Great aurora photographs don’t start with camera settings — they start with the right gear in your bag. The settings are learnable in an afternoon once you understand the logic. The gear determines whether you can actually apply those settings at -20°C in the dark, with numb fingers, a fogged lens, and a battery that gave up twenty minutes ago.
This guide covers everything you need to pack for a northern lights photography trip to Scandinavia — from the camera body and lenses to the cold-weather accessories that separate a productive night from a frustrating one.
Camera Body: What Works Best for Aurora Photography
Mirrorless cameras
Modern mirrorless cameras are the best tools for aurora photography available today. Their electronic viewfinders show a real-time exposure preview in the dark, their sensors handle high ISO exceptionally well, and models from Sony (A7 series), Nikon Z, Canon R, and Fujifilm X-T/X-S series are outstanding in low light. If you own a mirrorless body and a fast prime lens, you have everything you need.
DSLR cameras
DSLRs remain excellent aurora cameras and are still the most common tool among experienced aurora photographers. Full-frame DSLRs — Canon 5D/6D series, Nikon D750/D810 — have large sensors that handle high ISO with minimal noise. Crop-sensor DSLRs work well but show more grain above ISO 3200, so a fast prime lens becomes even more important.
Smartphones
Modern flagship smartphones have surprised many sceptics. The iPhone 15 Pro, Google Pixel 8 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra all have dedicated Night Mode features that produce genuinely impressive aurora results in moderate to strong conditions. Their main limitation is physics — a tiny sensor captures far less light than a full-frame camera — but for photographers who don’t want to carry a dedicated camera system, a flagship smartphone is a legitimate option.
GoPro
GoPro Hero 12 and Hero 13 cameras are a genuinely underrated option for aurora photography. Their Night Photo mode produces good results, the fixed f/2.8 lens and ultra-wide field of view capture the full sky with ease, and their rugged build means you can mount them on a snowmobile, a rock, or a frozen lake without worrying about cold-weather damage the way you might with an expensive mirrorless.
The Lens: The Most Important Purchase You Can Make
If you are buying gear specifically for an aurora trip, invest in a fast wide-angle prime lens before anything else. The difference between an f/2.8 kit zoom and an f/1.8 prime is a full stop of light — meaning you can halve your ISO or halve your shutter speed and achieve the same exposure. At high ISO in the dark, that single stop is often the difference between a clean image and a noisy one.
The ideal focal length for aurora photography is 14mm to 24mm on a full-frame body (10mm to 16mm on a crop sensor). This captures a large section of the sky while still allowing room for foreground elements that give the photograph a sense of place. The most recommended lenses at each price point:
- Budget: Samyang/Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 — manual focus only, but outstanding value for aurora work and purpose-built for this kind of photography
- Mid-range: Sony FE 20mm f/1.8 G, Nikon Z 24mm f/1.8 S, or Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 (crop sensor) — any of these will produce excellent, low-noise aurora images
- Premium: Sigma 14mm f/1.8 Art — widely considered the best aurora lens available at any price, combining extreme wide angle with a fast maximum aperture
Tripod: Not Optional
Aurora photography involves shutter speeds of 4 to 25 seconds. Handholding is not possible. A sturdy tripod is essential — and in sub-zero temperatures, the choice of material matters more than most guides acknowledge.
Carbon fibre tripods handle cold significantly better than aluminium, which conducts cold into the ball head and can make smooth adjustments stiff or even impossible at -15°C. Before going out, loosen all leg joints slightly to prevent them seizing in the cold. Avoid placing legs directly on ice or compacted snow for extended periods — cold conducts up the legs faster than you expect.
Choose a ball head with an Arca-Swiss compatible quick-release plate. Repositioning is fast and secure with gloves on, and the large locking knob is manageable in thick mittens. Avoid ball heads with small controls that require bare fingertips to operate.
Remote Shutter Release
Physically pressing the shutter button introduces vibration that softens long-exposure images. A remote shutter release — wired or Bluetooth — eliminates this entirely and costs very little. As an alternative, set your camera’s 2-second self-timer: press the shutter, step back, and the exposure begins after any vibration has dissipated.
Bluetooth remotes are convenient but can be unreliable in extreme cold. A cheap wired remote is more dependable and easy to operate with gloves on.
Batteries: Pack More Than You Think You’ll Need
Lithium batteries lose 30 to 50 percent of their stated capacity at -10°C and can shut down entirely at -20°C. Three spare batteries kept warm in an inside jacket pocket is the minimum for a serious aurora session. When your active battery shows low, swap it for a warm one from your pocket and put the depleted battery inside your jacket — you will usually recover another 20 to 30 shots from it once it warms up.
For smartphones, a high-capacity power bank kept in an inside pocket works the same way. External battery cases that fit around the phone add significant cold-weather shooting life.
Cold Weather Clothing and Accessories
Your gear can fail quietly. Your body gives louder warnings — but hypothermia and frostbite are real risks on aurora nights in northern Scandinavia. The essentials:
- Base layer: Merino wool or synthetic thermal — never cotton, which holds moisture and accelerates heat loss significantly
- Mid layer: Fleece or down jacket for insulation
- Outer layer: Windproof and waterproof shell — wind chill at -10°C can feel like -25°C in exposed locations
- Boots: Rated to at least -30°C; you will be standing still for extended periods on frozen ground
- Gloves: Thin touchscreen-compatible liner gloves worn under heavy mittens — remove mittens only to operate camera controls, replace immediately
- Hand warmers: Chemical hand warmers in your pockets keep spare batteries warm and give you something to thaw your fingers against between shots
Preventing Lens Condensation
Bringing a cold camera into a warm building causes rapid condensation on and inside the lens, fogging your images for the next hour. The solution is straightforward: before coming inside, place the camera in a sealed plastic bag. The condensation forms on the outside of the bag rather than on the glass. Leave it sealed until it has fully warmed to room temperature — typically 20 to 30 minutes.
Memory Cards and Storage
Always shoot RAW for aurora photography — the difference in post-processing flexibility compared to JPEG is significant, and the colour in the aurora’s greens, reds, and purples is often suppressed by in-camera JPEG processing. RAW files are large, so pack more storage than you expect to need. Two cards — one active, one backup — is good practice in case of failure in the cold.
Getting Your Camera Settings Right
Once your gear is sorted, the final step before any aurora night is to dial in the right camera settings. ISO, shutter speed, and aperture all need to be configured for your specific camera body and lens — and the optimal values differ significantly between a mirrorless camera with a fast prime and a bridge camera with a slower zoom lens.
Our interactive Northern Lights Photography Settings calculator takes your camera and lens as inputs and returns a ready-to-use starting configuration — covering mirrorless, DSLR, smartphone, GoPro, and bridge cameras. Use it before you leave the hotel, not while you’re standing in a frozen field with the aurora dancing overhead.
Scandification: Discovering Scandinavia.
