What's In My Bag

Key Takeaways

Hey friends, welcome back to the channel. This is the annual what's in my bag video where I'm going to be showing you everything in the bag and let's start with the bag itself. This is the Peter McKinnon everyday travel backpack. It's pretty huge for an every everyday travel backpack, but it fits all of the ridiculous amount of tech that I want straight in the bag and this is officially the best everyday carry bag that I have ever used. It's kind of designed for cameras and I do carry a camera, but like it's also very adaptable for anything else. So, massive shoutout to Peter McKinnon and Nomatic for making such an amazing bag. So, opening the compartments of the bag, the first thing to say is we have the trusty 14-in M1 Pro MacBook Pro. This is the official Ali Abdaal collaboration dbrand case that we've got on it. It's like a sticker or sleepy type thing that makes it look good and it actually matches with my iPhone case. I also always carry with me the 11-in iPad Pro with the Apple Magic Keyboard, which is quite handy in particular for airplanes and trains and tiny ass coffee shops where I don't want to take the laptop out. And normally I have an Apple Pencil with it, but that recently broke, so I need to get a new one. And then the third thing I carry in the laptop back compartment is this gizmo, which is actually a laptop stand from Herman Miller. I think it's called the Orimepura laptop stand and this is nice cuz it lets me prop up my laptop and then I can bust out my keyboard and my mouse and then I can get a sort of work from home portable productivity desk setup wherever I am. So, all of that stuff is in this sort of main laptop zippy compartment thingy on the back. And now we can open the back camera compartment of the bag and this is where we get all of this funky stuff happening. So, this is kind of what that looks like and I'm just going to talk you through everything inside it. So, the camera I always carry with me is the Sony a7C and I usually have a 16-35 f/2.8 G Master lens on it. And this is a Peter McKinnon variable ND filter, which is somewhat broken because I don't look after this stuff very well, but it gets the job done. It's basically sunglasses for the lens. And with this camera I can shoot basically any video or any photo that I want anywhere that I am. I also always carry with me this Sony shotgun microphone, which attaches to the top of the camera. And because it's a first-party Sony thing, it means that I can get audio without having to plug a cable in or anything. So, it like connects to some kind of connector on top of the hot shoe mount. And the third thing that I carry in this little camera cube compartment is my charger for my MacBook Pro. And this camera cube compartment is ideal because it actually comes out. And so, if for example, I want to take this bag out and I know that I do not need the camera at all, I can just take the little camera cube thingy straight out of the bag and it gets shoved back in as well. The next thing we have here in this compartment is the Peak Design Tech Pouch. This has a load of stuff inside it. We're going to talk through those in just a moment, but here is where I also carry my sunglasses. These are Ray-Ban something or other generic sunglasses. And recently, I've also started carrying This is a bit overkill, but a mechanical keyboard. The reason for carrying a mechanical keyboard is because it's nicer to type on if I'm in a coffee shop working on my book, working on videos, doing anything like that. But, it's also because we're in the process of developing our own kind of brand of like productivity accessories, mechanical keyboard, and bag, and stuff. And so, this is one of the samples that we've gotten from the factory in China recently. And so, I've been using this literally every day to try and like figure out exactly what I like about it, what I don't like about it, and giving feedback on all of the the tiniest of details. And we're still playing around with the colors. You can see kind of going for this sort of a light mode, colorful, kind of a pastel colored aesthetic. And that fits very nicely in this particular compartment of the bag. And the tech pouch usually goes on top of it, and the sunglasses usually come in on the side. Let's go through what's in the tech pouch now. And this has a bunch of random stuff in it. So, this is where I keep all of my cables and extra chargers and like a mouse. So, for example, I always carry with me the Logitech MX Master 3S mouse in the gray color because obviously, I like everything to be light mode. This is a bit rogue. This is the Insta360 Go 2, which is actually a 360 camera that you can attach straight onto your onto your person using this kind of device. So, this is like a little necklace that I can wear if I want to, and then I can attach the camera to the necklace to capture first-person shots for the vlog or anything like that. And this comes out if I need to capture any footage while like surfing or doing something like that, which is not particularly often. We've got a generic power bank from Anker. This stays in the bag at all times. Extra charger with USB-C and USB-C for my iPhone or iPad or anything else. I even have these lightning EarPods. These have actually come in handy super often. Normally, I carry my AirPods Pros with me in my pocket at all times, but there are times where these bug out a little bit, especially if I'm in the middle of a Zoom call or something. And actually, the microphone on the box-standard EarPods is actually incredible. And so, if I need to take a Zoom call while I'm out and about, I'll often just plug these into my iPhone, and now I've got a pretty reasonable setup for call quality rather than just going from the AirPods. Right now, I've got the Apple Watch in this bag. Usually, I have it on me, but I actually forgot to bring my charger on this trip, which is a bit silly. So, it's been out of battery for the last several days. And then, there's just a bunch of random cables in here, like USB-C to USB-C cable, USB-C to lightning cable. It's basically all of the all of the cables that like a normal person could need in their life. Lastly, let's move on to this compartment of the bag. This is kind of funky. Again, just like generic storage for random stuff. So, for example, I have an SD card reader, super handy. Even though my MacBook does have an SD card slot, sometimes I need two SD card readers, and you know, it's just helpful. I always carry a physical card with me because occasionally some places don't accept Apple Pay or contactless, and it's just useful to have a physical card. And recently, I've taken to carrying a nail cutter with me. It's always really annoying when my nails get a bit too long to be able to type efficiently. And so, just having a nail cutter in my bag uh means that I'm never, you know, trying to type with like annoyingly large nails. Next up, we have another compartment that has a dongle. This is I don't know what dongle this is. New might. Some generic Amazon USB-C dongle for the MacBook. And I've got this SanDisk 2 TB portable solid state drive, which is handy if I'm ever doing editing or if I want to offload footage, like I'm going to be doing from this trip. All the footage is going to go straight onto here so that I've got a backup on top of the SD card. And then, this is fun. I also carry these Listerine Cool Mint thingies, which is like a little sheet that you put on your tongue after you've had food. I got this from some random blog post of things that every gentleman should carry in their backpack. And this is good for not having like breath bad breath if I've eaten like particularly heavy meal or something like that. Okay, so that was the main camera compartment. Now, we have one more compartment, which is this top easy access zone. Now, here I carry a bunch of things. Firstly, I always carry with me a notebook. I prefer the A5-sized Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks. And I have this little pen attached to it, which was actually sent to me by Grovemade because they're doing a collaboration with YouTuber Matt D'Avella. I don't know what sort of pen this is, but it's like a prototype, so I'm giving them feedback on it. And I also have a little pen loop. The pen loop is so handy. Annoyingly, for Locterms, you have to buy them separately, but it means that I'm never stuck without a pen if I'm taking notes in the notebook, for example. Next up, we have the headphones. These are the Sony XMWH Mark IVs, or I I always forget the name. Why do they name these headphones stupidly weird things? I've not yet upgraded to them version five of these because I don't need to. I love the version fours. And these are amazing noise-canceling headphones for if I'm on a plane, or a train, or in a coffee shop, and I don't want to hear the ambiance of the particular location. Next up, we have some deodorant, some generic roll-on that I found in a shop in the airport, but I generally try and carry some deodorant with me cuz no one wants to smell. Next up, we have this cute little pencil case from Paperchase, and this is where I have like more pens and highlighters and a fountain pen and some fine liners. I I quite enjoy physical note-taking and physical journaling, and it's nice having highlighters with me. So, little little pencil case for those little odds and ends. And then, two more things. So, I actually carry two tripods with me at all times. The first one is this Joby TelePod, I think. It's a tripod for the phone, and that means that wherever I am, if I want to get a time-lapse from my phone, I can just literally set this up, attach my phone to it, and then I've got a time-lapse shot if I need it. It's also super handy because if I have friends over for dinner and I want to take a group photo, then I can do a little tripod timer, get into the photo. It's super nice for group shots, and this has actually come in so handy that I always carry one in my bag. And then, the other tripod I carry is the PGYTECH Mantis Pod, and this is the thing that can attach to my A7C if I want it to. And it's just like a tripody type thing, but it's cool because it's got like a hook attachment on it, and so it can attach to kind of weird places, and I can probably attach it to one of these ice blocks if I really wanted to, but like, yeah, we're not going to do that right now. And this means that wherever I am, as long as I have this bag, I can film basically any video that I want cuz I've got the tripod, the camera, the microphone, the SD cards, the SSD, the laptop. It's basically a one-man studio packed into a bag, which I carry with me at all times. And final thing to mention is that at the top here we've got one of these easy access compartments. So this is super handy cuz for example I have my passport in here. I have a wallet that has cash and some physical cards which I literally never use. I have one of these which is a Morphie cable kit. This is supposed to have three cables in it but I've lost one of them annoyingly so I need to get another one. And it's got a USB-C to USB-C cable and a USB-A to lightning cable and this is always coming handy in the situations where none of the other cables I've got are actually working for the thing that I need or a friend wants to borrow an iPhone charger or something like that. I always have a spare one with me. And my WeWork card so if I'm in a WeWork I can just like sign myself in. I've got my keys with an AirTag attached to them so I never lose my keys. And with this other like cable thing I carry lots and lots of cables with me. This is like a USB-C to lightning keychainy type situation going on over here. I carry lip balm with me. Burt's Bees is the lip balm of choice. In particular very handy for these cold weather conditions right now where my lips would otherwise get very dry and cracked. We have a padlock. I always carry a padlock with me because this means I can go to the gym any time of the day wherever I am. I found that there were so many occasions where like I'd be out and about and I think oh I should go to the gym but I won't have a padlock with me and I'd have this bag full of expensive gear and be like ah I can't go to the gym. So now I just carry a padlock with me and it saves the day so often. I have another AirTag in here so I know exactly where the backpack is at all times in case I ever lose the bag. And then finally I've got another little thing that was on this blog post of things a gentleman should carry with them. This is the Tide to Go which is like a portable stain remover type thing. I always spill coffee down my top um and this has come in handy and once in my life uh someone else spilled something and they were like oh damn I've got a stain and I was like aha Tide to Go to the rescue. I've got one of these in my bag at all times. So that brings us to the end of this what's in my bag for 2023 for whatever that's worth. And if you're interested in learning more you might like to check out this video over here which is actually about my portable productivity desk setup where I share more details about how I set up all of the tech for staying productive on the go. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you hopefully in the next video. Bye-bye.