, it has a flip out touch display but most importantly it’s small and compact and easy to take around. I had this on me last year at CES and it worked out really well, so I’ll be back on the show floor this year with my trusty G7 hopefully and getting good shots of some interesting stuff. Of course I’ll also need a couple extra batteries and SD cards, and my cards of choice for this camera have been the Lexar Professional Silvers.
My tripod is the Dolica TX570DS which long name aside is a pretty nice all in one tripod. It has a small ball head that allows me to get decent pan and tilt shots, but it’s also super compact and it folds up to only take up about 2 feet of space, so i don’t mind having it on me as it doesn’t take up much space at all.
To edit any videos I end up filming, I’ll be bringing my Late 2013 MacBook Pro. 2.6Ghz i7, 16GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce graphics, it’s not the most spec’d out thing in the world, it’s not a touchbar MacBook Pro, but for me, it works and it can edit 4K video in final cut pretty well for the most part. And this is what I use at home to edit videos anyway, and it’s what I’m used to working on.
Kind of random, but I think I have to mention this little adapter because I do like it so much, this is the blockhead adapter for the MacBook charger, and it allows the charging brick to lay flush against a wall rather than sticking out, I’ve used it for a while now and even though it’s pricy it has been a must for me.
Some of you might notice that I don’t plan on bringing an external mic or lav mic for my camera and that’s because I plan on just doing voiceovers for any videos I film to make things a little easier, and because the show floor is very loud. Fortunately I’ll be able to bring my entire audio setup from home which includes the focusrite 2i2 audio interface, something that’s not a necessity but I enjoy pairing it with my microphone and in my opinion it definitely contributes to slightly better audio along with allowing my XLR mic to be used with my laptop via the focurites usb input.
My microphone of choice is the Blue Bluebird, an XLR cardioid microphone that I’ve been using for the last couple years as well. I’ve always been a huge fan of blue microphones and while this thing is a little big and bulky, I can remove the shock mount on the bottom to help fit inside a bag if I need to, and like I said, being able to bring my whole setup from home is a big plus.
I’ll also need a pair of headphones of course, and I plan on bringing my white audio technical ath m50x’s. I like these because not only are they comfortable, they sound amazing and they’re also super portable, then can fold up so they don’t take up a lot of space at all and as all these items start to add up that’s definitely a big plus.
Unfortunately, all this audio equipment does require quite a few cables, so you can add at least 3 more small things that I’ll need to bring with me to make everything work.
While some people do end up taking a couple of phones with them for whatever reason, I’ll have just my iPhone X with me for the show. It is my daily driver and if I don’t feel like lugging around my camera and tripod, I could always film some things with the excellent camera on this guy if I need to
Of course I’ll also need a couple cables to go with my iPhone, and you guys know my cables of choose have always been from native Union. Even though I won’t need to, I’ll probably end up bringing both of these, this one is just the standard lightning to usb cable with that leather loop that bundles it all up, and I’ll also have the native union jump which is a 2 in 1 lightning cable and external battery pack. I don’t anticipate that I’ll be using my phone so much during the show that I’ll need a charge, but with this in my pocket, I can get an extra 20 or 30% if I really need to.
So there you go, that’s everything I’m taking with me to CES this year. As far as the bag, I’ll just be shoving everything into an old backpack I used to use for school which isn’t all that exciting.
