There are so many accessories for photography some of them are really useful and others are
not that good so today I'm going to talk about the accessories I use on a daily basis as well
as some that I really don't want you to waste your money on and if you're a beginner looking
to buy your first camera later on I've got a tip for you that can save you so much money
so counting down from five the fifth best accessory I think that you should get is
the good old rocket blower not really an exciting bit of kit but an essential accessory nevertheless
this thing goes everywhere with me and whenever I change my lens I'm always blowing in the center
area and then in the back of the lens as well this is where most of those dust spots that show up in
your photographs live more so than on the front of your lens and with mirrorless cameras there's
no way to avoid it and one of these rocket blowers will get rid of most of the Dust apart from those
really stubborn bits there are some of these blowers with filters on but I see that as a bit
of Overkill the theory is that this is sucking in air and if it does suck in a bit of dust it
would blow it onto your sensor but I haven't found that this is the case this one is a basic one and
it works really well on the other hand the fifth worst bit of kit that stays in my drawer is one
of these the Pano head today with the power of computing together with the software that we've
got to hand it's really easy to stitch images together so much so that a Pano head is not really
needed for everyday landscape photography in fact I shoot a lot of my Panos handheld in conjunction
with the AEL button it's such a quick way of doing it you can grab your Pano and keep hiking but this
panel head doesn't come with me at all it stays at home and I'm so glad I didn't buy one of the
expensive ones the fourth best item I always have with me and use every day is a good old Swiss army
knife this thing has helped me out so much from tightening QR plates to opening up my lunch bag
you can also switch this out for a Leatherman or a non-branded multi-tool there's nothing worse than
your quick release plate coming loose and not having a way of tightening it especially when
you're miles from your car and the light is going off now multi-tools can be quite heavy and I think
it's because they've got the pliers built into them and that's why I go with the Swiss army knife
it's small compact and light it just lives in my bag when it comes to the fourth worst accessory
it is the UV filter back in the 90s when film was all the rage these came in really handy because
you had certain film stock that was sensitive to ultraviolet light but nowadays you don't really
need this at all the glass that you see in front of your sensor that's actually a UV filter so if
you have one of these on the front of your lens you're basically doubling up UV filters and to
get the best image quality you don't want to be putting a cheap filter on the front of your really
expensive lens and if you were think thinking it's extra protection for your front element you
just want to put your lens hood on because if you were to drop your camera and it landed nose down
this would break before your lens well that's a theory I go by anyway now as I go through this
list can you think of anything that you've bought that you regret or is there something
that you just can't live without let me know in the comments below the third best thing to have
again isn't a photography accessory as such but it's a head torch these come in so handy
it's amazing when you're at a sunset how you get carried away and before you know it it's pitch
black or when you get to a sunrise location it's not quite bright enough to see what you're doing
and on an astrophotography shoot these are a must as soon as it does get dark you'll really want one
of these because it's annoying having your phone with a torch on the back holding that and then
trying to change your lens as well having one of these on your head you just turn it on you
can change the lens you can pour a cup of coffee you can do pretty much anything you want you'll
be able to see what you're doing now if you are shooting Astro photography just make sure you get
one with a red light on it it'll be much easier on your eyes what I tend to do is have it on the
white light until I've got everything set up then switch it across to the red light in fact I wish
the camera companies would have a red option for the back of the camera or in the evf red light is
easier on your eyes and it means you don't lose your night vision so basically once your eyes
get used to the light that's about you can kind of see what's going on but when you get a light Shone
in your face from the back LCD screen or with the evf you'll be surprised at how blind you'll be in
that one eye for a short while the third thing I'd say to avoid is more of a camera than an accessory
and it's the 360 camera now there's part of me that really wants to like these they're fun and
quite exciting but they're very distracting to my photography I bought the insta 360 One X back in
2018 and I thought it'd be great because I could just film with it and then crop into that later
and even take photos of the whole sphere and then crop into that but the resolution's just
not there I think if the resolution on this was about 15K or it shot 70 to 80 megapixels then
it would give that option of cropping into it and getting a good image but it is just a bit
of a gimmick camera to me now on to the second best thing I shoot from a tripod especially when
doing astrophotography and to quickly and easily switch from landscape to Portrait is an absolute
godsend it's speeds up the process no end and if the light is fleeting or it's just about to
disappear and you want to get a different aspect ratio you can really quickly now if you say I do
just fine with my ball head in switching my camera by 90 degrees you really haven't experienced an L
bracket so if you do shoot from a tripod just get one now if your camera does have a flippy
screen like the a74 you do have to have a bit of a workaround I did a video on that recently
as for the second worst accessory it's the Wacom tablet I got one of these a long time ago and it
really set my editing back a lot I get the idea of it but it really didn't work for me and I ended
up wasting a lot of money and this goes for Loop decks and Specialty gaming pads as well I've got
the shuttle pro version 2 and it stayed in the bottom of my drawer again the idea is that you
program all of these buttons to certain shortcuts that you use a lot of the time because in essence
editing is pressing buttons and moving sliders so if all those shortcut buttons are confined
to one small space in theory you're not moving your hand as much and you're saving time when
editing I think the only one that I ever got used to was the G13 from Logitech and I used
it for video editing but I was on a really big job and I was working eight to ten hours a day
every single day and it still took me a couple of months to memorize where those buttons were
without having to look at it or without having to look at a cheat sheet as for the top the best and
the worst the best best bit of gear by far is the capture clip from Peak Design This has enabled me
to capture so many more photographs than I used to be able to it comes in two parts you've got
this bit which attaches to your shoulder strap and then you've got this bit which is a quick
release plate for the bottom of your camera now I can't believe it took me so long to get one of
these but the thing that put me off was it was so expensive I think it comes in at around about 70
or 80 pounds and this was the one thing that was holding me back from buying one of these but when
I finally bit the bullet and got one it really changed how I took pictures now the straps on your
backpack tend to be quite solid so this means the camera is solid as well so when you're scrambling
or hiking your camera's not dangling down like it would be with a normal camera strap and then when
you see something you want to photograph you just take it off take the photograph
and put it back and keep going as for the worst bit of kit that I've got
it's one of these clip-in filters I got a 10 stop ND from a company I think called STC I think case
make them as well but they're really not worth it again I wanted to like this accessory and I was
really excited to get it the glass quality is fantastic and when you put it into your camera
it takes a great photograph but it is a hassle to get in and out of your camera and ultimately this
is the major problem with it there have been a few times where I've almost touched the sensor
with it not to mention the extended amount of time that your sensor is exposed to the elements when
you're trying to get this thing in so when I've been in environments when it's raining or when
it's dusty I've just avoided using it and it's ended up again in that drawback at home now if
you're a beginner photographer just starting from scratch one piece of advice I'd give you is not
to buy the latest and greatest I see comments on forums and Facebook groups all the time telling
beginners to get the top of the range kit with a view to buying once and buying the best and
photography is really expensive but it is modular and this is the key so you can buy
a camera and then buy lenses and then get more lenses and then swap out the body but keep those
lenses and so on and so forth it took me years to build up the kit that I have and this is the best
way to go about it and if you want to get more creative in your photography this video covers
exactly that and it's a surprisingly easy process I'll see you next time