Essential kit

kfish2oo2

Aside from the camera body and lenses, what is your most useful accessory?

I ask because I'm genuinely curios and also because I have some money thats burning a hole in my pocket!

PCPhoto

all depends on what you shoot .... for me .... flash !! 580 or 580 mkII

for a landscape photographer, it could be a ND Grad filter.

For a studio photographer it could be a light-meter.

nilhg

For me a good solid tripod, think about filters after that.

The ould flashgun is a mighty handy accessory.

hbr

kfish2oo2 wrote: »

Aside from the camera body and lenses, what is your most useful accessory?

I ask because I'm genuinely curios and also because I have some money thats burning a hole in my pocket!

Essential items:
A good camera bag and a tripod.

You don't need to spend a fortune on either. I have two tripods.
One is a nice big and sturdy Slik 500. The other is a very cheap
one from Argos. I almost always use the cheap one because the
Slik is too big and heavy to carry on my bike.

kfish2oo2

hbr wrote: »

Essential items:
A good camera bag and a tripod.

You don't need to spend a fortune on either. I have two tripods.
One is a nice big and sturdy Slik 500. The other is a very cheap
one from Argos. I almost always use the cheap one because the
Slik is too big and heavy to carry on my bike.

Luckily I have both (in fact I have 3 bags - a small shoulder bag, a larger shoulder bag and a backback). My tripod is a Hahnel Triad 30 - very small and compact but really well made (magnesium alloy) and surprisingly sturdy considering its diminutive size. A good bag and tripod were the very first things I bought for my camera, followed by Camera Armor (pretty good investment, although it does look a bit silly), a remote trigger (no intervalometer though, sadface) and my nifty 50 f/1.8

NakedDex

ThinkTank Hydrophobia cover. I can't tell you how often I've needed it, and how it's managed to keep everything bone dry in even the most torrential downpours.

af_thefragile

I shoot mostly landscape so for me its a tripod for the long exposures and panoramas.
A polarizing filter is also very helpful in making everything look a bit more pretty!

Apart from that ND filters are good for certain effects and ND grad is very useful for darkening the sky and not letting it get overexposed and blown out. Its something you can do in lightroom too though if you're shooting RAW.

If you're shooting a lot of portrait, wedding etc. then flashes and probably a meter will come in quite handy. Flash is essential for most portrait work.

Intervalometer if you like making timelapse videos. Though if you wanna get really creative with timelapses then you'll need to invest in electronic sliders, jibs, heads etc. cuz staring at a mostly static frame can become quite boring quite soon... But then all that stuff can be very very expensive...


If you don't really care about spending money on filters and flashes and meters, then best is to save your money and buy a good lens. Good quality lenses are the best investment you can make if you've got the money for it...

OldGoat

kfish2oo2 wrote: »

Aside from the camera body and lenses, what is your most useful accessory?

Extra batteries and memory cards.

jpb1974

For me, camera and lens aside, it would be my light meter and reflector.

Simples.

magicbastarder

eyeballs.

kelly1

Battery grip is great.

dmg1982

A loupe is very much essential part of my kit. I use a hoodman which is expensive, but cheaper options are available.

af_thefragile

dmg1982 wrote: »

A loupe is very much essential part of my kit. I use a hoodman which is expensive, but cheaper options are available.

That looks brilliant for shooting video.
Do you know where you can get it here?

The pro viewfinders from Zacuto cost like $300. This is much cheaper...

dmg1982

I'm not sure where to get them locally, I think I got mine from Warehouse Express.

This is a different beast to the Zacuto products though... they are a more permanent fixture on the camera designed for shooting video (primarily) and act as a viewfinder.
The hoodman loupe you wear around your neck and use it to check exposure/sharpness in bright conditions where the LCD screen is very difficult to see, it is not attached to the camera. More for chimping than shooting!

Fionn

Essential kit?
really depends on what your shooting
so depending on the situation speedlights, reflectors, lots of cards, batteries, tripods, bags, good computer and my lastolite HiLite background i find is essential to me at this stage.

Speaking of video - been trying to shoot video with a 7 D and i was looking at a zacuto Z finder but the prices are crazy, wanted a rail system too to mount the camera on - again the prices are very spendy, some say that it's worth it because you can get video that looks like the sort of footage that big cine cameras used in Hollywood achieve - i.e. great DOF, i've got some cheap9ish) stuff from India!!
been building the rig for some time now, I'll post some pics when i'm finished.

Kbeg3

Fionn wrote: »

Speaking of video - been trying to shoot video with a 7 D and i was looking at a zacuto Z finder but the prices are crazy, wanted a rail system too to mount the camera on - again the prices are very spendy, some say that it's worth it because you can get video that looks like the sort of footage that big cine cameras used in Hollywood achieve - i.e. great DOF, i've got some cheap9ish) stuff from India!!
been building the rig for some time now, I'll post some pics when i'm finished.

Please do. Am looking at getting a rig for myself. Having been watching lots of ebay auctions recently, very tempting.

djd80

Good Bag
Tripod
Remote Shutter Release
B+W ND110
Memory Cards

Fionn

Kbeg3 wrote: »

Please do. Am looking at getting a rig for myself

i've posted pics of the rig in the 'what gear do you have' instead of here