Digital camera accessories buying guide

When you purchase your camera, there are some accessories that might come along with your cameras. The most common one are a tripod, len cleaning kit and a camera bag. You might need additional items for your camera or need an upgrade if you find that the accessories that come along with your camera do not suit your needs.

Bag

A bag is a must have to carry your camera equipment around for shooting. Camera bags come in three types: small carrying bag for compact camera, sling bag and backpack. A small carrying bag offers limited spacing to contain a compact camera and a few memory cards. A sling bag is good if you want to access your camera quickly and you probably need a few light lens and a flash to complete your shooting tasks. The downside of having a sling bag is that the weight will be on one side of the body and will cause you pain on that side if you are carrying it for too long. If you need to carry more stuff and stay out long for your shoot such as hiking, then you might find it worthwhile to invest in a back pack. Backpack comes with different configuration such as a laptop compartment and tripod attachment. In addition to all camera bag which are made of water resistant material, some bag have additional water proof casing that can enclose the whole bag. The bad thing about the backpack is that if you might find yourself sweating after carrying for long period of time.

Dry cabinet

A dry cabinet is a must have for digital SLR owner as they need to keep their lens and camera equipment in a relatively dry environment. Lens, especially are prone to fungus growth if stored incorrectly. If you find yourself budget constraints, you might want to get an airtight container to store your camera equipment and purchase a silicon gel to place into the container to absorb the moisture.

Len cleaning kit

There are many brands of len cleaning kit available on the market. Most come with a solution with a cloth, a cotton bud and a blower that helps you clean your len but there are also len cleaning item in the form of pen available in the market. Such pens have a brush and a wiper to help you clean your len. Another example is the LensPEN Lens Cleaning System. It would be good to get a blower, a brush and a cloth to get rid of particles away from the lens.

Tripod

A tripod is optional to have accessories. You do not need a tripod every time you go for a shooting. A tripod is used to stabilise your camera when you are:
2. doing a paranomic shot of the scenery such that when you doing stitching, you might want the image height to be the same.
3. doing a panning shoot where you want to avoid vertical movement of your camera.
It is best to get a tripod to suit your height and ensure that it can handle the weight of the camera and it is stable.

Cable release, flash trigger

You might want to get a cable release if you find yourself doing a lot of firework shoot, product shoot or any shoot that requires you not to touch on the shutter button on the camera to minimise camera shake. You might even want consider a wireless remote controller to control your camera from a distance if you want to do a self portrait. An off camera shoe cable is another useful item when you want to position your flash at a different angle or you want to use an off camera flash instead of attaching directly to the camera hotshoe to take an object. You can consider getting a wireless trigger for your flash if you want to position your flash and you want to minimise the amount of cable used as it is hazard and you might trip over if you are not careful.

Len filter and len adaptor

There are many different types of len filters available in the market. Len filters such as polariser and ND filter are great to have but not necessary to own. There are also some len adaptors that allow you to attach on the front len element. Such adaptors allow you to do some creative shooting such as sliding a cardboard with a heart shape on the adaptor or do macro shooting. But be warned that multiple attachments can introduce some vignetting.

LCD hood

LCD hood is not necessary to get as it is made for outdoor usage. Sometime under a bright sunny day, when you want to view pictures, the strong sunlight can prevent you from viewing the pictures. Thus a LCD hood can be attached to help you to view pictures. Because of the LCD hood is attached to the camera, it will block you from viewing the viewfinder. As such you may need to adjust your LCD hood to allow you to take picture. If you find it troublesome, then the best thing is not to get it as you can always use your hand to block the excessive sunlight so that you can view your pictures.

Conclusion

Although there are many different accessories available in the market, you might find it a headache as the choices are limitless. The common ones are dry cabinet, a len cleaning kit and a camera bag. It is advisable to get the common ones first if you are starting up and decides the rest when you become more experienced.