Modern cameras can shoot both photos and videos, and its also easy to showcase your skills to the world nowadays, by sharing pictures and videos that display your skills. But its important for those images and videos to look good. There are several accessories out there that help you take great pictures/videos.
Tripods, external flashes, memory cards, filters, and even some lenses are useful accessories for both photo and video. Some accessories (such as lenses, lights, and filters) may be required depending on the needs of the shoot whereas some accessories offer adequate protection to the camera equipment.
Common Accessories for Photo/Video
DSLR camera bag
The free DSLR camera bag that usually comes along with the DSLR camera may not be of the best quality, or may not offer adequate protection and storage. It does make sense to get a good quality DSLR camera bag with nice padded interiors and enough storage pockets that will safely keep your camera and accessories – USB drives, storage cards, and charger, etc. There’s also extra space to store lenses.
DSLR cleaning kit
DSLR cameras are expensive gadgets, so you should take care of it well, especially from dust. That is why you need a cleaning kit. A Professional Cleaning Kit comes with cleaning swabs, natural cleaning agent, special lens cleaning pen, brushes, micro fiber clothes, tissue papers.
- Camera strap
- Extra DSLR battery
- SD card
- DSLR Tripod Stands
Underwater Camera Cases & Housings
Water sports such as scuba diving and splashy activities are popular, which requires accessories such as waterproof camera bags and cases.
An underwater (uw) housing is a waterproof and pressure proof camera case for your camera that allows full control of the camera when diving. .
These cases protect the electronic circuits inside the camera, and are buoyant so that they float and can be easily retrieved. The bags are usually made of transparent plastic, and do not interfere with taking good videos and pictures, and will usually fit most models of cameras.
If you are a technical / deep diver (past 40 meters), you’ll want to check the depth rating on your housing (the deeper you go, more is the water pressure on the camera).
Tripods & Monopods
Camera accessories such as tripods are useful accessories for shooting photo/video, for the passionate traveler and storytellers.
There are occasions when you need the absolute steadiest hands for your camera and the lack of a sturdy camera mount (shaky hands) renders a shot or sequence unwatchable.
Any avid photographer will suggest you to invest in a sturdy tripod that can provide all the support you need when working with slow shutter speeds, long exposures, and close-up shots that would otherwise prove difficult to capture on your own.
Optical stabilization and shake reduction only gets you so far in this day and age.
A tripod is important when shooting in low light conditions, when taking self-portrait photos, when focused on a distant object, or for engaging in a steady FaceTime conversation.
Tripods essentially help steady your camera, affording you the time to make minute changes that could ultimately make or break your final image or video project.
The only time when you would probably not need a tripod is when you need to remain inconspicuous, such as Photojournalists or underwater photographers (over the years, they develop the skills of keeping steady and shooting quickly).
However, for others, the tripod is a must!
Tripods: Key to Low-Light Photography
- A Tripod increases the camera’s stability. Ensures sharper images
- Gives better low light images. Shooting a sunset, full moon, or cityscapes are three of the most popular low light shots. Any photographic shot that involves slowing down the camera’s shutter speed, requires a tripod.
- Without a tripod, nighttime images turn into a blurred mess.
A tripod is designed to support any camera – DSLR, smartphone, GoPro, perfect for travel and daily usage, for taking perfect photos, anytime and anywhere. It offers better stability for landscape, portrait and other styles of photography.
Tripods nowadays have flexible designs, are portable, have extendable legs, are lightweight and easy-to-store. Some have foldable designs and can conveniently fit inside a camera bag.
If you do not want to spend more, have a look at monopod. It is still a better option compared to hand-holding your video camera.
Manfrotto, Sachtler, Gitzo (from the same master brand, Vitec), Vinten are all popular brands that make a range of tripods & monopods.
Choose a tripod with a good ball-head mounting so that you can lock your camera and shoot from odd angles, yet maintain camera stability.
Vixari Tripod
Vixari Tripod is a flexible, portable tripod with compact design, extendable legs, remote shutter. Its lightweight, easy-to-store and can conveniently fit inside your bag. Its so small, it will easily fit into any backpack, purse, bag, or even a large pocket.The tripod includes a tilt head for your DSLR camera, both landscape and portrait modes, a Bluetooth remote shutter, a GoPro tripod mount adapter, and more. The legs extend up to 41 inches in height, but since their telescopic, you can also set them as short as you need.
Its also very versatile/flexible; you will never need a selfie stick again, or need to ask a stranger to take your picture.
Joby GorillaPod Camera Tripods
Take your mobile photography to the next level with the flexible Joby GorillaPod stand/tripod (features rubberized foot grips and wrap-able legs) for smartphones, action cameras, small tablets, compact cameras and more. This versatile tripod allows you to take better photos and smoother videos.
Place your iPhone easily and securely anywhere to awesome pictures and videos. This stand includes a GorillaPod and the GripTight mount for your phone. This grip fits all smartphones (iPhone, Android or Windows phone), with or without a case. The grip secures the device in places, even when it is turned sideways. It is easy to maneuver, tilt and rotate. Rubberized foot grips onto almost surface, easily wraps around trees and poles, or just get the balance you need on uneven surfaces.
ButterflyPhoto professional 72-inch Tripod
The ButterflyPhoto 72-inch Tripod works with almost all brands of Cameras & Camcorders. Kit Includes:
1) 72-Inch Full Size Tripod w/ Deluxe Tripod Carrying Case
2) ButterflyPhoto – ButterflyPhoto Micro Fiber Cleaning Cloth
Features of the ButterflyPhoto Professional 72-inch Tripod: Extends to 72 Inches, Tripod Has Special Carrying Handle, Professional Foam Grip, Self Leveling, Rubber Legtip, Built In Bubble Leveling, 3-Way Pan Head, 3-Section Leg, Quick leverlock, Rubber Legtip, Deluxe Soft Case.
Includes ButterflyPhoto Micro Fiber Cleaning Cloth – Safely Removes Fingerprints and Dust, Cleans Without Chemicals.
Manfrotto MKCOMPACTADV-BK Compact Advanced Tripod with 3-Way Head
The Manfrotto MKCOMPACTADV is a quality tripod that provides excellecent camera stabilization, Quick release, 3 Way Head for precised setup, Supports up to 6.6lbs.
Three-in-one Iphone Case
A unique three-in-one iPhone case that can be used as a bottle opener, lighter, and as a camera tripod. This hard case bottle opener is perfect for those who love Apple products (and alcohol).
It is made of high quality silicone. Being a case, it also protects your phone from scratches, shocks, accidental drops and collision.
Folding Portable Lightbox Studio
A portable studio allows you to take great photographs, as it provides a well-lit mini-environment, necessary to take great pictures. These come with built-in LEDs that help create a perfectly lit “micro-studio” environment to get great images.
These are foldable and you can take excellent pictures of products right at home, without having to invest in expensive white backgrounds, soft-boxes and camera lights. These let you shoot quality pics anytime, anywhere as it includes all the necessary equipment (light, backdrops and power).
These are perfect for Bloggers, DIY & Hobbyiest, Online Store Owners. In fact, anyone could benefit from these if you want to take good pictures at home.
Some mini studios come with black, white and gray backdrops to take great pics of food, craft projects, or your pet. You can also make your own backdrops (using paper or fabric)
On some mini studios, you can even control the brightness of the light as per your needs.
These act as a DIFFUSER as they help decrease the object’s shadow, and decrease the reflection of the studio light.
Memory Cards
SD card
When taking pictures and shooting videos, you will often run out of storage space (memory) that is why you will need SD card. SD cards are available in various capacities (storage space) and the prices of the SD card would depend on the capacity that you choose for your DSLR camera.
SanDisk Extreme PRO 256GB SD card: Supports transfers speeds of up to 95MBps. Great for 4k video recordings as well. It is water proof and shock proof.
Wifi Upload Memory Card
Most modern DSLR cameras come with in-built Wi-Fi. In case your camera doesn’t, you can buy a separate Wifi enabled SD card that will provide you the benefit of built-in Wi-Fi, allowing you to directly share media with smart phone or other gadgets.
These make your camera smarter and are a reasonably cheap upgrade; these let you do Wi-Fi Uploads from your Digital Camera.
Digital Backdrops
Backdrop paper, muslin backdrops, painted backdrops and other materials that can be rolled up or rolled out as needed, have long been a staple of studio photography. But they also take up room, and can get old and boring rather quickly, and will need to be ultimately replaced.
You could explore using Digital Backgrounds that show oceans, lakes, swimming pool, sunrise, sunset, jungles, and more. You can order these online, from your local store, photo supply stores, or commercial art supplies stores.
You can create your own digital photography backdrop using a computer, or you may nuy ready made backdrops; whether computer generated or muslin
Battery Life: Conservation Tips
The following are the more commonly used batteries in cameras:
- Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd)
- Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH)
- Lithium Ion
Some Batteries require conditioning, which means fully discharging and then fully charging a battery pack, especially when it is new.
It helps maintain the optimum performance of a battery pack, particularly for Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries.
In fact, most manufacturers and experts recommended doing it at least once a month for optimum performance and increased charge capacity.
Lithium Ion batteries do not require conditioning.
Most battery packs need to be fully charged and fully discharged up to five times to really bring them up to full capacity. Most experienced photographers are aware of this “cycling” process.
When you try charging for the first time, most cameras would say that the battery has been charged completely, if you keep it charging for ten to fifteen minutes. Most Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd) and Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) display this characteristic, whereas the fact is that these batteries never get charged completely the first time.
So you need to make it go through the conditioning process.
Just, remove the battery pack, let it cool down for about fifteen minutes or so and then repeat the charging procedure.
Most rechargeable batteries undergo self-discharging, when they are left unused for long periods of time. This is especially true of Ni-MH and Li-ion batteries.
It is best to remove the batteries when not in use. This is a good practice to follow, as it keeps your camera safe as well.
Battery Packs, Chargers, Belts, Power Stations
AC adapters are designed to supply your camcorder with continuous power but its a good practice to carry spare chargers and batteries so that you don’t miss out on capturing good footage and pictures.
You can either use rechargeable batteries or disposable batteries for your camera.
You will need an external charger to charge the batteries. These feature LED Light to indicate that charging is complete.
Battery Power Kits
Power Kits: Battery and Charger Kit for Cameras & Camcorders; includes batteries, charger/power supply, power cables.
Power Extension Cables: Checkout some heavy duty power cables and extenders for your video gear.
Battery Mounting Plates are useful for powering on-camera lights. Use these accessories to convert your professional camera to a V-Mount. A two-Pin DC-out connector allows an on-camera light to receive power from the on camera battery.
Power Strips Surge Protectors (Multiple outlets)
To connect the various equipment and to reduce clutter (and for surge protection), you can use multiple-outlet Power Strips.
You can also consider UPS Battery Backup, if you work with computers, digital equipment, lots of data and media files.
Multi-Port USB Charging Station Docks
Multi-Port USB charging station dock allows you to charge all your mobile gadgets (Smartphones and tablets) in one go.
The design is cleaner as all the USB slots are hidden under the lid, along with an integrated cord management system (leave your cables inside to keep things better organized).
Video-Specific Accessories
External Microphones / Headphones
Mics built in cameras have short-comings: they are designed for basic audio recording and will invariably capture more sounds than you really desire (noise and clicks as you press the various buttons).
Tie-clips and shotguns are external mics that help boost the sound quality of captured video.
- A personal microphone attaches to the speaker’s clothing
- A directional microphone sits on the top of the camcorder
When you are recording with an external microphone, you should always monitor what you are recording with the help of the headphones (once the external microphone is connected, the built-in microphone of the camcorder will not work).
Cables
Coming to cables, you will need them for a couple of purposes, and almost all the camcorders will be initially supplied with these cables.
AV cable – For viewing your video on a TV screen! Depending on the camcorder, you may also be able to record from a TV/VCR to a tape/disk within the camcorder.
USB Cable – For transferring still pictures and compressed email-type video clips to and from a computer.
More Accessories
- Remote shutter release: Even when your camera is mounted on the tripod, the simplest action like pushing the shutter button can still cause camera shake and prevent you from taking the sharpest images. This camera accessory works in a couple of ways – connected by a cable to the camera or using an infrared connection to activate the shutter.
- A good circular polarising filter: Important to cut down glare and reflections off shiny surfaces. If you are landscape photographer you will really benefit from a polariser (sky looks bluer, vegetation looks greener). Always remember to use a polarising filter that is equivalent or of higher quality to your lens. There is no point in putting bad glass in front of good glass.
These are some important digital camera accessories that you need to have in your camera bag. You need to choose which ones will serve your particular needs the best.
Cables & Cords . Batteries & Chargers . Blank Media . Films
Filters related Accessories . Flash Accessories . Lens & related Accessories
Light Boxes & Loupes . Light Meters & Accessories . Lighting
Cases & Bags, Straps & related Accessories . Rain Covers . Tripod & Monopod Accessories . Sandbags
Cleaners . Digital Picture Frame Screen Protector Foils . Viewfinders . Remote Controls . Digital Photo Viewers