16 Awesome Photo Accessories You Need Now

X-Rite ColorChecker Video

X-Rite’s ColorChecker is a go-to tool for many still photographers looking to ensure color-accurate results from their cameras. With the ColorChecker Video line, X-Rite has delivered a similar set of color targets more carefully tailored to the needs of filmmakers. They’re available in two versions. The ColorChecker Passport Video is a pocket-sized checker in a rugged case. It has four targets including a reference for evaluating specific chromatic colors aligned with video production, plus grayscale and white balance targets and a focus target. The ColorChecker Video is physically larger, with a series of chromatic color, skin tone, gray level and linear grayscale color chips. There’s also a pair of black-and-white chips at two corners of the ColorChecker to determine illumination across the target. Flip the ColorChecker Video around and you’ll find a white balance reference target. 

Prices: $129 (ColorChecker Video); $149 (ColorChecker Passport Video)

Sekonic SpectroMaster C-700/R

The C-700 is a color meter designed to measure the output of any light source you’re likely to encounter in a still or motion shoot, including LED, HMI, fluorescent and natural light. Ideal for hybrid shooters bouncing between stills and videos, the C-700 can measure light in increments of a single nanometer (one billionth of a meter) for improved accuracy when measuring spikes in output from LED and fluorescent sources. You’ll access your readings, such as spectral distribution, light comparisons, Color Rendering Index (CRI) data and more through a 4.3-inch color touchscreen display. You can use the unit’s Multi Lights Display tool to quickly compare data from four lights at once. Uniquely, it can also measure wireless flash color and light output. The C-700R has the same feature set as the C-700 but adds a built-in PocketWizard wireless flash trigger.

Prices: $1,465 (C-700); $1,699 (C-700R)

Datacolor Spyder5STUDIO

The Spyder5STUDIO is an end-to-end color management solution that ensures color accuracy and consistency from capture to review/edit to print. The Spyder5STUDIO bundles three pieces of hardware plus associated software for working in industry- standard color spaces. The three pieces include the Spyder5ELITE colorimeter, which keeps your monitor in an industry standard color space to ensure your colors are accurate and printed output matches your monitor’s colors. The studio bundle also includes the SpyderCUBE, a portable reference tool to set white balance, exposure, black level and highlight references based on lighting conditions when shooting in RAW. When it’s time to print your work, the bundle’s SpyderPRINT spectrocolorimeter can be used to create custom RGB printer profiles for your favorite ink and paper combinations.

Price: $500

Blackmagic Design Smart Display 4K

Blackmagic’s Video Assist 4K is an external recorder/monitor with a 7-inch touchscreen display (1900 x 1200). It connects to your camera via either an HDMI or SDI connection and saves videos files to a pair of SD cards with an overflow function that automatically transfers recording from one card to another when the first card is maxed out. You’ll be saving a high-quality 10-bit 422 file in either ProRes of DNxHD formats. It supports 4K resolutions at 24 or 30 fps. It can also capture audio from external mics via a pair of mini XLR inputs with phantom power. Since the sound is captured with the video, you won’t have to mess with syncing separate source files in post. 

Price: $895

GoWing Lens Flipper

The Lens Flipper is a fun, simple gadget designed to let you sling unused lenses around your shoulder. Available in Canon, Nikon, and Sony A and F mounts, the Flipper is a double-sided lens mount that gives you the freedom to change lenses quickly on the go. With one lens mounted to the bottom of the Flipper, you can remove another from your camera and mount it to the top of the Flipper. Unscrew the bottom lens and mount it to your camera, and you’re ready to shoot again. Spring for the Flippin’ Clip accessory ($40) and you can use the Flipper on a camera strap or belt. The Clip works with all Flippers and is strong enough to support any lens you could conceivably attach to it (seriously, it’s rated for 132 pounds). 

Price: $90 (Flipper); $119 (Flipper and Clip bundle)

Tamron TAP-in Console

Prior to the introduction of the TAP-in Console, updating the firmware on a Tamron lens might mean a trip to the post office. With the Console, it’s just a matter of plugging its USB port into your PC and clicking a few buttons. The TAP-in is more than a mere firmware updater, though. It lets you make adjustments to Vibration Control, full-time manual focus override and the focus distance limiter. All of Tamron’s new SP series of lenses work with the Console, although the 35mm and 45mm versions will need firmware updates first.

Price: $59

ExpoImaging Rogue Battery Pouch

Staying organized during a shoot means knowing where things are, but batteries are coy. Even if you can locate them, you don’t always know if they’re charged or spent. ExpoImaging’s inexpensive Rogue Battery Pouch is a simple organizer that segregates batteries into two compartments—green for charged and red for spent. The case can hold eight AA, 12 AAA, four 9V or up to two mirrorless camera batteries.

Price: $15

Manfrotto Digital Director 2.0

The Digital Director transforms an iPad Air or Mini into an external monitor/tethered shooting solution for your Canon or Nikon DSLR. The bracket connects your iPad to your DSLR via USB to provide live view, touch focusing and remote operation using a free app. The app was recently updated to add adjustments to focus peaking (such as changing the color and intensity) and zebra stripes to warn of overexposed highlights. New in-app editing tools include cropping, blur and saturation adjustments. The app also now lets you control LED lights (Manfrotto’s LYKOS and Litepanels’s ASTRA LED lines) from one central screen.  

Price: $300

Tether Tools Rapid Mount Q20

If you need to mount an action camera, phone or a small LED, the Rapid Mount Q20’s pressure-activated adhesive can stick to a wide variety of surfaces including drywall, metal, tile, glass and marble. It’s not recommended for raw wood, brick, vinyl, fabric or wallpaper.  The adhesive strips can hold up to 1.5 pounds of gear and pull away with no damage to the surface to which they were mounted. The Q20 ships with ten strips and refills cost between $15 and $50. Specific device mounts, including a phone mount, cold shoe and GoPro mount, are also sold separately with costs ranging between $9 and $15.

Price: $30

Miops

Think of Miops as an intelligent camera trigger. It has built- in sensors that can activate your camera’s shutter when lightning strikes, when a noise sounds or an object crosses a laser tripwire. It can be programmed to create time lapse sequences and has a custom sequence mode that lets you program your own unique triggering scenario using Miops’s sensors. It’s ideal for capturing fleeting motion that your finger and five senses would be too slow to react to, such as water splashes, lightning strikes and popping Champagne corks. It pairs with an iOS and Android app for easy remote control and is firmware upgradeable.  

Price: $199

Palette Editing Controls

Video and audio editors are well accustomed to working with consoles, knobs and dials, but photographers are usually relegated to mice, keyboards and tablets for their editing duties, until now. Palette is a series of modular controls that includes a Core module that plugs into your computer’s USB port. Once connected, you can attach buttons, dials and sliders to the core to give you tactile editing control in programs like Lightroom, Photoshop and Affinity Photo. You can add up to 18 modules to a single core. Using Palette’s free app, you can map editing functions to the various control modules and you’re on your way. The modules have built-in LEDs so you can color-code controls to remember which is which. They connect via magnets and remember their function if they become disconnected.

Price: $199 (Starter Kit with a Core, Two Buttons, a Dial and a Slider)

Sigma MC-11

As Sony’s full-frame a7 series makes a Sherman-esque march through the pro photo industry, photographers jumping on the mirrorless bandwagon usually don’t want to leave their DSLR lenses behind. With Sigma’s Mount Converter, they won’t have to. The MC-11 lets you mount Canon or Sigma lenses to a Sony FE-mount camera body while retaining autofocus (including eye detection and continuous AF), in-camera image stabilization as well as lens stabilization. If you own Sigma’s USB dock, you can keep the MC-11 updated as new lenses hit the market.

Price: $249

ATOM

The ATOM is a petite and portable battery charger that gives you enough power to run a laptop, LED lights or recharge spent camera batteries and depleted mobile devices. It has a built-in AC outlet to deliver 150 watts of continuous power with a self-resetting fuse. There’s also a USB port for juicing up mobile devices. It takes 90 minutes to charge up the ATOM and it has an interchangeable battery, so you can keep a spare handy if you’re facing a prolonged stretch in need of power.

Price: $199

TriggerTrap

The TriggerTrap is a remote shutter trigger, but unlike the Miops mentioned above, TriggerTrap is operated solely through a smartphone, so it’s not taking up room on your camera’s hot shoe. The TriggerTrap app is free for Android and iOS devices and there are dedicated shutter trigger cables for 350 camera models. The Android and iOS app supports sound triggering. If you own an iPhone, the app supports vibration, face and motion shutter triggering as well. A $2.99 Timelapse Pro app delivers advanced timelapse shooting features such as an intervalometer, time delay and a calculator so you can ensure you have enough frames for a given playback length.

Price: $37

BASE Object 005

The Object 005 is the brain child of the San Francisco design firm BASE, a designer of austere-yet-functional deskbound objects. The 005 camera stand, sold in aluminum or matte black, is the perfect resting place for your DLSR or mirrorless camera when you’re transferring files or simply admiring your gear.  

Price: $44

Photo credit: www.photojojo.com

PhotoJoJo Good Hangups

Stop us if you’ve heard this before: You should be printing your work, you should be showing prints to clients and you should be selling prints to your clients. While there are plenty of presentation tools on the market, Photojojo’s Good Hangups are an easy, inexpensive and non-destructive way to create a Sue Bryce-style “Reveal Wall.” The Hangups have two components: a reusable adhesive on one side with a magnet on the other and a second magnet to hold your print in place. They’re sturdy enough to keep a 24 x 36-inch print in place. There are eight Hangups in a pack.

Price: $15