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The
Essential Accessories
I am not a fan of accessories. I try to reduce my
equipment to the minimum - I carry with me only the things that
are really useful, I don't want funky accessories that looks cool, but they
give little or none practical advantage. There are few accessories in my bag, but they have an essential
importance.
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Memory cards for file storage
There are many formats of
storage cards: the Compact Flash
(CF) and the Secure
Digital (SDHC) are the best, and they are the standard in
almost all SLR cameras. Both CF and SD have high capacities, and they are
pretty fast. Moreover, they are a solid state memory (they
don't have moving parts), they are very reliable and resistant
to humidity, high or low temperatures, droppings.
The amount of storage space that you need varies
widely; it depends mainly by how many photos you take and by the camera
resolution. With my 21 megapixels camera, I take nearly 80-120 photos
per day (4 GB) when I photograph macro, flora and landscapes; instead
when I
photograph birds and other animals I take nearly 300-400 photos per day
(10-12GB), and sometimes even more, because I use often continuous
shooting. I recommend to analyze your current necessities and to buy
the memory size that you need now - don't worry about what you
might need next year, because the prices of flash memory are
quickly getting lower: it is likely that after one year the
price of a given memory size will be less than half the current
price.
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The speed of the memory
card influences the
time necessary to wrote the photo from the camera buffer to the
card. Fast cards are very useful when you photograph animals and you
use continuous shooting; if, instead, you shoot macro and landscapes,
there are no real advantages in using a fast card, so you can save
some money buying a slower one. Other than that, you should consider
the actual speed that you can get on your camera, as you can see in
the Compact Flash cards
write speed tests.
Some photographers prefer to buy many low-capacity
cards instead of a single high-capacity card, because they fear to
lose all their photos if the card fail. This is a controversial
topic; in my opinion, having a lot of card just increases the risk
to lose one of them. The CF and SD are very reliable, and it is very
unlikely that they fails. It is curious to see that many are so
worried about CF/SD cards, then they store all their photos on the
single hard disk of the computer, a much less reliable support,
without even thinking about back-up copies in the (likely)
possibility that the computer hard disk fails, due to software
problems, virus or other factors. Anyway; this is just my opinion, I
prefer to use a single large card, but of course everyone is free to
use the card size he prefers! :-)
Sandisk (www.sandisk.com)
is one of the best manufacturer of storage media; it offers first
quality products at very competitive prices. The following table
list the prices of some interesting memory cards.
| Card |
Type |
Speed |
Current
price |
$
per GB |
| Sandisk
Extreme III 16 GB CF |
CF |
133x |
US$
95 |
5.9
$ x GB |
| Sandisk
Extreme IV 8 GB CF |
CF |
266x |
US$
140 |
17.5
$ x GB |
| Transcend
32 GB 133x CF |
CF |
233x |
US$
150 |
4.6
$ x GB |
| Sandisk
Extreme III 8 GB SD |
SD |
20
mb/sec |
US$
40 |
5.0
$ x GB |
| Sandisk
Ultra II 32 GB SD |
SD |
15
mb/sec |
US$
250 (?) |
7.9
$ x GB |
Spare batteries
for additional energy
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The digital cameras are completely dependent by electric
energy. It is always safe to have at least a spare battery; If you are going to stay away from power supplies for long
time, instead, you needs multiple batteries and you have to optimize
battery life.
Usually, a fully charged battery lasts for 900-1000 photos, but it varies widely depending by the camera
(the 1D3 and 1Ds3 batteries lasts for more than 2000 photos)
and by the usage (if you use a lot features as Live View the
battery life comes down to 150-160 photos). To maximize the
battery life, you can adopt some power saving measures. The LCD
screen is the main battery
drainer; don't use it when it is not strictly necessary, avoid
live view if you are running out of power and you don't have
another fully charged battery. Other than that, image
stabilization reduces by 10-15% the battery life, if you use
it a lof - if the camera is mounted on a sturdy tripod and it is
perfectly still, you can turn OFF the stabilizator.
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The in-camera
Flash reduces
considerably the battery life. Use it only when it is strictly
necessary or use an external flash unit. Last but not least, the temperature influences considerably the
battery life: it becomes much
shorter at low temperatures. In a cold environment, you can get
still a little of energy from a nearly exhaust battery warming it up
with your body (i.e. placing it into an internal pocket of your jacket).
In any case, you must never try to warm up a battery with fire, because it
may explode.
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If you travel by car, I highly recommend to buy a car
battery charger or an adapter to recharge your battery from the
car. I don't recommend, instead, the solar chargers. Even though the
idea of backpacking away from civilization with an unlimited energy
source is appealing, the majority of solar
chargers are slow and not much efficient; they are cumbersome and
they need a lot of time to charge a battery. Hopefully, in future
there with be more efficient models at acceptable prices.
A small cleaning
kit for lens and sensor
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The dust on the
sensor is small, but inevitable issue, even though many times
it is greatly exaggerated: you should never be afraid of
changing lenses due to dust. To remove dust, I use a
small blower brush: usually, it removes the 90% of dust. I
highly recommend to choose a blower with removable brush tip:
when you clean the sensor, you must not touch it with the
brush. Instead, when you clean the exterior surface of the
camera, you can use the brush to remove the dust more
effectively.
Nearly all recent cameras have
an in-camera dust reduction system that shakes a filter in
front of the sensor to remove dust; this technology makes even
easier to avoid dust.
The second part of the kit is a small, clean
piece of cloth, that is essential to clean the lenses. Avoid
any cloth that loses hairs, or cloths that contains particular
solution (except those specifically made for lens cleaning).
To clean the lens, gently swipe the cloth on the surface, from
the center to the borders, with circular movements.
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The bag to carry
your equipment
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Obviously, you need a bag for your photo
equipment. Even though it would be better to physically try
the bag to be sure that it
fits your equipment, I don't know any store where you can try
many bags - so, often you have to rely on descriptions and
measures listed on the manufacturers websites (as the
excellent www.lowepro.com).
If you plan to expand your equipment,
choose a bag that has some spare room, to avoid changing bag
every time that you buy a new lens. Other that that, I'd
recommend to choose a bag with many pockets for filter,
bussiness cards, blower brush, batteries, compact flash cards
and other non-photographic acceries.
Currently, I have two camera bags. The first
one is a simple Reporter
bag; it measures 44x26x22 centimeters, and I use it a lot when
I want to carry with me the camera and just a couple of lenses
and accessories. My other bag is a fantastic LowePro
D550 AW (42x23x28): while the dimensions look
similar to the Reporter bag, it actually has much more
internal room, that is enough to carry 1DsIII, 12-24, 24-105,
180 macro, 300 2.8 IS and teleconverters. It fits the carry-on
size limites of nearly all flight companies and it has
excellent built quality; it is weather resistant, and it is
highly customizable.
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Supertele
accessories: LensCoat covers and "Hoodie"
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The Canon superteles are white: the bright
color might scare your subject, in particular if you are
photographing shy subjects from a hide. LensCoat (www.lenscoat.com),
the brand created my the nature photographer Scott Elowitz,
make excellent lens covers for nearly all superteles currently
in production from the major manufacturers. The covers are
available with various camouflage patterns, from the classic
dark green to the very nice "Realtree Advantage Max4 HD",
or even snowy trees patterns.
What are the advantage of lens convers (other
than giving a nice "nature look" to your lens)? Of
course, they help your camouflaging, and with some subject it
may really make the difference. Other than that, the covers
are protection from water, dust and scratches, and they a "thermal barrier"
between the metal barrel of the lens and your hands in very
cold weather.
Another useful accessory produced by LensCoat
is the "Hoodie". The Canon superteles have a
large "leather style" lens cap, that is quite
cumbersome to keep on and off from the lens. The Hoodie is an
alternative lens cap; it is much easier to put on and off from
the lens, thanks to its simple design. The LensCoat
Hoodie is avaible
with the same camouflage patterns of the lens covers - a very
fine touch! These nice lens caps are available in various
sizes, both for small lenses and for superteles.
On the left: my Canon
600 f/4 L IS USM with the LensCoat Realtree Advantage Max4 HD.
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Other accessorries
Camera and lenses are often supplies with various
accessories: some are truly useful, other ones can be left at home. The neck strap of the camera is very useful, it has
saved many times my camera from accidental droppings. The neck strap
given with the super tele lenses, instead, is pretty useless: carrying
a 600 f/4 or other heavy lenses with a neck strap is good only to
get severe back pain ;-)
Carry always with you the
camera manual, in particular if you have just bought the camera. It
is easy to forget the precise meaning of a button or a custom
function, and the manual is a great help.
An
"accessory" that I'd never leave at home is
the remote (cable) release. Combined with mirror lock
up or Live View Mode 1, it allows to
avoid the blur caused by the shutter or the mirror at slow
shutter speeds.
Some camera
have a removable LCD cover/protection: I used it when I had the
Nikon D70, then I realized that its only effect was to make even
more difficult to see the small LCD...it is very difficult to
scratch the screen if you have a little of care for your equipment.
Always
keep and use the lens caps; you must never place the lens in your
bag without cap (the ND filter is not a substitute). The lens hood
is another essential thing: use it whenever possible; if it is not
supplied with the lens, buy it. The hood helps to reduce flare and
it protects the front element of the lens.
Some
lenses have an elegant lens bag: it has a very fine look, but it is
pretty useless if you place the lens into a good camera bag. I
recommend to use the lens case only if you put a lens into backpack
or in other places where it needs an additional protection.
Do you have
comments or questions?
If you have comments or questions about this
article, feel free to ask in the Juza
Nature Photography Discussion Forum!
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