Talk Urbex – Recommendations on Urban Exploration Equipment
Imagine, you have travelled 3 hours to get to ‘that’ urbex site, you get geared up and head in – only to realise you left a key bit of kit at home. The outlined equipment described is for a generic kit bag, for things like caving, your kit bag will need some additions.
Photography
So you would like to accommodate each and every situation however this could start to get cumbersome, below are some of the necessities
- Camera body
- Spare SD of CF cards – shame to run out half way through a mission
- Spare battery – see above
- Waterproof bag – useful if you have to get wet trying to get to a remote place
- Camera remote
- Lenses – I usually do derelict missions so I take two lenses, a Sigma 17-70mm and a Tokina 11-16mm. Ultra wide and low light lenses are always very useful
- Tripod
- Dust cleaner/mirror cleaner – dust is usually rife in these places, try to take care when changing lenses
Clothing
Needless to say, dress accordingly and each mission drives its own needs. Things that are important to me are usually based around security and hygiene, here are some of the basics
- Solar dry trousers – quick drying and thick but light at the same time. Scratches lead to infections so its good to cover up
- Gore-TEX jacket – who knows, if something went wrong this could be pretty important
- Gore-TEX hiking boots – good solid hiking boots
- Warm t-shirt/hoody
- Medical gloves – who knows what you are touching right
- Respirator – currently do not have an asbestos rated one
Kit
So this is where things can diversify – I usually think about the common small stuff I can carry that may get me out of a few potential situations.
- Small first aid kit/antiseptic stuff – important for those small cuts/grazes and mild infection
- A Leatherman multitool – these things are built for this, can get you out of a lot of situations
- Waterproof matches – you never know
- GPS locator – this tracks my current position and reports via email, critical if the worst event happens
- Spare food/water – again in the case of survival
- LED Lensor P7 Torch – awesome thing!
- Petzl head torch LED
Apart from the obvious – you can argue the point on taking all this equipment, I do it because sometimes things go wrong and when they do, I want to be prepared. You may also need some other stuff like rope, harness etc however these are quite specific to certain activities
Whatever you do, ensure you are prepared for it!
Hope you enjoy
sophos9
I Take my Canon 5d with my Nikon d700 as back up ,A Mask ,20 Cigg’s ,water,and props
I can help you with the Nikon D700 – would be much better in my kit bag
My New kit update !
)))
My canon 5d is new my back-up camera and my new main camera is the one and only Canon eos 1-DS Mk 3 ! Canon is still King Sorry Lol
Andre govia
Awesome, bet the 1D shoots like a machine gun – do you need new locations to come and shoot
Do you want my address to send the D700 to?
Well dude i will come and see you when in back from Beelitz to check out some of the asylums ,I will be comming with JG
Not only jealous about the 1D, now you are off to Beelitz? Damn dude… Will really look forward to the Beelitz write up
You carry a knife! Why !?
Kingrat, I understand your initial reaction. I’ve had some close calls when exploring industrial sites, some where I have needed rope and others where I have had to cut items of clothing/shoes when falling and getting caught upside down.
A good knife will help in lots of situation, when urbexing alone, if I fell or got caught, I may have to cut myself out/off something – I may also have to cut rope to size etc
Also might have to invent makeshift first aid applications. I don’t carry one for confrontation
Hope that helps
I like this topic! It has some tips for me that might come in handy! I pretty new to this urbex thing and at first i only took my camera,lens, tripod, wich i carried under my arm. And some red bull & sandwiches with me….. Now i have a good camera backpack so i can take some more things with me that can be of use. Thanks guys!
Dude, red bull and sandwiches is all you need brother
This week i’m getting my kitbag update!
Bought myself a nice Tokina 12-24mm
Dude, you know how much you are going to love that!
all i take is my camera with a wide angle and my flash gun on an off shoe cable so you can change the light position and of course food and drink….and the missus.
Hey dude,
May I correct you? It’s Gore-Tex instead fo Gortex.
And, if you need a respirator for urbex, use the 3M 9332. I asked a 3M respresentative what respirator I need during shoots. He advised me the 3M 9332.
And for shoes, I can highly recommend safety boots with a steel nose and sole (puncture resistant). With those modern shoes, you don’t even feel the inner sole is from steel: it bends smoothly. The internatonal standard for this is called ‘S3′.
Hope this helps!
Greetz
DU
And I can hihly recommend the Leatherman Wave multitool! Really awesome!
See: http://www.leatherman.com/multi-tools/full-size-tools/wave.aspx
On eBay you can find some cheap Waves
And as a flashlight/torch I can recommende the Fenix PD30:
http://www.fenixtactical.com/fenix-pd30.html
An immense beam of light!!
Hi DU – good to see you! Thanks for the correction, I’ve changed it and will add the additional info in
Thanks again dude,
Dave
Great list! I found this on ThinkGeek. I dont have one, but it might not be a bad thing to have.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/bd44/
Great website.
As much as I enjoy the solitary aspect of urbex the one thing I’d like to add to the mix, mainly for safety reasons is to not go alone. It’s all well an good taking a gps and mobile phone with you but what if you get KO’d.
Safety in numbers an all that.
Yes, good advice! Thanks for the comment…
sophos9
First, thanks for all the Info shared on this website !
I always take some breaklights (chemlights, cyalume-lights) with me…very handy when you run out of batteries.
They are also very usefull to mark hazards like big holes in the floors, so you’re not falling into them on the way back…
Please remove them when you leave ( leave no pollution and no marks of your presence, remember!)