The Basics: Camera Accessories
Every photographer should at least look into some of the basic camera accessories that are available, from bags to protect your equipment to flashes that alight the scene. You should consider the type of use your camera and equipment gets, and then decide on how many accessories you need.
Camera bags are the protectors of your camera gear. As such, they need to be sturdy, easy to open and close, have sufficient space for all the equipment you'll eventually be adding, and they need to be reasonably priced. For most amateur photographers who get serious about the use of their cameras, the basic three lens set is a great starting point, while for others it is the end of the line, all they will ever need. Flash units are one of the most important accessories, next to lenses, that a photographer needs. Portable flash is our interest here. Studio, or stationary, flash is far more specialized and expensive. And, finally, tripods are often the absolute last accessory a new photographer buys.
Camera Bags Serve and Protect
It's hard to overstate the importance of a good camera bag, but here we won't be discussing the hard-sided aluminum, aircraft baggage handling proof types, such as the Zero Halliburtons. Such bags are exceptionally specialized and very expensive, when compared with soft-sided luggage, such as that made by Billingham, Domke, Lowepro, Pelican, Photoflex, Tamrac, Tenba, and others.
Bags are available today in a variety of fabrics and a slew of sizes. You can find a special case that cuddles your digital point and shoot, or a bag that will easily hold three or more SLRs, a dozen lenses, flash units, several dozen rolls of film, and a changing bag--plus lunch. For most photographers, starting out with a bag that presents room for one or two camera bodies and two or three lenses, plus some accessories, such as a flash unit, with room for spare batteries, film, filters, and a few incidentals is ideal and inexpensive. You can readily pay well over $100 for such a bag, but you can also pick up a good, solid deal for around $40 or $50.
Today's fabrics are often bright, but the standard has been dull black (for decades, camera bag manufacturers have emphasized black and other dark colors, though one of the major tenets of caring for camera equipment is to keep it cool--black, of course, absorbs heat, while lighter colors reflect it). Ballistic nylon and other super-tough fabrics work beautifully and last a very long time, but even old fashioned cotton canvas is an excellent bet for durability and general protection. Good waterproofing of the exterior fabric goes a long, long way toward providing complete protection.
The biggest buy points probably involve fit with your camera equipment. Some brands have built-in padded camera cradles, while others stick with padded separators. Both work well. If you already have all the photo accessories you expect to need, select a bag and do a trial fit with your gear. If it works, and leaves room for incidentals, then start considering that bag. Make sure it is an easy fit for the gear, though, and easy to pick up and carry--this latter is seldom a problem with single camera bags, bags for point and shoot cameras, and bags for digital cameras. The latter two categories are cameras that do not have a wide stock of accessories available.
Eye of the Camera: The Lens
How do you decide what lenses you need? That depends on what kind of photos you want to take. Do you mostly take people pictures? For portraits, you need a 90mm or 105mm lens with a wide aperture to eliminate backgrounds. Are you a bird photographer? You'll need a long (200mm+) telephoto (tele) lens. If you like landscapes, you'll probably want at least a medium (28-35mm) wide-angle lens.
New SLR cameras often come standard with a 28-70mm or 28-80mm medium-range zoom. These focal lengths cover many picture taking situations, such as group and individual portraits, travel pictures, or party pictures. What they do not do is allow close-ups, wide-angle pictures, or photos of distant objects, such as a bird in a tree or a slide into second base.
If you are a serious amateur or just want to be ready for most any photo situation you encounter, the ideal lens outfit consists of three lenses: a wide angle covering about 19mm to 35mm; a medium-range zoom in the 28-105mm range; and a long tele from 100-300mm, plus a 1.5 or 2X teleconverter, which lengthens any lens by 50 to 100 percent. Lens designers have developed very lightweight designs, so it is not hard to carry this ensemble in a camera bag.
The Power of Light: Camera Flashes
There are several types of on-camera portable flash that either supplement or entirely replace any flash unit that is built in at the factory. Those small and underpowered flash units are handy for some things, but are awful for photography that hits a person's (or animal's) eyes straight on. We've all seen the dreaded red-eye. Moving the flash off the camera and away from the film plane is a help here, though most of the flashes we'll cover do not do that. Using a mild degree of bounce is another way to reduce or eliminate red-eye, and all good portable flash units can be bounced. Portable flash units now are available in dedicated models that work directly with the camera's computer to give the correct amount of light at the correct time with no need for changing settings on either the camera or the flash: The dedicated flash units get their information from the camera, which also picks up enough info from the flash to know how powerful it is and how fast its flash will fire. With those calculations done for you, as well as the calculations of distance and ambient light, getting great flash pictures is easier than ever.
The value of on-camera flash in addition to or instead of pop-up flash is great. First, the portable flash units almost always have considerably more power than do the small pop-ups, allowing for greater coverage in width and height as well as distance. Second, the hot shoe flash mounted on top of the camera is further out of the direct lens line than is the pop-up, which immediately reduces the intensity of red-eye. Third, the flash may be bounced, which both reduces the chance of red-eye to almost nil and spreads the light for a softer effect--flash is generally a harsh light, and reducing harshness of flash is almost an effort in itself. Grip-portable flash units move the flash further away from the lens, reducing the possibility of red-eye ruining photos: Note that almost all wedding photographers use grip flash. They do so for two reasons, one of which is elimination of red-eye, the other is the power available in grip flash units, so that group shots, of which every wedding seems to have dozens, are well lit.
Tripods: Toward Shake-Free Photography
Stability, the lack of movement, is one of the greatest secrets of getting sharp photographs. The tripod contributes greatly to stability. Add a bulb release, a cable release, or another kind of remote release, and camera shake can be almost totally eliminated. For long lenses (teles 300mm and over, and teles from 135mm and up for shaky people), tripods are an essential ingredient. If you're shooting much film, even with lenses in the 35mm to 85mm range, at shutter speeds less than 1/125 of a second, then a tripod is needed at least some of the time. If you cannot get rid of problems with fuzzy photos, even though your equipment checks out and your processor is a good one, then get a tripod and some kind of remote release. You will see immediate and distinct improvement. Several features have a bearing on tripod utility and cost.
The photo world will be delighted once come when a lightweight tripod comes along that totally eliminates camera shake, while being easy to carry and otherwise use. Right now, we're faced with a need for tripod features that all seem to pull against that ideal. A lightweight tripod is a shaky tripod, for the most part. The heavier a tripod is, the more stable it is, assuming quality construction. Newer tripods in the lightweight class are stepping away from aluminum and magnesium alloys in some parts and heading towards carbon fiber, which is lighter even than those two lightweight metals. Wood, still used a lot for tripods for view cameras, is the heavy horse of the industry. Tripod height needs also impinge on weight. A two-section tripod reaching to maybe 48 inches can be more lightly made than a three-section tripod reaching higher, say even as high as 78 inches. The telescoping legs make that possible, but such uses also demand thicker diameter legs so that the thinnest of the leg sections has sufficient strength to do the job.
The overall rigidity of the tripod is what keeps the camera from shaking. The tripod must be well enough braced to accept the weight of camera and lens without shaking or flexing, even on windy days if it is used outside.
Center column height can contribute to overall useful height of the tripod, but the center column needs to be fairly massive because the weight of the camera, lens and flash on top of the single column has a tendency to turn that column into a swinging object. Center columns may be geared or simple sliding columns. Tripod heads are an addition to the story. Some tripods come with non-replaceable heads, but most of the good ones have heads that can be readily replaced with a different (maybe even better) model. Some tripods are sold without heads. Without a head, the tripod is essentially some useless tubes, so let's look at head types. Pan or tilt heads are usually the lowest in cost. They are also the lowest in ease of use with almost any kind of camera, and use of the camera vertically can be very difficult. The difficulty here equates more to time consumed setting up than it does to actual real-life refusal to work, and we're only talking a minute or two, or less, each time a vertical shot is set up. Pan, tilt, and vertical three-way heads are a good compromise, removing the long pan arm, and using two locking levers.
How to Shop
Buy your camera bag to fit your camera carrying needs, as noted earlier. Look for a durable, heavy cloth, with a back panel of smoother (but still exceptionally durable) material. Ballistic nylon, Cordura, cotton canvas are all good choices. Bag fabrics should be waterproofed, and a waterproof lining added is nice. Flaps over some pockets may be zippered or closed with hook and loop (Velcro) sections. Zippers need to be heavy duty, easy operating, and self-lubricating. Check the strap. It must be adjustable over a range that allows the loaded bag to easily fit your shoulder, with the bag falling at the height you prefer. Waist bags for a single camera, often with a provision for a zoom lens mounted on the camera, are very popular and are great totes for the vacationing amateur who doesn't want a mass of camera gear cluttering up his life during what is supposed to be a relaxing time.
While it may seem obvious, you need to make sure of camera model and type before going lens shopping. You must know the type of camera--here, we're discussing primarily 35mm single lens reflex camera lenses--and whether or not it is an autofocus (AF) or manual focus (MF) model. Simply put, manual focus mount lenses will not work on AF cameras, and vice versa. And, of course, Minolta mount lenses will not work on Olympus, or any other, camera. The reverse is also true. There are a few independent brand cameras now that will take a basic Pentax mount, and that's something you need to know before shopping for lenses.
When shopping for lenses, you can buy a lens made by your camera maker. The lenses are generally good quality and designed to work perfectly with your camera's electronics. They also are expensive. An excellent and usually more affordable alternative are lenses made by generic lens makers, such as Tokina, Tamron, Sigma, Phoenix, or Vivitar. Such makers also may offer a wider variety of choices in zoom ranges and single focal lengths. Some of these companies offer lenses simply not otherwise available.
Buying a tripod isn't a complex procedure. Check camera and lens weight against the apparent heft and stability of the tripods being examined, and make sure the weight of the camera, with the biggest lens and flash you use will not create flex, leg creep (legs creeping into themselves soon tip a tripod over), or similar problems. Then consider the locking of the legs. Twist collar locks are great, if they secure easily and you have no hand problems (arthritis or similar). Make sure they twist to a secure lock at any position on the tube. If there are lever locks, make sure they lock at all points along all tubes. Check the elevation method of the center column. A simple slide tube must move smoothly up and down and lock positively with little effort. A crank style geared column must move smoothly and lock easily.
