Pete Souza Reveals Favorite Photography Equipment On Instagram

Pete Souza, an incredibly experienced photojournalist, is known for the images he captured as Obama’s Chief Official White House Photographer. He’s often asked in Q&A’s: “what kind of camera do you use?”

His simple yet highly effective toolkit is worth exploring. Pete’s photography equipment can be used for documentary style photography in your home photo studio. If you’re interested in documenting friends, your significant other, children, or pets at home, some of Pete Souza’s favorite photography equipment could be a great fit for your home photo studio.

Screwdriver Analogy

Before we dive into Pete’s favorite photography equipment, it’s important to understand how he approaches purchasing photography equipment.

Pete shows us 3 screw drivers, and explains that they work equally well. It’s more important to know how to use your tools and understand what you’re using them for, then it is to have the latest camera to take great photos. The photography equipment that you enjoy working with are the tools that you should use, whether it’s a mobile, DSLR, or mirrorless camera. With that covered, let’s learn about his favorite photography equipment as shared on Pete Souza’s Instagram.

DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Whether Pete’s photographing inside or outside with Obama, or shooting quietly in a recording studio with Brandi Carlile, Pete Souza likes to use the versatile Canon 5D Mark IV or the silent mirrorless Fujifilm X-Pro 2.

Canon DSLR Cameras

Pete started photographing the Obama administration with the Canon 5D Mark II, upgrading to the Canon 5D Mark III, and now uses the Canon 5D Mark IV. Pete loves these cameras because of their quiet mode, which makes the sound of the camera shutter less intrusive. He typically keeps two cameras bodies on him so he can shoot with two different lenses at once.

Mirrorless Fuji X-Pro 2 Camera

The Fuji X-Pro 2 has a 23mm lens, which is equivalent to 35mm lens on a DSLR—one of Pete Souza’s favorite lenses. This camera is mirrorless and has the ability to be perfectly quiet. He was able to photograph Brandi Carlile, while she was singing in a recording studio, without making noise that could be picked up by her micropohone. We’re not sure if Pete used this camera to photograph the Obama Presidency.

Photography Lenses

Pete Souza uses mostly prime lenses, also known as fixed focal length lenses. Some of his favorite lenses include: Canon 35mm f1.4, Canon 50mm f1.2, Canon 24-70mm f2.8 II, Canon 135mm f2, and the Canon 70-200mm f2.8.

Canon 24-70mm f2.8 II Lens

The Canon 24-70mm II is one of Pete’s most used lenses. He feels it’s much sharper, or crisp, than the Canon 24-70mm I. He’s been using the Canon 24-70mm II since it came out, which has mostly replaced his 35mm and 50mm lenses. This is his primary lens when photographing outdoors, and uses the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 as his secondary lens.

To show how versatile this lens is, here are images Pete has captured at various lens focal lengths.

Canon 35mm f1.4 Lens

Pete likes the fast f1.4 aperture which allows him to work easily in dimly lit environments. The 35mm lens takes great photos whether you’re up close or farther away from your subject.

Before the Canon 24-70mm f2.8 II was released, Pete used to always keep the Canon 35mm on one camera, and the Canon 50mm f1.2L on his second camera, when indoors.

Even if he was carrying his 24-70mm f2.8 and the 70-200mm f2.8 lenses for an outdoor shoot, he felt it was an advantage to have his Canon 35mm f1.4 on him. Sometimes he’d have to move from being outdoors to a dark room, and needed the 1.4 aperture to work better in a low light environment.

This lens and the Canon 135mm f2 were the ones he used most during his time at the White House.

We personally recommend purchasing a 35mm fixed focal length lens if you’re just starting out with documentary photography. If we only had one lens it’d be this one!

 

Canon 50mm f1.2L Lens

Pete doesn’t say too much about this lens in his Instagram video post, but he’s taken many incredible photos with this lens.

Canon 135mm f2 Lens

Pete uses this short telephoto lens for his intimate candid portraits. This 135mm lens is also great for capturing details, like the image of Obama’s hand on his desk phone. This lens is kept on a belt, and trades places with the 50mm.

Canon 70-200mm f2.8 Lens

Pete mostly uses this zoom lens when shooting outside. We enjoy the lens compression this zoom lens offers at longer focal lengths.

Photography Accessories

Pete typically keeps these photography accessories on him that help on the go.

 

Canon Flash

He mostly shoots using available or natural light, and keeps a flash on him in case he needs to add some fill light.

Photography Belt

Pete doesn’t use this exactly belt, but it should get the job done.

We hope you enjoyed learning about Pete Souza’s favorite photography equipment. View more of Pete Souza’s photography of the Obama Presidency, and be sure to follow Pete Souza’s Instagram.

Some of Pete Souza’s photography books:

Learn more from Pete’s Instagram video post:

View this post on Instagram

Info on what tools I used at the White House.

A post shared by Pete Souza (@petesouza) on Mar 31, 2020 at 2:50pm PDT