Formula 1 photography looks glamorous from the outside, but the reality is a constant mix of speed, pressure, logistics, editing, filing, and making decisions in a split second. By the time I get to a race weekend, I am not carrying one camera and a favourite lens. I am carrying a full working system.

After 9 seasons shooting Formula 1, my camera bag has grown with the workload. Some of that is because the gear has improved. Some of it is because the job now includes far more than still images. And some of it is simply because when you are covering the paddock, grid, garages, track action, portraits, travel content, and fast social delivery, you need tools that can handle all of it.

This is the Formula 1 photography kit I trust most, from the camera bodies and lenses through to the accessories that actually keep the whole operation moving.

Camera bodies: the workhorses of an F1 weekend

At the centre of my F1 camera gear are 2 Canon R1 bodies. These are my main cameras, and I cannot speak highly enough of them.

The standout feature is the autofocus. For Formula 1, that matters enormously. Cars are arriving at frightening speed, drivers appear unexpectedly in the paddock, and often there is no second chance. The R1’s autofocus is exceptional, and the autofocus area across the sensor is wider than what I had before. It also shoots at more frames per second than I will ever realistically need.

Like most flagship cameras, it has some advanced features I rarely touch. That is fine by me. What matters is that the things I do use every weekend are superb.

I also carry 2 Canon R3 bodies. These are still very good cameras, and my son Jayce shoots with them. I used to use them myself. But compared directly with the R1, the difference is obvious in autofocus performance. In image quality, though, I honestly cannot tell much difference when I compare the pictures afterward.

That is worth noting for anyone interested in camera bag review content or trying to understand how pros choose gear. The latest body is not always about image quality alone. Sometimes it is about speed, confidence, and getting the shot when things are moving quickly.

Not every race gets the full kit, by the way. If I am working alone, I will often trim things down and only bring what I know I absolutely need.

The long lenses: trackside essentials

For circuit photography, long glass is everything.

Where I can, I bring a Canon 600mm f/4. It is a beautiful lens and gives a much better result than trying to create reach by stretching a shorter zoom with a 2x converter. A fast prime simply gives cleaner, stronger files, especially when the light starts to drop.

I still carry a 2x teleconverter to every race because there are moments when extra reach matters. But I would always prefer a proper long prime if I can use one.

The biggest lens I own is a Canon 800mm. It has only gone to 1 race, Melbourne. Why so rarely? Because it is not practical. It is absurdly heavy, and in Formula 1 you often do not need 800mm. It is great fun for specialist use, and apparently excellent for moon photography back home, but it is not a regular part of the race weekend rotation.

The lens that lives on my camera

If I had to nominate a favourite lens in the whole bag, it would be the Canon 100-300mm f/2.8.

This lens is on one of my cameras almost every moment I am at the track. Yes, it is heavy. And yes, there are lighter options if all you want is a fixed focal length. But Formula 1 rarely gives you the luxury of standing in exactly the right place at exactly the right time with exactly the right distance to your subject.

The 100-300mm gives me speed, flexibility, and excellent image quality. It covers a huge amount of what I need to shoot, and it does it brilliantly. For me, that versatility easily outweighs the extra weight.

Another lens that comes to every race is the 100-500mm. In bright sunshine it is phenomenal. In lower light, though, I would rather shoot a faster prime such as the 600mm, or occasionally a 500mm if one is available.

I also carry a 70-200mm f/2.8, though Jayce tends to use that more than I do. I usually stick with the 100-300mm because it better suits how I work.

Adapters, specialty glass, and the oddball lenses

Some of my longer EF lenses need an RF adapter to work on the Canon R1 bodies, so I carry several. They are not exciting, but they are absolutely essential.

Then there are the more unusual lenses that can create images people do not see every day.

One of them is a 45mm tilt-shift. For photographers, that name says plenty. For everyone else, it is the lens that can make a real scene look like a miniature toy set. It is not a lens I use at every race, but at circuits with high vantage points, such as Baku or Las Vegas, it can produce something very distinctive.

The other is what many people call a dream lens, an old 50mm f/.95 Canon lens. It is roughly as old as I am, manual focus, and wildly challenging to use. At f/.95, the depth of field is so shallow that getting a subject’s eye sharp is difficult enough. Add manual focus and the hit rate drops further.

But when it works, it has a unique dreamy look. It is not clinically sharp, and that is exactly the point. If a driver is standing still long enough, and I have the chance to focus carefully, it can deliver a very special portrait.

Grid lenses: where speed and flexibility matter most

The grid is chaotic. It is crowded, fast-moving, and full of opportunities that disappear in seconds.

My main lens there is a 50mm f/1.2. I use it almost every week on the grid because it gives gorgeous subject separation. If I photograph someone at close range, I can keep the eyes tack sharp and throw the whole background beautifully out of focus. It is a lovely look.

Being a prime lens, of course, there is no zoom ring to save you. You zoom with your feet. On the grid that is manageable, and the results are worth it.

The other lens I always want handy is the 15-35mm. The grid can be incredibly tight, with celebrities, team members, and drivers moving around in close quarters. A wide lens is essential for those up-close environmental shots.

There are a couple of other lenses that often appear in Jayce’s bag as well:

• 85mm f/1.2 for portraits, particularly in sunny conditions with a polarizer

• 24-70mm for general paddock coverage

Together, these cover an enormous range of scenarios across a race weekend.

The video camera and small cameras that earn their place

Although still photography is the core of the job, video is now part of the workload too. For that, I bring a Canon R5 Mark II. It is an outstanding video camera and a very good stills camera as well.

When I need very large files for panoramas, it also comes in handy. It is not as quick or as versatile as the R1 for race action, but it is a different tool for a different purpose.

I also carry a couple of small cameras from Insta360, including the Insta Go 3. These are mainly for video, but occasionally they earn their keep in stills too.

Because the camera is so small, I can place it near an Armco barrier, shoot through a gap, and trigger it to take a frame every 2 seconds while I remain safely 50 m away. The quality is never on the level of the main cameras, but every now and then you get a bizarre or unexpected angle that is worth having.

The real secret weapon is not a camera

One of the most valuable pieces of equipment I carry is a Stream Deck.

That may sound odd in a camera bag article, but this little unit saves me a huge amount of time. In Formula 1, speed is not just about shutter speed. It is about workflow.

After a session, I will ingest the images, review them in Photo Mechanic, and mark the ones worth keeping. Then I move selected files into Lightroom for editing. Once the images are processed, they need proper metadata and keywords, particularly if they are going to Getty Images.

That means identifying people in each frame and entering standardized information quickly. The Stream Deck lets me assign names and repetitive text blocks to physical buttons. One press can enter a driver’s name. Another can insert agency information or stock wording. Instead of typing the same things hundreds of times, I do it once and save it as a macro.

It genuinely allows me to do the work of several people.

The editing workflow: speed matters as much as quality

My laptop of choice is a MacBook Pro with plenty of storage. It has to be powerful because race weekends generate serious volume.

A typical flow looks like this:

1. Import images and review quickly in Photo Mechanic

2. Rate the keepers

3. Send the selected batch into Lightroom

4. Apply a preset automatically

5. Crop and make small tonal adjustments

6. Add metadata and distribute to the required outlets

After shooting 2,000 images in a session, I might only bring 180 into Lightroom. That is still a lot when deadlines are tight.

For editorial work, there are limits to what I can do. I cannot dramatically manipulate an image. I cannot replace skies, remove major elements, or create an unrealistic scene. Getty will not accept that, and editorial photography should not work that way anyway. Most of the editing is quick and practical: crop, brightness, contrast, and a preset that gives the image a bit of life.

Audio, phones, and the gear that supports content creation

If I were doing photography only, I would not need so much audio equipment. But modern motorsport coverage often involves short-form video, travel content, and quick updates.

So I carry:

• A small on-camera microphone for close work

• A radio mic for subjects farther away

• A compact phone microphone that plugs directly into an iPhone

• AirPods

• Wired 3.5 mm headphones for monitoring audio output

There is also a RAM mount with suction cup and a Manfrotto phone clamp. That setup is extremely handy for plane departures and arrivals from my seat, and for time-lapses in various places.

I go through 2 or 3 of those suction setups each year. Usually because I leave one behind in a taxi.

The same goes for the GorillaPod, which I use constantly with the video camera. It is a great bit of kit, but eventually it gets too loose and floppy and has to be replaced.

How I carry cameras at the track

I do not use standard camera straps. I much prefer BlackRapid straps.

They give me far more freedom to move, and in Formula 1 that matters. I can walk or run with cameras at my side and still bring one to my eye in a second. That speed is crucial when a driver suddenly appears in the paddock or a moment develops without warning.

Interestingly, I wear the strap back to front compared with how the company suggests. The reason is simple. I often need to adjust the strap length, and it is much easier to do with the adjustment at the front than on my back.

Storage, cards, cables, and rapid image delivery

My cameras use CFexpress cards, and I run 2 x 256 GB cards in each body. I shoot RAW files on 1 card and JPEGs on the other.

The JPEGs act as a backup, and I keep every photo I have ever taken in JPEG form. At the end of every race, that can mean uploading around 18,000 JPEGs for storage. Why keep so much? Because clients often come back asking for a frame just before or after a published image. If I have kept the sequence, I can usually find it.

I do not keep every RAW file forever, only the ones I selected and worked on in Lightroom.

To ingest cards quickly, I use a ProGrade card reader. But the reader is only part of the story. If the cable is slow, the entire process becomes painful. A high-speed cable is not glamorous, but if you are importing 1,000 photos at a time, it makes a real difference.

I also carry:

• UV filters on all lenses

• Polarizers for certain lighting conditions

• Star filters for night races when I want a stylized sparkle from lights

• An ethernet adapter in case paddock Wi-Fi is poor and I need a hard-wired connection

Image delivery from the paddock is a huge part of the job. During a single day, a couple of hundred photos might need to go to Getty, and roughly 400 might need to go to my own website.

For ultra-fast posting, I connect the camera to a phone, usually a Google Pixel or an iPhone. I can select an image, press the set button on the back of the camera, and send it via the phone to the internet and down to Dropbox. From there, I or an editor can access it almost immediately.

That is how images can appear online within minutes of being taken. When the internet behaves, it is brilliant. When it does not, especially after a race when everyone is hammering the network, it can become a frustrating wait until I get back to the media centre.

Monopods, flash, lighting, and practical accessories

I carry a Gitzo monopod for those times when I need to get a camera up high. Extend it, add a camera, and I can shoot overhead either on an interval or using a Canon remote. Sometimes that extra height is all you need to clean up a composition.

I do own and carry flash, but I rarely use it in Formula 1 environments. I would not use flash with drivers in the paddock, and I certainly would not use it close to the track while cars are running. Modern cameras are good enough in low light that flash is usually unnecessary, and lower light can actually add creativity anyway.

The flash is mainly for more controlled situations, such as people in a garage or guests on the grid.

I also keep a small Aputure MC Pro light. That is more often used for travel content or lighting a meal in a restaurant than for traditional race photography, but it still earns its place.

Camera bags and wet weather gear

For travel, I use a large Think Tank bag. It is effectively the biggest size I can legally take on a plane as carry-on, and I fill it with camera gear and occasionally a quick change of clothes.

Around the track, though, I have gone much simpler. I often use a lightweight Uniqlo shoulder bag. It is not waterproof and it is hardly luxurious, but it is extremely light, fits 2 or 3 lenses plus accessories, and works beautifully for moving around a circuit.

Interestingly, a number of very high-profile photographers use similar small bags for exactly that reason. When you are carrying gear all day, weight matters.

For wet weather, I bring:

• Simple Canon rain covers

• A sturdy blunt umbrella

• Waterproof shoes

The umbrella can be tucked down the back of a shirt to create a bit of shelter while shooting in light rain. In heavy rain, there is often no on-track running anyway, so the priority becomes protecting yourself and your gear rather than trying to work miracles.

The most important item in the whole setup

One of the smallest items in the bag is also one of the most important: the media pass.

People often ask if I can help with tickets, but photographers do not deal with tickets at all. The pass is what gets us through the gates and into the paddock for every race of the season. No pass, no access. And without access, none of the cameras or lenses matter.

Why an F1 photographer needs so much gear

If all I did was stand in one place and photograph cars going past, this kit would be much smaller.

But Formula 1 photography now includes:

• Track action

• Paddock candids

• Grid portraits

• Editorial filing

• Agency delivery

• Rapid social posting

• Behind-the-scenes content

• Travel and lifestyle coverage

• Video production

That is why a modern Formula 1 photography setup can easily reach the sort of value that makes people raise their eyebrows. It is not about carrying expensive toys. It is about having a reliable, flexible system for an environment where everything moves quickly and there is very little margin for error.

FAQ

The camera bag may be worth a lot, but the real value is not in the price tag. It is in how every piece supports the job. The best Formula 1 photography equipment is not the gear that looks most impressive on a table. It is the gear that helps you react quickly, work efficiently, and come home with pictures that matter.