After hearing about the new equipment that he has tried out, we asked aviation photographer, Mark Mansfield if there is a piece of gear that simply never leaves his camera bag.

Mark Mansfield: My trusty backup Canon EOS 7D lives in my bag permanently, as things do go wrong at times and you never know when you are going to need a backup.  As a professional photographer, I cannot tell my client, “Hey sorry, my gear has broken down and I am unable to complete your shoot!”

Cable ties can also be found in my bag and I use these when doing air to air (A2A) shoots to keep loose seatbelt/straps from flying around when the door of the aircraft has been taken off for the shoot.

There’s also a spare USB cable in case my card reader has a bent pin. I am sure most Compact Flash user will appreciate that sometimes when in a rush, we insert the card into the reader a bit forcefully and a pin bends, rendering the card reader useless. A spare USB cable has saved my butt on many occasions.

Visit Mark Mansfield's website to see more of his amazing photography.