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Features

7 Great Gifts for the Beginning Photographer

Chris Gampat
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12/10/2013
6 Mins read

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Fujfilm Instax mini 90 product photos (1 of 7)ISO 4001-30 sec at f - 4.0

There are lots of things to compliment a camera that a photographer can use to become a better shooter. And guess what: not all of them require you to break the bank. Many of them are very affordable and can be useful in a variety of instances.

Here’s a quick roundup of some of our favorite items for the holidays or any time.

A Prime Lens

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While everyone talks about how you should start out with the 50mm equivalent, we’re going to go with the less conventional route on this one. Not everyone wants to get a 50mm lens and some folks hate that field of view. But a prime lens, also known as a fixed focal length is a wonderful gift because it not only has a much more shallow depth of field to give you some beautiful out of focus areas, but it also forces you to think more about the photos that you’re taking.

More than anything, a prime lens is a teaching tool. One technique that many photographers try to do is working with one camera and one focal length (or lens) for an entire year. If the photographer uses this lens to actually try to force themselves to take better photos, then they’ll be in love with it forever. If not, then they’ll probably just be blown away by the bokeh.

So what are some good choices? Well, there is the Canon 50mm f1.8, 40mm f2.8, Nikon 35mm f1.8, 40mm f2.8, Fujifilm 28mm f2.8, Panasonic 20mm f1.7, Sony 20mm f2.8, Samsung 16mm f2.4, and then there are the super affordable lenses that Rokinon puts out: but keep in mind that those don’t have autofocusing abilities.

A single focal length lens will also help the user take the fullest advantage of a DSLR’s imaging sensor.

Want to know more? Check out our Sigma Prime Lens Guide and our Rokinon Lens Guide for a couple of great options.

MeFoto DayTrip Tripod

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer MeFOTO Walkabout and Daytrip photos (12 of 22)ISO 501-100 sec at f - 20

MeFOTO has some of the most stylish yet functional tripods out there in the industry. But even though tripods can be clunky and extra weight, we didn’t have any major issues with MeFOTO’s DayTrip tripod. In fact, that’s why it’s called the DayTrip. The tripod is designed to be light, portable, and sturdy for a day trip.

So how could a beginning photographer use one of these? Well, there are lots of cool projects. If the novice photographer in your life wants to start getting into Macro shooting, a tripod could help keep them and their camera stabilized in order to get steady and camera shake free photo. No matter how steady you think you are, you can’t beat a tripod.

Then there are timelapses, long exposures, and short videos. In fact, we used our DayTrip for timelapse shooting and really loved the portability combined with the sturdiness that it gave us.

Then when we were done shooting a timelapse on the coast, we put it into a camera bag designed for mirrorless cameras.

For those instances where you need a tripod but don’t want to lug around something gigantic, the DayTrip can work out quite well.

Check out our review.

Buy Now: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama

Think Tank Retrospective 7 Camera Bag

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When Think Tank designed the Retrospective camera bag series, they surely had the commuter in mind. Available in loads of different sizes, one of our favorites is the 7. The 7 is a perfect balance between needing to bring lots of gear and only a little bit of it. It can hold a camera and a Monolight–yes, we’ve tried it. But if you’re not looking to bring that much stuff, you can stick a camera, lenses, flashes, filters, batteries, an iPad and loads more stuff in here.

Indeed, it is the bag for the photographer looking to be quick and effective with a small kit.

Besides all of this, the Retrospective series maintains a balance between too much and too little padding to keep your accessories safe, a great and comfortable shoulder strap, and overall maintains a very low profile look.

It’s up there as one of our favorite bags that we’ve ever revieed.

Check out our review.

Buy Now: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama

Capture Pro Clip

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The Capture Pro Clip is designed for those of us that hate camera straps–sort of. Instead of using a strap, the Capture Pro is a system that attaches to the bottom of your camera and slides in and out of a a small holster. This holster is easily connected to your belt or a backpack strap. To get your camera out of the holster, you’ll need to press a button and release it with one smooth motion.

More than any other holster out there, we believe that the solution from Capture (which funds all of its projects via KickStarter) is one of the best for outdoors photographers and backpackers.

In fact, we still tend to use ours in big cities while on a photo walk or something else. We should warn you though that in order to take the most advantage of the Capture Pro we recommend mounting it to the PROPad or practicing with it quite a bit and learning how to secure it properly.

Check out our review.

Buy Now: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama

Cub and Co Shooter Strap

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If Mark Ecko developed a line of products for a more mature male and decided to get into the camera strap industry, he would have founded Cub and Co. With each strap being hand crafted in Long Island, NY, each product is beautiful, rugged, and will have heads turning.

The Cub and Co Shooter strap isn’t adjustable so you’ll need to get the right size for your needs. The entire thing is made with leather and had a really comfortable shoulder pad that also works very well when wrapping the strap around your wrist.

Our review unit is permanently fixed to our Fujifilm X Pro 1.

Check out our review.

Buy Now: Cub and Co

Hoya Graduated ND Filter

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Hoya only recently came out with a Graduated ND–but they’re already being highly rated. The company has been one of the bigger names when it came to filters that don’t compromise on image quality, and indeed they still are.

The Graduated ND filter is designed for the photographer that wants to capture landscapes. The filter will darken a sky so that you can expose for the shadows and have a very low contrast image that captures all the details. They’re perfect for the shooter that wants to create an HDR too–landscape or not.

Hoya’s versions spin around so that you can position the dark side wherever you want it.

Buy Now: B&H Photo

A List of Essential Courses Over at Lynda.com

And last but not least on this list of a free resource for the photographer in your life to actually become better. It’s going to require some time from you, by Lynda offers lots of free resources for photographers. You’ll just need to go through it, and figure out which ones are best for the novice that you know. Head on over to Lynda to see what they’ve got.

Please Support The Phoblographer

We love to bring you guys the latest and greatest news and gear related stuff. However, we can’t keep doing that unless we have your continued support. If you would like to purchase any of the items mentioned, please do so by clicking our links first and then purchasing the items as we then get a small portion of the sale to help run the website.

Also, please follow us on Facebook, Google+, Flickr and Twitter.

camera Capture Clip gifts holidays lens nd filter Photography strap
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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