Photography can be an expensive hobby, but it doesn’t have to be! Yes, you’ll need some gear in order to snap photos that match your vision, but there are ways to reduce how much it’ll cost you.
The most important thing is this: you don’t have to buy all of that stuff right away. If you’re just starting out in photography, there are a few key bits of essential gear that you should have—and nothing more than that. Once you’ve built up your photography skills, then you can invest in more equipment.
But what are essential gear items for photography?
Here’s what you should buy to get started on the right foot:
Tripod: Tripod is one of the versatile and necessary camera accessories. Whether you’re shooting landscape, portrait, night, street, or even wedding photography, you’re going to need a tripod at some point or another.
Tripods are extremely useful in low light settings as the stability of a tripod allows you to take longer-exposure shots without any camera shake. This stability is also crucial for things like night sky photographs.
Remote Shutter Release: A remote shutter release is useful because it lets you “take a shot” without physically touching the camera body, which eliminates the potential for camera shake and accidental blurring. It’s most often used in conjunction with a tripod.
There are two kinds of remote shutter releases—wired and wireless—but it doesn’t really matter which one you get. More advanced remotes have extra features like half-press support, built-in timers, and LCD screens.
This Newer Shutter Release Remote Control provides a lot of bang for the buck, but note that you’ll have to buy a remote that’s compatible with your particular brand of camera (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, etc).
Prime Lens: As you progress in your photography skills, you’ll end up amassing plenty of different lens types that let you take all kinds of shots. But at the start, you’ll be better off starting with a single prime lens.
Why a prime lens?
Because the inability to zoom can teach you a lot about proper composition techniques. With a fixed camera lens, you have to think through your shots more, which stretches your skills and helps you improve faster.
For Canon and Nikon, the 50mm f/1.8 prime lens is the cheapest of all lenses, making it great for starters. However, if your camera has a crop sensor (which most entry-level DSLRs and mirrorless cameras do) and if you can afford spending more, we recommend a 35mm prime lens because it’s generally more flexible.
External Flash: Every photographer needs flash at some point, even if you don’t intend to shoot in the dark—but don’t use the built-in flash on your camera body. It’s simply no good. Instead, spend a little bit on an external flash unit.
AA Batteries + Battery Charger: Once you start using external flash units, you’ll be going through batteries like crazy—and that’s why you should invest in rechargeable batteries as soon as you know that you’re going to be serious about photography.
Photography Skills Are More Important Than Gear
Better gear won’t make you a better photographer. Don’t buy these things because you’re tired of sucking and you think these will help. The only solution to that is to learn, study, and practice taking photos. But gear can make photography more fun, and there’s definitely value in that.
