What camera accessories should I get?

All mandatory and optional camera accessories listed here are as I see it. Your desires will vary so get what you know is right for you.

Also, Point & Shoots and advanced Point & Shoots will differ from DSLRs when it comes to things you need. Choose, from this list, things that are applicable to your situation. Then if you want or need more stuff, by all means, go for it!

Mandatory camera accessories. Of course the only thing that’s really mandatory is a camera with memory and a way to power it. But, after that there are a few things necessary in order to vastly improve your results, make your shooting experience more pleasurable and protect your equipment.

*A cable should come with your camera that is used to transfer your pictures from your camera into your computer or external hard drive. It is important to duplicate your pictures so they won’t get lost.

Also, after a while you will end up with so many pictures on your memory card that it makes it hard to go through them. Do you want to show off your pictures just by searching the back of your camera or do you want to print up really beautiful photographs to display?

If you perpetually leave your pictures in your camera the day will come when you lose them. It is not a matter of whether, it is only a matter of how and when they will be lost. Some of you already know what I am talking about! Yeah, I see that head nodding!

*Camera accessories that I strongly recommend.

*A camera case is one of the best investments you can make. It will help protect your camera accessories, lenses and other parts, from damage when they get bumped or dropped. When ever my camera is out of its case I make certain the strap is around my neck or my wrist. That way I can never drop my camera.

There was only one time I almost dropped it. I didn’t and even if I had, I was wearing my wrist strap so that would have prevented it from falling to the ground. But - - - I never know when it will finally happen so I am always very careful.

Again, some of you know exactly what I mean! Maybe it cost you your camera, maybe just some repair. Either way, it’s not fun!

Another good reason for a case is you can put other camera accessories in there for convenience. For instance, it’s a good place to carry extra memory and battery if you will be taking lots of pictures. Your cleaning supplies can be kept in there as well.

A case will protect all your camera accessories from damage, from weather, and even from being lost.

*A second memory card and/or a back up hard drive are a good thing. Many cameras claim to have built in memory. Only thing is, the built in memory is so very minimal. The camera will only hold a few pictures.

One memory card is almost always mandatory. The second card is a very good idea.

Now - - - you can simply set your camera to a smaller file size in order to get more pictures on a smaller memory stick. That will save you a few bucks up front. But if you do that you can not expect to get very good results should you want to enlarge your prints to say, 8X10.

There is always a trade off. In this case you can use the one, smaller memory card and save money up front, then deal with low quality prints. Or you can buy one or two larger cards. That way you have enough space for all those beautiful photos you’ll be showing off by framing them and hanging them in your own personal gallery!

I’ve mentioned this many times on my site. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to have a portable, external hard drive to transfer your pictures onto when the memory card is full. Pull that card and install the empty one. Backup the full card into the external hard drive.

Now you have two copies of each picture. Odds are you won’t lose the files on both the memory card and the external drive.

If the pictures are easily replaceable this is not necessary. But what if you are on a once in a lifetime vacation or your baby just turned one year old? In situations like those, what happens if the memory card is accidentally erased, dropped in the commode or just plain lost? Oops!?

*A second battery is a good thing to have. Also, a charger, if you will have a place to plug it in. If you have two batteries and a charger, you can plug in the dead one and continue to shoot uninterrupted. Your camera should come with a charger. A ha! One of the camera accessories you don't have to buy!

There are at least two reasons that manufacturers include a minimum of camera accessories with a camera body. The first is selfish the second serves your best interest.

First, that makes it so you have to spend more than you planned when you set out to get your camera! It is much easier to inch you up in cost than it is to advertise the actual amount you can expect to invest.

My site, and this camera accessories page are here for the purpose of helping you weed through the sweet promises to the reality. Right now I speak of keeping the maximum amount of YOUR money possible while still getting the results you seek.

The second reason for not including a bunch of stuff, to me, far outweighs the first. When you get a camera everybody has different reasons for getting what they do and different needs. This leaves a lot of flexibility for you to put together exactly the camera accessories that will work best for you.

*A way to keep all your camera accessories dry in case you run into the storm that the weatherman said was not coming your way! I always carry a plastic grocery bag. Worst case scenario is you quickly put everything in there and head for shelter. It will help a lot!

I even head out in rainy weather using two of them. I put my camera on my wrist, slip it inside the two bags, and I can shoot with only the end of my lens sticking out. That keeps the rest of the camera dry. When I want to shoot, I want to shoot!

There are actual rain covers available. Rain covers for your camera range from simple drawstring bags for about $20 to very elaborate, costly setups for several hundred dollars. Some even have a clear hood for a flash unit.

Or, you can follow my lead and do it for free! It’s funny, normally I get pretty involved with fun things like this, but for what ever reason I have no interest in a custom fitted weather protection device for my camera. Go figure.

*Cleaning kit. Many people overlook carrying a method of keeping lenses, cameras, and camera accessories clean. You will always get dirt or smudges on the lens as well as grit on your camera. To me there is nothing more disheartening than viewing a gorgeous photo only to discover there is dirt or a smudge, in the middle of it, that makes it unusable.

When you change out lenses there is a good chance dust will settle inside your camera during the process. Always follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for cleaning. One thing they will tell you is never, ever touch the image sensor inside the camera. Blow it clean with a tool designed for that purpose. But don’t touch it.

I merely carry a micro fiber cloth for the purpose of external cleaning. First I blow off any dirt I can. Then I breathe on the lens and wipe in circle. That always seems to do a good job for me.

I used to use cleaner and an intricate cleaning method, but I never got the lenses very clean. They would always streak. I started doing it this way and it has worked well for me, for several years.

The most important thing is to use a micro fiber cleaning cloth that is designed for cleaning lens glass. If you use cotton, paper towel or other cloths you can scratch the coating on your lens. Not good!

Second most important thing is to keep that cleaning cloth clean. Don’t use a greasy cloth because you’ll never get your lenses clean. Don’t use the same one that you use on your eye glasses. That has body oils on it which will only streak your camera lens.

For cleaning the micro fiber cloth, I find it best to hand wash it in warm water with dish soap, then rinse it very well and let it air dry. Rinse and squeeze, rinse and squeeze, rinse and squeeze. Do it a bunch of times until you can’t see any soap coming out of the cloth. The soap will also streak your lens. Or you can just throw it in the wash.

Cleaning the inside of my camera I save for when I am at home. If I get a piece of noticeable dirt inside while I’m in the field, well that has never happened to me, but knowing me, I will try to remove it by blowing on it or something. Don’t do that. Do as I say, not as I would do!

See the red arrow in the picture below? It's pointing to the mirror. The mirror raises up like this, when you are taking a picture, exposing your image sensor. You should never see this sight.

That is why I have a picture of it here. In order to satisfy your curiosity. Now you don't have to risk your own camera to see what I am talking about.

Once again, with the mirror locked in the up position, your image sensor is exposed. It's the blue rectangular part you see at the center of the opening. It is very sensitive. Just exposing it to direct sunlight when it is open like this can ruin it. Not to mention getting dirt on it, or a sneeze! That can't be good.

Follow me here. I see a young mom, she just got herself a beautiful, brand new camera. She's all excited because, from closely following my site, she knows all about the inside of her camera.

Now, baby on one arm, camera in her other hand, she carefully removes the lens and sets it down. She proceeds to raise the mirror and show her best friend of ever the image sensor. Suddenly, Ah, ah, ah, Plbbt. Baby on arm sneezes a mouth full of cheerios into the camera! Yuk! Now what?

So - - - don't touch it, don't mess with it, don't even open it up unless you know what you're doing or you don't like your camera. Have a technician do it. Thank you.

Optional camera accessories.

*An eye piece adaptor, with an eye cup, is something good for shooting in bright sunlight. It forms around your eye to help keep glare to a minimum.

This way you can better see what you are shooting as you look through the eyepiece. It also prevents light from entering the back of your camera which can affect your exposure.

*Tripod Once I saw a woman balance her camera on top of a tripod. It fell. No need to describe the mess!!! Needless to say, she wasn’t happy.

She had a nice tripod. For some unknown reason she decided to balance her camera on top of it rather than connect it. Maybe the mount was faulty. Never the less, the outcome was the same and it was not pretty! Make sure you use your equipment in the right manner.

For taking pictures of landscapes and other things where a slow shutter speed is necessary, it sometimes becomes a good idea to have a tripod available. I like to hand hold my camera but there are times a tripod is necessary.

*If you have and use a flash unit a tripod becomes less necessary. Flash is another thing I prefer to not use. However, when it becomes necessary it makes the difference between getting the shot and wasting space on your memory card.

Some filters may be a good thing to have.

*The first is a UV filter. I get one for each lens I have. The only time it comes off its designated lens is to use another filter on that lens. I remove the UV filter to use another because unless it's necessary, I don't stack filters.

The UV filter does a couple of things. First and foremost, it protects the outer glass of your lens. If anything hits it, the filter is damaged, not the lens glass. This saves bunches of money when it comes time to fix it.

The actual purpose for a UV filter is to filter UV rays! Huh!? Imagine that, the purpose of a UV filter is to filter! No, actually UV protection gives you sharper, cleaner pictures and somewhat less haze in the shots. Yet common consensus seems to be that a UV filter does little to improve upon the UV protection built into your lenses.

There seems to be conflicting thoughts on whether this particular filter degrades your images. Do some tests. Set up a tripod and take the identical picture with and without the filter.

Do this under differing lighting conditions, then decide, for yourself, whether you think it noticeably affects your pictures. My thoughts are that if you will be greatly enlarging your pictures you may decide to forgo using a UV filter. Otherwise the protection from physical damage is worth the investment.

*Polarizer. For most lenses today you will get a circular polarizer as opposed to a linear polarizer. A circular polarizer is designed to work with lenses that have no turning parts on the outside of the lens. This includes all digital, auto focus lenses that I know of. Ask if you are not sure.

You spin one of the rings on a polarizer filter to darken the sky so it is not washed out. It will also minimize glare when you are taking a picture through a piece of glass or down into water.

Not polarized

Polarized

WOW!

Even notice the sky's reflection in the water!

* A Neutral Density filter is designed to reduce the amount of light entering the camera. What you will want is what’s known as a graduated neutral density filter. It is light on one side and gradually darkens toward the other side.

You will spin it until the dark area is up in the sky. This will darken the sky without affecting the color of the sky. It will also not affect the rest of the image at all.

The end result is slightly different than using a polarizer. The polarizer affects the entire image. The graduated neutral density filter only affects the part of the image that is covered by the dark end of the filter.

Other than that, filters for digital cameras are pretty much optional. Most of the effects filters offer can be nicely duplicated in a post editing program like Photoshop Elements.

Yet, there are all kinds of filters out there for you to play with should you so choose. Learn about them and get the ones you want. They're fun and I like them.

When you add filters to your camera accessories be sure to get the right size for your lens. Nearly every lens, even though they are made for the same camera, has a different mounting size on the front.

What that means to you is you will need to buy a filter that is the right size for your largest mount. Then you'll have to get adapter rings for the rest of the lenses on which you will be using the filter.

Don't stack your filters unless absolutely necessary. As you zoom, stacking filters will cause a dark ring around the outside of your pictures known as vignetting. That will have to be fixed in a post editing program and even those don't do a perfect job.

I would have to crop this picture all the way to the red line because of the vignetting!

So do your homework before you decide weather to get a printer. I don’t have one. The store where I bought some of my camera accessories gave me a free printer. I found I didn’t use it enough to make it worth keeping up so I let it go.

* Lenses. I own and recommend several different lenses. For the most part you want your zoom lenses to range from about 28mm to about 200mm or 300mm. If you can get all the way to both extremes with one lens, at a reasonable cost, by all means do so.

Otherwise you will have to get at least two lenses. If you find one lens to cover the whole range, be careful that it is a lens with a good reputation.

Many people brag about how cheaply they got their lenses. In my experience aftermarket lenses have a hard time competing with the quality of Nikkor or Cannon lenses.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some good aftermarket lenses. Just be very careful when buying one. Study hard and long before choosing one. Here is one important place to NOT skimp!

Another lens of interest is a *wide angle lens. This will help when you are shooting inside your home. You will be better able to capture the life of the party.

Or a wide angle comes in handy when you are trying to get an entire building into the shot. Taking the picture from the street doesn't allow you to back up far enough when using a typical 28mm lens.

One drawback of wide angle lenses is that the outside of your pictures will be somewhat distorted. There are ways to help straighten it out.

Look below

In order to compare the before and after, look to the left side. The pillar is not leaning in like in the first picture. Also, the first door on the right is vertical.

The pillar could be straightened out more yet, but then it looks unnatural.

Now compare that result with the next picture which is how the same scene looks when taken with a 28mm lens. Notice the door, on the end wall, in the first two pictures looks like it is a couple of hundred feet away. The same door in the third picture only looks about half that far.

Ever wonder why you can't get pictures that have never ending depth? It has a name. It's called wide angle lens.

The last lens I’ll mention is the *Macro lens. Another name for this lens is close up lens. I love doing close ups. Maybe you will too.

This picture was taken with a macro. The closest crop is just about full size. The detail when it is printed at high quality is phenomenal!

As always, get lenses with good glass. Get a lens that has a really good reputation. A lousy lens will destroy all your pictures and you’ll think it’s the camera.

Be sure to have and keep a case for each lens when it is not attached to the camera. This is another one of your camera accessories you'll be glad you got or you'll wish you had!

There is something known as an *LCD hood. The LCD hood is there for viewing in bright sunlight. It helps keep the glare off your screen. When you are reviewing your pictures you can actually see them.

*Insurance! I wonder how many people overlook getting insurance for their investment? If you only invest a couple of hundred dollars, maybe you will choose to not have insurance.

But what if you have a DSLR with a couple of lenses, a case, a tripod and on and on? When it is all brand new it seems Murphy’s law takes effect!

Something is bound to happen that makes you wish you had insurance - - - unless - - - you have it. Have you ever noticed that your insurance is almost a guarantee that nothing will happen to your brand new camera and camera accessories!?

One thing you can do is call your agent and see whether your home owner’s or renter’s insurance covers it. If not, maybe it can be added.

When you buy the equipment, you are almost always offered insurance through the store. They will offer extended warranty coverage as well as some accidental damage/loss policies.

Please, make certain you know all about any policy before you sign on the dotted line. This is one place you, for sure, want to read all the fine print. Your camera and camera accessories are worth a lot of money.

Cover them correctly. I strongly recommend replacement cost as opposed to ACV (actual cash value). If you are not familiar with these terms learn about them.

You can decide to cancel the insurance as your equipment ages. It seems that ol’ Murphy goes away after a certain timeframe.

One final thought. Before you invest in any given camera accessories make sure they are compatible with your specific brand and model. The last thing you want is to get to your destination without having pre-tested something, only to find out it won’t work.

I went to another country when my equipment was brand new. I thought I put it through all the necessary tests. Well to my surprise, my external hard drive had problems working with my camera and the memory card I used.

When I got home I went straight to the camera store to find out that even they were unaware of the problem. It was one certain camera, one memory stick and one certain hard drive. The next generation hard drive the problem was fixed, so they outright gave me the new one. That was nice.

This is a situation that was unavoidable as the problem took the combination of three different pieces of equipment, all working together, to cause the problem. It was an unknown problem, but the outcome was still the same. It was the loss of lots of pictures. Please be careful.

What ever camera accessories I choose, I always - always make certain I save enough money in my camera accessories fund to cover a copy of Photoshop Elements for doing the post editing work.

There you have it!

The necessary and optional camera accessories as I see it. I hope you have come away with some compelling information from this page.

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