What's in my camera bag at CES (pictures)

LAS VEGAS -- For a journalist covering CES, the days are extra long, your schedule is jam packed, and you walk miles and miles every single day. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and only the strongest -- and best prepared -- will survive.

As a photojournalist, CES is a lot of fun. There's eye candy everywhere, big name CEOs, lots of flashy new gadgets, endless people-watching, and great lighting.

To be properly prepared, however, you need all your gear, and you need it to perform flawlessly. Here's a look inside my photo bag at the tools a photographer must be carrying to successfully cover the show.

I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark ii, and usually with my 24-70mm lens. The 5D Mark ii has great low light capabilities, which can help in deep corners of the convention center that not well lit. I also carry a Canon 70-200mm zoom lens for portraits and to zoom in on products at press conferences, and a fixed Canon 50mm 2.8 lens, which I love for its sharpness.

I prefer to use natural light when possible, or the light available on the show floor, which is often very good and bright. A high-power flash like the 580EX will help when we get advanced looks at products in hotel rooms or conference rooms. A mini LumiQuest softbox that folds up fits nicely on the head of the flash, and provides even, diffused lighting.

I also carry a SureFire G2X Tactical Flashlight that puts out a powerful 200 lumen LED light.

I carry a spare battery and charger for the 5D Mark ii, as well as additional standard AA batteries for backup.

My primary computer is an Apple MacBook Pro with 320 Gigs of space so I can save everything I shoot. I shoot RAW images on the 5Dmkii and use Adobe Lightroom for nearly all of my editing and image processing.

In order to safely back up and save all of my images, I have a Western Digital 1TB hard drive, which also holds all of my music.

I have a USB 3.0 Compact Flash card reader, and a back-up reader just in case something goes wrong.

My Samsung Galaxy S3 does everything, and keeps me connected to the rest of the CNET team while I am mobile.

I listen to a lot of music, so I carry a set of Chill Pill mini speakers and a 7GB iPod Shuffle for the hotel room.

In case I need to record audio for interviews or for multimedia projects, I carry a Zoom H2 Ultra-Portable Digital Audio Recorder.

In case I need to hand off any images or other information to writers and editors, I carry a few thumb drives I can dump data to.

I carry lots and lots of cords in my bag. There are phone chargers, USB cords, micro USB cords, camera cords for shooting tethered at live blogs, laptop chargers, and iPod chargers.

I bring my iPad with me to review images, read, transfer files, and edit work.

Last but not least, my Warby Parker sunglasses. Las Vegas is bright, and these glasses are rugged and look great.

There you have it -- this is what's in my camera bag when I come to CES. I'm prepared for just about anything.