DIYP Gift Guide – Accessories

In the past few days, we’ve covered cameras, lenses and lighting. Now, we have for you a few smaller items for the holidays that you can pick up for yourself or photographer friends as helpful stocking stuffers.

Giottos Rocket Air Blaster – $10 (Amazon | B&H)

It’s one of the most basic photography tools you’ll ever own, but it’s value hides in its simplicity. Whether you’re getting dirt off your sensor or blowing dust off a lens, the Giottos Rocket Air Blaster ensures you won’t be adding any extra saliva as you would if you were to just blow using your mouth.

Lens Pen DSLR Kit – $15 (Amazon | B&H)

Sure, any brush and microfiber cloth will clean off your lens or LCD screen, but they can’t often be placed in a pocket, otherwise they’ll gather plenty of foreign lint. The Lens Pen solves this by implementing both a brush and microfiber cloth into a small and easy-to-use form factor. This particular set comes with a separate pen for screens, lenses and viewfinders, the last of which I often use to clean my iPhone’s camera. Great tool for any photographer to keep in their bag.

Platypod Pro – $50 (Amazon | B&H)

Tripod heads are becoming more impressive with each new iteration. Sometimes though, it’s nice to have the tripod head without having to actually carry around the tripod itself. Enter Platypod, a solid plate designed to attach to a tripod head to make a more portable camera platform. I spent some time with one over the summer and it’s great for shooting while backpacking or traveling.

MagMod – $90 (Basic Kit) (Amazon | B&H)

With the most interesting light modifier out of the way, meet the most innovative. Speedlight modifiers have taken many different forms over the years, but the one thing they all have in common is how poorly designed they are in terms of actually attaching them to the strobe. MagMod fixes this by using super-strength magnets to easily add and remove various adapters – no need to fuss with velcro or tape.

Light Blaster – $99 (Amazon | B&H)

Little needs to be said about the Light Blaster. We’ve covered it and DIY knockoffs for years now. If you enjoy experimenting with light, this is one of the most interesting light modifiers you’ll come across.

Samsung T1 SSD – $369 (Amazon | B&H)

This doesn’t need much explaining. It’s an extremely tiny 1TB SSD hard drive from one of the best in the business. It also looks as good as it’ll perform. Of course, its small size comes at a big price premium.

Pusher Labs PMixer Minimal – $180

Do you ever wish you had a more tactile approach to editing images in Lightroom? If so, check out Pusher Labs, a company that creates software to turn MIDI controllers into a physical control set for editing images in Lightroom.

Spyder 5 STUDIO – $400 (Amazon | B&H)

Color accuracy is everything and if you shoot, edit and print across multiple devices, it’s inevitable there will be differences across the color profiles. Spyder’s 5 Studio fixes this with an entire suite of color-correcting tools to ensure your photos stay consistent from the press of the shutter to the final line of printing.

Syrp Genie – $788 (Amazon | B&H)

If you want an all-in-one solution to time-lapse and astrophotography, the Syrp Genie is what you want. It’s a fully-customizable, motorized platform that you attach your camera setup to. Plan its course and the Genie will take care of the rest for you.