Best camera accessories for travel
Travel leads to some of the best of life’s memories, whether it is a journey to a foreign country or simply a visit to an unexplored picturesque and charming town near home. While souvenirs can summon fond memories of these special vacations, there is no substitute for viewing a photo to remember the people and events of a unique trip.
To produce photos that will best represent your vacation, you need the right gear. Although the photo quality of cell phones has improved measurably in recent years, their built-in cameras are limited and still no match for a digital single-lens reflex camera with the right accessories.
The following accessories will help give you the best photos.
Best DSLR camera for accessorizing
Photography enthusiasts and professionals choose DSLR cameras for several reasons, including the ability to change lenses and deploy accessories that increase creative control over the image.
Wide-angle lenses can capture famous landmarks while fixed-focal-length or zoom lenses can capture the minute details of objects at a distance. Fixed-focal-length and zoom lenses perform well in low light conditions.
Other DSLR camera advantages include:
High-resolution images with detailed photos.
High-dynamic-range imaging and color accuracy.
High depth-of-field images created through use of wide apertures.
Fast shutter speeds for capturing action or sports.
Full artistic control over the exposure.
Excellent overall build quality, some with a weatherproof feature
Canon EOS M50 Mark II: available at Amazon
The M50 Mark II offers an attractive, sleek body that handles most shooting situations with ease. The lightweight and affordable DSLR features a 24.1-megapixel (APS-C) CMOS sensor with iso 100-25600, 3-inch tilting touchscreen, 5fps continuous shooting and 2160p video capture resolution.
Best camera accessories to bring on vacation
The following accessories will work with your camera to enhance its features and specialize it for a variety of shooting scenarios wherever you go:
Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Telephoto Zoom Lens: available at Amazon
A slight loss of sharpness occurs with a zoom lens over a fixed-focal-length lens, but the flexibility of bringing subjects closer without walking nearing (as in sports photography) makes the sacrifice well worth it.
Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM Lens: available at Amazon
Landscape photography is beautiful when seen as the eye sees it at about 55 degrees (a camera lens of 43mm), but it becomes even more spectacular when captured with a wide-angle lens. The EF-8 10-18mm lens is ideal for large landscapes, and it can focus on objects as close as 0.72 feet.
Bagsmart Camera Backpack: available at Amazon
No one will know you are hauling expensive camera equipment in this anti-theft DSLR Camera Bag, disguised as a standard backpack. The large capacity accommodates up to a 15-inch laptop and provides customizable padded dividers for any camera type, various lenses, and other accessories.
Peak Design Travel Tripod: available at Amazon
A tripod is an essential accessory for maintaining camera stability and producing a laser-sharp image. The travel tripod is designed to collapse and fit into your camera backpack or other luggage. The lightweight device can hold various camera types as well as a smartphone.
Breakthrough Photography 58mm X4 6-Stop Fixed ND Filter: available at Amazon
An unlimited number of lens filters are available to create various effects on photos, but the first filter purchased for each lens in the camera bag should be a circular polarizing lens. The circular polarizer reduces reflections and glare by filtering out polarized light reflected from non-metallic surfaces. It also protects the more expensive front camera lens from scratches and damage.
SanDisk 512GB Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I Card: available at Amazon
Carrying two or three 32 GB SD cards in the camera bag will avoid running out of storage space when shooting lots of photos. Each will hold a few thousand low-resolution photos. However, the enthusiast who shoots RAW pics with lots of detail should purchase the largest capacity SD cards available.
Samsung T7 Touch Portable SSD 1TB: available at Amazon
For photographers who want to edit their photos while on vacation, an external SSD is an essential accessory. It allows you to store gigabytes of content, frees up your laptop and camera, and provides a fast transfer speed for RAW footage.
Anker PowerCore 26800 Portable Charger: available at Amazon
There is nothing worse than setting up for an exceptional photo opportunity when your camera or an accessory runs out of power, and no electrical outlet is nearby. A portable charger carried in your camera bag will make sure it never happens, no matter how far you are from a power source.
The Anker is an external battery featuring double-speed recharging and 3 USB ports for your photo equipment, smartphones or other smart devices.
SD/Micro SD Card Reader: available at Amazon
A portable card reader saves time by allowing access to multiple memory cards at the same time. The device provides card-reader capabilities while traveling for rapid photo and file transfer to a laptop computer lacking a memory-card slot.
Peak Design Leash Camera Strap: available at Amazon
Although the standard straps that come with DSLR cameras work fine, better options are available. The Peak Design Leash is an ultra-thin, lightweight strap made from a highly durable material. In addition, the strap is easily adjusted with its patented “clip-on, clip-off” system and can be removed quickly when not needed.
Vello ShutterBoss III Wireless Intervalometer: available at Amazon
The intervalometer provides three valuable functions for the traveler. First, set on a tripod, it acts as a wireless shutter making selfies easy. Second, it allows long-exposure photography by eliminating the camera shake that occurs when depressing the shutter-release button. Finally, the device offers a more comprehensive set of exposure options than even the most sophisticated of cameras, such as taking one photo automatically every 20 seconds over 1 hour.
Adobe Lightroom editing software: available at Amazon
Adobe Lightroom is a feature-packed software that includes a robust organization system for organizing photos and a sophisticated set of editing tools that are simple and easy to use for post-processing photos. Lightroom CC is a mobile-friendly version of the app that syncs your photos across all your devices.
The Universal Lens Cap by KUVRD: available at Amazon
The ULC is ideal for the photographer who frequently loses a lens cap. It stretches tightly over all lenses (barrel diameter between 60-150 millimeters), remaining securely in place. The lens cap also fits over the back of the lens for protection when the lens is not attached to the camera.
DJI Mavic Mini Portable Drone Quadcopter: available at Amazon
Although a drone is not really a must-have camera accessory for the traveler, it does provide some excellent photographic opportunities not available to the viewer on the ground. The Mavic Mini Portable includes a 12MP/2.7K Quad HD 3-Axis Gimbal Camera, flight controller and battery. The drone streams HD Video from up to 2.5 miles and offers up to a 30 minute flight time.
Jeff Harper is a writer for BestReviews. BestReviews is a product review company with a singular mission: to help simplify your purchasing decisions and save you time and money.
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