Accessory

The Achilles heel of smartphones as an all-around tool for photographers is their universally mediocre battery life.

Okay, they’re not really called “dork lights.” They’re headlamps, but it’s hard to deny that they make you look a bit like a dork. However, they’re invaluable, so for my contribution to Chris Gampat’s piece on the B&H blog on the most interesting and useful accessory in my camera bag, the choice was a no brainer. You can read his full post, including some other great recommendations, and when you’re convinced you can buy yourself the cat’s meow of photographers’ headlamps, the Petzl Zipka Plus 2, for $44 at Amazon – it features a retractable cord, multiple brightness levels, and both white and red LEDs for regular and night vision use.

by Annie Cardinal

For the past few weeks I have been testing the Samsung 8GB SDHC Plus Class 6 Memory Card. This card may seem like any other SD card, but it has the unique quality of being indestructible. I haven’t put it through extensive tests for robustness as I do want to use it, but so far it has survived a camera drop.

You’re probably already cringing at the thought of another camera bag. But I’ve just gotten a Think Tank Speed Freak 2.0 for my summer workshops and it’s so cool I wanted to tell you about it now rather than waiting until I get back with a full field test. The bag fills that awkward niche between what you can put on a belt and a full up camera backpack…

When I first reviewed Think Tank Photo’s Skin Set belt system I was really excited to find it was the first useable belt system for my work. With locking yet modular pouches it is almost infinitely flexible. The only drawback was the fixed length of the belt. Besides being a problem for those like me whose waist size fluctuates (I know I’m not the only one!) I found myself wanting to adjust it depending on the clothing I was wearing (to put it outside a jacket in cold weather for example) and wasn’t able to. I’m happy to report I just received one of their new “2.0” belts with a very simple and useable adjustment mechanism. Now the system is just about perfect. With the Skin 75 pop-down I can stash an entire 70-200mm f/2.8 with or without hood in one of the pockets and my Infrared converted D70 in another while a strobe or water bottle can live in a third. The smaller “front” pouches are perfect for filters or other small items and the optional quiet flaps are helpful for indoor events. Whether or not you’ve got the original system I highly recommend at least upgrading to the new belt. Use our Affiliate Link to Think Tank and get a free bag with your order!

These are items that we either rely on personally in my travels or have been picked out for our clients by the experienced travel pros at Edward’s Luggage, a local family owned chain of four travel and luggage stores here in the Bay Area. It is by no means complete but I’ll be adding to it and expanding it as new products come to my attention:

Luggage