Changing up a Gear

Let me start by saying I am a firm believer that taking great images is not all about the gear.

As a result I will only upgrade or buy kit, especially expensive items, when the existing gear is either broken or no longer fit for purpose and I can afford it. Let’s be honest - how often does that come together?! This year is one of those years – my old camera (Canon EOS350D) has been on its last legs for a few years, my tripod had a temporary fix made 5 years ago and my flash gun didn’t give me any flexibility when taking images. This combined with a bonus and a tax rebate gave a moderate amount of cash which I could “invest”.

I have been building my photography kit this year and one thing I can say - this is not a result of going to the Camera Club, well not all of it anyway, as I have a wish list of kit. What the Camera Club has done is help me understand how to use some of the gear and move it up the list - It has not necessarily been expensive in all cases but certainly expansive!

Things I “invested” in over the last 10-12 months are:

• A new body (camera that is not for me)

• A new tripod

• A monopod

• A new flash gun

• Remote flash triggers

• Flash gels

• Braided wrist strap

• Hot shoe spirit level

The expensive items were the new camera (Canon EOS77D, which I am very happy with), tripod (what) and flash (what) the latter two I tried to hit good value for money in a mid/low budget range – so far I am very happy with the performance of both. Other items I kept low cost as they were experiments which I did not know if I was going to use longer term. Great examples of this have been:

• Monopod – cost around £6.00 from 7 day shop but something I have used it often with a 300mm lens when taking images of kingfishers

• Braided wrist strap – £9.00 for 3 from Amazon is a magnificent buy – I never really used the shoulder strap and used to wrap it around my wrist. Wouldn’t be without this new step now!

• However, the flash gels (£10 from Amazon) have been less successful. I have used them once … and then they have sat in the cupboard. They will be used again but probably not in a hurry.

Then there are the impulse buys. The £1 for a hot shoe spirit level at the Camera Club didn’t break the bank … and was a better return than the weekly raffle that I am still waiting to win!

All this being said the new gear this year can actually cost nothing but time and a small amount of effort. As part of a subscriber’s competition with Practical Photography on the theme of Summer this picture won me a Manfroto sling bag – always worth putting your photos out there and putting yourself forward (more on that another time)