Nick's Camera Filters and Accessories Store
Camera Filters and Accessories at Amazon
Me and Stuff!
Once I had my first SLR, lens and Speedlight at the age of 13, I needed (wanted) more. The next things I turned to were all the wonderful photographic accessories I could get for my existing gear. I remember even being excited at buying one of those cheap rubber lens hoods that was meant to shield the lens from the sun. Great stuff!
Then came things like:
I Loved It!
Buying accessories for your DSLR or mirrorless camera can be almost as exciting as buying the camera itself. Any accessory always brings with it the possibility that it may just improve your photography. It never really did in my case, that took hard work but those accessories certainly came in handy as well as being fun.
Take a look at what gear you own now and then think about how any attachments may compliment it. Maybe an extra tripod base for your second camera body so you can switch easily when using a tripod. Maybe a diffuser for your speedlight to add that touch of softness to your flash photography?
Once you get the basics down and your photography has moved on, maybe think of more high tech gear. One of my favourite camera "gadgets" is the amazing Rhino Evo Slider. This allows me to do some really cool stuff such as:
You can see some example in the following video:
Camera Filters and Accessories - Filters
My first piece of advice before spending any good money on filters is to think. How many are you likely to buy in the long run? You have polarizers, ND filters, graduated filters and so on. If you are going to buy a few, buy the biggest you can and...
Buy Step Up Rings for Your Filters
Rather than buying multiple filters for different lens filter threads, always buy the biggest. 82mm will normally do and then buy a set of step up rings. These will allow you to use the same filter on any lens regardless of its filter thread size. Makes sense right?
A quick way to improve your photography is through the use of filters. However, if you want my advice, never buy cheap filters. Why buy an expensive lens with quality glass only to ruin it with cheap glass?
It is easy to go mad a buy a ton of filters but work out what you need first. The main filters I use almost all the time are:
Most people get talked into buying a skylight or UV filter. Normally with some spiel such as "it will protect your lens". I use my lens hood for that and I like "naked" lenses for best quality when I am not doing anything special. Anyway...
ND Filter (Neutral Density)
All this does is block light coming through your lens and you can get varying strengths. Why do this? Well, if you want a slower shutter speed in the daytime for a milky, blurry waterfall still image for example, you need low light. I massively recommend the Breakthrough range of ND filters. They are "quality" glass and give the best colour rendition in any scene.
My next favourite but fast becoming my NEW favourite filters are from Freewell. ALL of my drones use Freewell filters and my all time favourite is the Freewell 82mm Threaded Hard Stop Variable ND Filter.
Being able to adjust the strength of the ND filter with a twist is particularly useful for shooting video. The version I bought has a magnetic lens cap which is super cool!
They have now introduced a magnetic filter system which a) saves time in the field and b) reduces the risk of dropping the filter. The amount of times I have fumbled when unscrewing filters would be reduced greatly by the ability to simply pull it off.
Check your filter thread size and grab an ND filter! The stronger the filter, the longer the exposure.
An ND filter and slow shutter is also great for video work in bright sunlight. You generally want a slow-ish shutter speed of 50th-60th second so an ND helps enormously. Too fast a shutter speed with video will look "stuttery" and unnatural. Slow speeds make the footage buttery smooth.
Polarizer Filter
The main purposes of a polarizer filter is to eliminate reflections and increase colour saturation. For example, if you are shooting a beautiful, Caribbean beach scene, you want bold colours and clear seas. A polariser filter will do this with a simple twist of the outer ring...perfect! Again, go for quality when buying a decent polarizing filter.
Graduated Filter
The graduated filter works in a similar way to the ND filter in that it blocks light. However, as the name suggests, it does this gradually. For example, if you have a bright sky and dark, foreground landscape, a grey grad filter (varying strengths) will allow you to darken just part of the image. The sky in this case to level out the exposure.
A graduated tobacco filter from Cokin on the other hand will add a warm, sunset style colour gradation to your image.
Magnetic Filters at Amazon
Variable ND Filters at Amazon
Polarizer Filters at Amazon
Graduated Filters at Amazon
Coming Soon...
Ok, so that's filters covered. I will be updating this page soon with more digital camera filters and accessories so stay tuned.
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