The Best Photography Accessories To Buy In 2020

If you’re anything like us, you love photography gadgets and accessories. Whether it’s the latest Sigma lens or an inventive storage solution for our kit, there’s as much fun to be had in playing with these accessories as there is in shooting pictures.

That’s why we’ve put together the best photography accessories to buy in 2020. Check out our selections.

 

Pelican 0915 Memory Card Case

  

Pelican is renowned for its durable, reliable and versatile cases – and the Pelican 0915 Memory Card Case stays true to the company’s reputation. The case can hold 12 SD cards, 6 mini SD cards and 6 micro SD cards. Better yet, it can store them all at once. That gives you a total storage capacity of 24 SD cards in various sizes.

The hard, outer case is made from polycarbonate resin so it’s both drop and crush proof, while the inside is lined with shock absorbing foam. This foam also grips your cards, so you can avoid the horrifying moment you open your case and one drops into a puddle or down a grid.

Speaking of puddles, the Pelican 0915 is water resistant to the IPX4 standard. This means you’ll have peace of mind knowing your shots are protected wherever you take them.

This is an essential purchase for wedding photographers with lots of shots to store, or for trips abroad where you can’t back-up your shots to the cloud or a computer.

 

SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD

Price: £114.99 – £314.99 (depending on size)

Do you tend to hoard your shots either somewhere in the cloud, on your computer or on a hard drive? We can’t let ours go either.

While you can pick up a traditional 1TB external HDD for under £50 these days, photographers require nothing short of an SSD. Considering a RAW format image can be anywhere from 20MB to 40MB, it may take you an entire afternoon to bulk-transfer photos to and from a traditional HDD. Conversely, an SSD will complete the task in a fraction of the time.

To be precise, the SanDisk Extreme Pro SSDs transfer roughly 1GB of data per second. As far as SSDs go, this range is among the leaders of the pack. It comes in 500GB (£114.99), 1TB (£219.99) and 2TB (£314.99) variations. We recommend the 1TB version, as it’ll take a while to fill and it’s the best value for money.

The SanDisk Extreme Pro SSDs are slim and portable, while also rugged and impact resistant to 2m. Furthermore, they’re water resistant to the IP55 standard. All things considered, they’re suitable for the active photographer who’ll chase a shot wherever it takes them.

 

Billingham Hadley Pro 2020

Price: £200 - £240 (depending on colour)

The Billingham line of camera bags are as famous for their style as they are for their functionality. Photographers the world over swear by them and they’ve become something of an icon within the community.

This is with good reason. The Billingham Hadley Pro 2020 easily fits most DLSRs or mirrorless cameras, with room for 2-3 medium sized lenses and a slim laptop at the back. If that isn’t enough, you can add the Billingham AVEA 7 or 8 end pockets for more room. What’s more, the end pockets enhance the stylish design, so are far from afterthoughts.

The Hadley Pro 2020 retains all of the features of the wildly successful Hadley Pro bag. It also has additional leather underneath the handle, making it more comfortable to carry. Other notable features include a weather-proof zip at the back, a removable shoulder sling and a luggage-retainer strap.

Billingham is a family-owned company and all of its production is carried out in the UK, so you can guarantee care and quality. Products by the brand even come with a 5-year manufacturer’s guarantee.

 

Ex-Pro 3D Spirit Level

Price: £5.97

Have you ever taken a photograph of something angular or geometric that you believed to be symmetrical? Then, when you came to edit the photo later you realised it wasn’t aligned at all and no amount of photo editing can bend it back into shape?

If you’d used the EX-Pro 3D Spirit Level in the first instance, you wouldn’t have that problem.

This ingenious device serves the same function – and even looks similar – to a builder’s spirit level, but it’s compact and clips into the hot shoe on your camera. All you have to do while shooting is align each bubble in each spirit level with the centre line indicators. You’ll then have a shot trued to a right-angle on every axis.

If you take mostly architectural or urban photographs, a spirit level is a godsend to make sure all those angles line up as they should. For the price, it can’t hurt to have it rattling around the bottom of your camera bag, either.

 

Selens 5-in-1 Round Reflector

Price: £14.99 – £18.99 (depending on size)

The Selens 5-in-1 Round Reflector range spans three sizes – 60cm diameter (£14.99), 80cm (£15.99) and 110cm (£18.99). For general purposes, we recommend the 110cm version as there’s only a £4 difference for nearly double the surface area. That said, you might want a smaller one lying around for closer shots and more subtle reflections. Weigh them up against your intended use.

Whichever you choose, the 5 surfaces the 5-in-1 range comes with are translucent, white, gold, black and silver. That should give you more than enough to fill in the shadows of your subject, or light them with a little more warmth.

The Selens 5-in-1 can overcome practical issues like portability too, as it comes with zipped carrycase and each reflector has a handle so you can position it while you shoot. It’s also durable and has a raised grain design to make it last longer than your average reflector.

 

CAMKIX Professional Camera Cleaning Kit

Price: £10.99

Though the price of camera cleaning kits varies, for general use all it boils down to is a cleaning solution, a microfibre cloth and a blower or brush. Luckily, the CAMKIX Professional Camera Cleaning Kit provides all of these in a neat little package for a reasonable price.

The kit includes:

• An air blower to allow you to remove dust from delicate areas of the camera
• A double-sided lens cleaning pen – one side is a brush and the other a non-liquid cleaning element designed to never dry out
• 5 microfibre cleaning cloths to polish off the lens and eradicate any smudges or fingerprints
• 50 lens tissues for quick dusts and wipe downs
• A larger brush
• A cleaning solution in a spray bottle

 

SIRUI T-005X Tripod With Ballhead

Price: £89.95

The SIRUI T-005X is an ultra-compact and lightweight travel tripod. It folds down to 31cm and weighs only 1.76lbs, making it one of the lightest and smallest tripods on the market.

That’s no mean feat considering it’s made from aluminium alloy rather than carbon fibre, like its more expensive cousins. This is partly the reason for its exceptionally reasonable price, though it doesn’t skimp on quality.

The T-005X comes with a 6-year manufacturer’s warranty, meaning SIRUI is convinced its product is built to last. The finish and feel are comparable to higher end tripods, as well.

The minimum operating height is 4.13” and the maximum is 51.18”, so you can shoot from a tabletop or a mountain top. The T-005X is all about portability without sacrificing quality and we think it ticks both boxes. Bring it along on your next hike.

 

Hoya NX10 Polariser

Price: £39 - £99 (depending on size)

You’d be forgiven for never having heard of Hoya, but it’s the world’s biggest optical glass manufacturer. For this reason, you can trust its team knows a thing or two about camera lenses. One such lens, the NX10 Polariser, is a must-have for outdoor photographers.

If you’ve ever wondered how to eradicate reflections from the surface of water, glass window panes, or glossy surfaces like cars and plants in your photographs, a polariser lens is how you do it.

Polarisers give you more clarity in your pictures and capture truer colour and high detail. Hoya’s website gives you a fantastic comparison between photographs taken without one of its polarisers and ones that are.

The NX10 is an affordable and accessible polarisation lens for the hobbyist or semi-professional and suitable for most situations. However, Hoya also makes a high-end version called the Ultra-Pro that’s worth comparing against your demands.

 

Anker PowerCore 26800 Portable Battery

Price: £49.99

You’d be hard pressed to find a higher capacity portable battery than the Anker PowerCore 26800 where the word “portable” still applies. The battery pack delivers a massive 26,800mAh before you’ll need to recharge it. For context, if you own a Canon EOS or your battery’s capacity is around 1800mAh, that’s enough to charge your camera over 14 times.

The benefits speak for themselves if you’re going off the grid for a few days – or even want to shoot a time-lapse or long exposure shot of, say, our night sky.

The Anker Powercore 26800 doesn’t only charge cameras though. It features three high-speed USB charging ports so you can charge your phone, laptop or tablet at the same time. Impressively, a full recharge of the Anker Powercore takes only 6 hours from a mains outlet.

For some practical specs, the Powercore weighs under half a kilogram and is no larger than a modern smartphone. Granted, it’s a little thicker, but all things considered, we think you’ll let it off for that.

 

Canon RC-06 Wireless Remote

Price: £15.70

Let’s address the elephant in the room for a minute – no, a wireless remote is not just for selfies. Admittedly, it does do a good job of it and is a little more tasteful than a selfie-stick, but its possibilities don’t start and end there.

For instance, maybe you’re taking a macro shot and even manually pressing the capture button adds instability to the resulting image. The same principle can be applied to high-speed photography or long-exposures – basically any kind of photography where excess movement could compromise the image’s detail.

If you’re a nature or animal photographer, you can set up your camera and retreat to a location where you’re less likely to spook animals that wander in front of your lens. Similarly, if you’re photographing children or weddings, you might need to rally your subjects and shoot at an unplanned, authentic and affecting moment – a moment that might pass you by as you dash back to your camera.

The Canon RC-06 is an inexpensive bit of kit from perhaps the world’s most trusted photography brand. For £15.70, it’s worth having in your bag. As we’ve highlighted above, you never know when it’ll come in useful.

 

Specialist camera insurance from Ripe Insurance

Once you’ve invested in all this equipment, you’ll want to protect it. Who knows what kinds of expeditions you might want to take it on?

Here at Ripe Photography, we offer specialist photography insurance, which you can tailor to fit your exact requirements.

We cover your camera, plus every item mentioned in this article, as well as mobile phones, tablets and laptops against accidental damage and theft. We’ll even cover this in Europe, or worldwide.

Get an instant online quote in minutes and shoot with peace of mind, wherever you are.