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Features

8 Items Under $50 That Every Photographer Should Have

Chris Gampat
No Comments
01/11/2015
3 Mins read
A Lens Mug is a great and affordable item for every photographer. Coffee for this shoot kindly donated by Cafe Integral. Check them out. You'll love them.
A Lens Mug is a great and affordable item for every photographer. Coffee for this shoot kindly donated by Cafe Integral. Check them out. You’ll love them.

While all that you need to actually shoot is a lens and a camera, there are many items that help keep you shooting that every photographer should have–and then there are the novelty items. These are usually small little things that can help you when you’re in a bind or have some sort of problem that otherwise needs to be fixed.

We’ve rounded up just a couple that we’re really in love with under the $50 mark.

Microfiber Cloth

Micro Fiber Cloth

Microfiber cloths are soft clothes with no sort of abrasion on them. They’re easy to clean and are designed for cleaning glass. Use these in your lenses, camera LCDs, viewfinder, etc. Of anything on this list, this is what you need.

Buy Now: Amazon

Gaffers Tape

Gaffers Tape

For years, photographers have turned to gaffers tape to do all sorts of things. It’s placed on cameras to conceal the manufacturer, hold battery doors in place, add extra grip to the camera, tape down electrical cords, etc.

When you’re in a bind, gaffers tape may truly be the answer.

Buy Now: Amazon

Isopropyl Alcohol

isopropyl_alcohol

Isopropyl Alcohol is clean enough to be applied to the electronic contacts where the lens meets the camera when you click the two together. Plus it can clean a whole number of other areas. We’ve got a full article on that right here.

Buy Now: Amazon

Pro Tip: Isopropyl Alcohol is recommended by many manufacturers to clean your lenses and many other electronics.
Pro Tip: Isopropyl Alcohol is recommended by many manufacturers to clean your lenses and many other electronics.

Lens Wraps

Lens Wrap

If you don’t use a traditional camera bag when toting your camera around, a lens cloth is one of the best ways to ensure that your lenses are protected. They wrap around your lens or camera and add an extra layer of protection that absorbs some of the impact from other things in your camera bag.

Buy Now: Amazon

Card Cases

Think Tank Card Cases

If you’re like us and have loads of SD and CF cards, then you’ll want a single place to put all of them. Think Tank has a large number of cases that do the job just fine, but many other manufacturers also make affordable options.

Buy Now: Amazon

Lens Pen Camera Cleaning Kit

Lens Pen Camera Cleaning Kit

As we stated in the earlier section of this article, the best things that you can get your hands on are cleaning accessories for your camera and lens. This kit lets you blow dust out of the tough to reach spots and also lets you meticulously clean them down.

Buy Now: Amazon

Capture Clip

Capture Clip

You don’t fancy a camera strap? The CaptureClip is one of our most recommended items due to its build quality and ease of use. It works by mounting the plate to the tripod socket of your camera and then putting the clip around your belt or camera bag strap. Then in one smooth motion you should be able to press the red button and get the camera out of the clip. It’s very secure, and built like a tank too.

Check out our review.

Buy Now: B&H Photo

Photography Mugs

Lens Mug

For the moments where all you want to do is unwind and drink a nice cup of coffee or tea, these mugs are a great way to fool your friends into thinking that you’re drinking your java from a very expensive lens.

Buy Now: Amazon

50 gifts lens mug lens pen microfiber cloth photographers
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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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