It’s that time of year again—when we all start thinking about what to get for the photo enthusiasts on our holiday gift list. Among the presents that shutterbugs appreciate most are useful add-ons and accessories that help to elevate their shooting experience, enhance convenience, and expand creative opportunities. True, not every one of the dozen items listed below will actually fit into a stocking hung by the chimney with care, but all will demonstrate your love and thoughtfulness, which is really what holiday giving is all about. We sure hope the items we’ve selected also inspire you to think outside the gift box. Also, it’s perfectly OK to gift yourself as well, especially if it helps you take better holiday pictures.
Supports your camera in luxury.
You don’t have to own a Leica to use this exquisitely made mini tripod that ingeniously folds with a rotary motion, slides easily into a pocket, weighs only 0.55 pounds, and provides a robust support for anything up to a DSLR with normal zoom lens. Place it on any flat, stable surface, mount and align your camera, and you can shoot shake-free pictures at slow shutter speeds or use the self-timer to get into the picture. Adorama price: $119.00. To enhance its shooting flexibility add the superb Leica Large ball-and-socket head (Adorama price: $209.00)
2. Zing Standard Wide Neck Strap:
A better way to get a grip on your camera.
This rugged 2-inch-wide camera strap is made of tough neoprene and it wraps around the photographer’s right hand like a camcorder strap. It has ample cushioning to make your camera feel lighter, and has sufficient density to prevent bouncing. It attaches your camera’s base using its built-in 1/4×20 tripod screw, and then threads into your SLR’s side-mounted slotted strap fitting. It includes a wrist leash to prevent your camera from dropping. Adorama price: $9.99.
3: Canon Selphy CP910 Wireless Compact Printer:
Take it with you anywhere for printing on the go.
This cool Canon dye-sub printer is truly portable and lightweight, measuring only 7.0 x 5.0 x 2.4 inches and weighing in at 1.8 pounds. It can turn out high quality, long-lasting 4×6 prints in 47 sec and it’s AirPrint enabled and connects wirelessly to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Mobile Device Printing allows you to send images on compatible iOS, Android and Windows RT devices directly to the printer and it has an Access Point Mode to connect to your wireless camera without a network, and Portrait Image Optimize for achieving great people pictures. Adorama price: $85.99 in black.
4. Lensbaby LM-10 Mobile Mount Bundle
Shoot selective focus art photos with your iPhone.
Even serious photographers shoot with smart phones these days, and this ingenious device lets you enhance the creative photo potential of your iPhone 6. The bundle includes the LM-10 Sweet Spot lens and a slide-on phone mount that attaches to the phone using integrated magnets. With a 0.5x magnification the lens provides a wider field of view from which a controllable, isolated portion of the image will remain sharp while the background is gradually blurred toward the edges—a bokeh effect similar to what you can get withDSLRs. Anall-glass optical design and aluminum body maintains image quality, and Focus Positioning is achieved with an included app. Adorama price: for iPhone 6,$59.95; models for other models are accessible on the Adorama website.
5. Davis & Sanford Vista Voyager Lite:
A sturdy, high-capacity tripod for folks on the go.
This robust aluminum tripod extends to an eye-level 63 inches, has an impressive 8-pound load capacity, folds to an ultra-portable 21-inch length, and weighs only 3 pounds so it’ll slide into almost any camera bag or backpack. Other features: High-capacity BHQ8 ball head, 3-section flip-lock legs, 3-position leg-angle adjustments, Easy Glide center post, built in compass and bubble levels and rubber/spiked feet for stability on almost any surface. Adorama price: $49.88 with quality padded carrying bag.
6. Smith-Victor PG160S Wireless Mini Slave Flash
Enhanced lighting on demand with almost any camera.
This clever little flash unit can be used to light small areas or as an accent light to add sparkle to your subjects, and it has a built-in slave that’s triggered by your camera’s built-in flash. The PG160S has a 1/4×20 socket for off-camera tripod mounting, can be used as a freestanding unit, and it can also be used manually, delivering a footage ISO 100 guide guide number of 40. The flash is full output only and recycling with fresh batteries is fast at less than 5 sec. Best of all, it’s a pocket-sized 1.2×2.4×3 inches. Adorama price: $18.95.
Everything you need to keep everything pristine.
This economical kit will be appreciated by anyone that takes pictures. It includes a 4-ounce bottle of lens-cleaning fluid, a 4×7-inch cleaning cloth, cotton swabs, 2 sheets of Universal LCD Screen Protectors, a squeegee card, lipstick and blower brushes, and lens tissue, all in a new Deluxe Storage Bag that tucks in almost anywhere. Adorama price: $14.95.
8. Tiffen Digital Enhancing Filter Kit
The top 4 essential optical filters in a handy case.
This cool kit combines the four professional quality Tiffen Filters most often used by serious photographers: a Circular Polarizer for increased contrast, color saturation and elimination of some reflections; Tiffen’s exclusive 812 warming filter for portraits and scenic shots; an Enhancing Filter for bringing out the warm colors in fall foliage and wooded scenes, and a Digital Ultra Clear filter to protect you precious lenses. It all fits in an included high-quality slim-line pouch. Adorama price: $62.47 in 52mm size. Other sizes are available.
9. Seagate 1TB External Hard Drive
Take a terabyte of add-on image storage with you.
This compact (4.8 x 3.2-inch), portable 1TB 2.5-inch Expansion Portable External Hard Drive lets you take your images with you, and download them for seamless storage and sharing or to free up space on your memory cards. It’s USB 3.0 compatible, installs easily by plugging in a single USB cord, and provides enough storage for up to 320,000 digital photos, 1000 hours of digital video, or 16,660 hours of digital music!. It comes with an 18-inch USB 3.0 cable, Quick Start Guide, and a Seagate 1-year limited warranty. Adorama price: $60.99.
A soft one-piece wrap-around cover for your DSLR.
Here’s a protective case for your DSLR you can fold up and put in your pocket! And it fits most DSLRs and other cameras with lenses up to 4-inches long. Based on a patented Zing design, it stretches over the lens and self-secures without buckles, straps, or zippers, and has removable retainer strap clips allowing the cover to hang out of the way while shooting. It weighs only 5 ounces is fabricated of weather-resistant Neoprene, and it’s reversible to present a discreet black exterior. Adorama price: $21.30.
11. DelkinUniversal Memory Card Reader
Instantly move your images from card to computer or drive.
This slim, compact card reader is UDMA, SDHC, and SDXC enabled, has a USB 3.0 cable, and provides a sizzling 5Gbps transfer speed. It’s plug and play with no drivers required and it backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1. According to Delkin it’s capable of transferring 2 hours of HD 1080p video in 26 sec, and nearly 10,000 images in less than a minute, making it the hot ticket for shooters on the go. Adorama price: $23.17.
12.Pelican 0915 Memory Card Case
Protect your precious images in a really tough case.
Pelican is known for its tough, water-resistant cases, and this one, made of polycarbonate resint is certainly no exception. The snap-lock case will accommodate 8 SD cards, 6 mini SD cards and 6 Micro cards, and it comes with a protective, shock-absorbing removable insert liner plus an extra plain liner for custom configuration. It measures 5.0 x 3.3 x 0.95-inches externally and weighs 4.5 ounces. Adorama price: $19.99.
Get heavy-duty light support that sets up quickly.
This stand is a lifesaver for lone photographers,videographers, and an ultimate tool for photo assistants to quickly and easily set up in any location. Even one handed, on-the-run setups are a breeze.The Auto Stand adjust from about 3.5 feet to just over 9″ feetand folds down to 40 inches for storage or transport and can safely support Flashpoint Streaklights, strobe heads and monolights.The stand comes with a reversible 5/8″ stud, with a 1/4″-20 thread on one end and 3/8″ on the other which can be mounted either vertically or horizontally as needed. All hardware and fittings are of sturdy metal construction.
14.Flashpoint Speedlight Partner
Light enought to go anywhere, and enough light to go everywhere.
The Flashpoint Speedlight Partner LED is a true departure from the on-camera LED panel, so commonly found atop DSLR’s today. The handy light take a ride atop your hot shoe mounted Speedlight to provide instant LED super power when using your HD-DSLR for video capture. It ‘partners’ with the strobe to act as a brilliant modeling light as well. And the universal Flash Strap keeps the two together in all situations. No matter if you are in camera mode or video capture, the Speedlight Partner is ready to go with a wide 80 degree of flicker free 5600K pleasing illumination.
16. Flashpoint LED On Camera Lights
Superior sleek design that will “go anywhere.”
Flashpoint Reporter Super Compact 150 LED – on Camera light
Flashpoint’s Reporter 150 LEDportable light provides action videographers and still photographers who use DSLR’s and HD camcorders with 900 lux output from a generous 60° spread and the added feature of a pocket size Smartphone footprint with a self contained rechargeable battery. These LED lightsprovide visually accurate color temperatures, flicker-free output, and no color shift when dimming. When used outdoors, the small, self-contained LED light produces copious fill light to alleviate deep shadows, while blending ambient available light to add modeling to subjects.
Flashpoint 198 LED – VariAngle on Camera Light
The unique variable light can deliver illumination beyond the 16′ achieved with a 60° spread with a concentration of light reaching 4470 lumens at 25°.Super lightweight, this ‘go anywhere’ device fits comfortably atop the hot shoe of your camera or off-camera via the convenient stand thread. The power options uses almost any capacity industry standard Sony type lithium battery cells and can be run off universally available AA’s as well.
Flashpoint 198 LED – Bi Color on Camera Light
The precision color temperature dial regulates between 3200-5600K to provide lightening fast solutions for the ‘run and gun’ shooters, moving from one lighting situation to the next ambient environmental challenge.The light can be linked by means of hotshoe type tracks to dovetail on vertical and horizontal configurations with sister units to create a multi-panel power array.
