Last year I made a few photography gear purchases that made photography better for me all year long. Good news is that they are cheaper rather than expensive.
Mid Range Prime Lens
The first thing I got that really changed my shooting was a 50mm macro lens. I got the Canon version so my experience was based on that lens rather than ones available to other brands. This was a great purchase because it has macro built in. It doesn’t give 1:1 magnification and I still haven’t used the 1:1 converter available but I love the macro on it. It lets you get really close when shooting portraits, or detail landscape work.
It also is a great focal length for my style of shooting, I generally end up with most pictures shot at 17mm to 20mm (about 30%) and the majority of the rest usually fall into that 50mm range (50%) so I didn’t need to carry around my heavier zoom lens (actually I sold it happily because it was getting no use).
The f2.5 maximum aperture is quite shallow especially when you shoot pictures from a foot or less. Lastly the sharpness is amazing. It is easily one of my sharpest lenses. Corner to corner I love the sharpness in the pictures that I shoot with this lens. There is something else as well about shooting with prime lenses that I really like. This lens is a real pleasure.
This lens is also very light. Some people would feel like it feels cheap and flimsy. It has had no durability issues for me in a wide range of uses I put it through this year. Plus being light I took it everywhere with me and this often paid off with more pictures captured rather than not.
The biggest negative is that it focuses slowly. Oh well, if it had to have a downside for this price ($265 as of 2/23/2010) about I will take the slow focusing.
If you have this lens then try out the non macro version 50mm lens. It has a shallow depth of field, and is a great little lens I am excited to try. Both of these lenses are very inexpensive as far as photography equipment goes. The macro version is a great starter for macro and is especially useful for shooting macro because it provides a different macro perspective from longer macros by allowing far more depth of field. Because of the increased depth of field in the 50mm macro I have had great photography opportunities I wouldn’t have otherwise with just the 100 or 150 macro lenses I also have.
This gets a huge thumbs up!
The Timer Cable Release
I know that there are several of these available from name brands and off brands but the recommendation is for the functions it offers rather than the specific product, so keep that in mind. Canon’s is called the TC80N3, and there is an off brand version made by Opteca. What these all do is give you a cable release and also a very nice way to control timed sequences of photos as well as a programmable timer. I know that they are costly, but equipment that costs less than $200 and that offers real value is a nice thing.
I love this little dohicky for a few reasons. First I can program the self timer to take 7, 9, 117, or 13 seconds. Whatever I really want and need. Several times I was able to get pictures because of being able to set a timer for longer than 10 seconds. Like here and here.
You can set up the timer to take pictures every certain amount of time for as long as you want. I used this function to take quite a few star trail pictures that were later merged (check that out here) and to shoot fun sequences of pictures that I made into a movie.
It also has a programmable bulb. So you can tell it to leave the shutter open for 37 seconds, or for hours (I think 24 hours is the limit).
The bad I have to say about these timer cables is that honestly cameras should have all of these options built in especially since they are electronic. Companies just like to sell us more crap. These options are really nice to have on hand so they set up the extra sell by keeping it separate. But if your reading this Canon, Nikon, or whoever else, just include this in the camera. If you are actually listening then thanks, if not then what is new?
These are useful, and I recommend you get one!
The Lens Wraps
So the last thing I got last year that I really loved was some lens wraps. I got ones made by Skooba. Lots of people make them however so get the brand that works for you. I got this brand because they had a small amount of padding, but most of the entire wrap is designed to repel salt, water, and other things toxic for your gear. I find that lots of padding is overkill so these really do the trick for me. I can wrap up gear and throw it in my backpack and I don’t have to worry about dividers or organizers. I just put on top what I am going to use most and unwrap the lens when I want to put it on the camera.
I really like these little guys! They also fit well into my gear packing method. They cost me about 20 dollars a piece. I actually scored a sale that gave me two for one so I bought quite a few.
The Remote Control
So I am not sure what other cameras have remote controls available. I know that some radio control units like pocket wizard will let you use them like a remote control. Luckily the Canon 5d Mark 2 does have a remote control available for it called the Canon Wireless Remote Control RC1. Again this is a small thing that you should put in every camera because it is cool. Just in case your listening camera makers! So basically what can you do with a remote control? Use your imagination…
I use it for an on the spot cable release if I have forgotten mine because the canon remote control comes with a handy clip to attach it to the camera strap. With this baby no camera shake is require. This was fun, and luckily even a little bit useful! Mine cost $20 or a bit less. Plus it is so small it doesn’t get in the way and is always there.
So that is the list of things I would recommend. Just four things, but they are all pretty useful for me in my shooting. I like the function they offer and the good images they made possible. Best of all they didn’t break the bank!
What little accessories or low cost items are quite useful to you?
post script…I should include a bubble level. However I am such a loser that I just can’t get the rhythm of actually using it. So it didn’t make my list…
