Camera Accessories
From Silvergrain Labs
Light meter
A separate light meter (exposure menter) is essential. There is no need to spend many words here. No camera incorporated light meter is perfect. Many cameras don't have any meter inside.
Light meter (or exposure meter) should be something that can be easily used without refering to operations manual, especially since camera operations already quite differ from model to model. When you happen to get a help in the shooting session, he/she should be able to know how to use the meter. (Of course, if you have regular assistants, then it's just the matter of training, but I don't :-)
Sekonic L-398M studio deluxe II is a nothing-special meter, but is also a very useful common language. This is a selenium cell analog meter with dial conversion, for mostly incident but also for reflexition (some 40 degrees) and contrast measurement. Cheaper CdS or selenium match needle reflexion meter may suffice for many applications, but this meter is more robust and versatile. Every serious photographer, amateur or professional, knows how to use this meter, and probably has one. This meter is not sensitive enough to do indoor ambient light works reliably, and even if you have ample light, this meter tends to give 1/3 to 1/2 stop higher indication than reality if the light source is tungsten or halogen bulb. I would not trust this meter below 7EV. If you do ambient light environmental portrait or architecture work often, you may want meters with higher sensitivity. This meter has several loose parts that are attached or detached for changing functions; you need to be careful not to lose them.
Sekonic L-408 multimaster is a wonderful meter. A 5 degree spot, incident, contrast measurement, all in one with switch operations, no loose parts. This meter can go down to 2EV at ISO 100/21 for spot, and -1EV for incident, enough for most indoor work. It can handle flash metering also. This is lighter than L-398M, but requires a battery. One thing I wish this meter had is even higher sensitivity. If this meter was capable of -6EV at ISO 100/21, my nightscape works would be a lot easier...
Loupe
A few good loupes are necessary for viewing negatives, slides and contact prints carefully. Buy a $10 loupe and you'll have an endless frustration in using it, since the aberration and distortion are so bad that you can only see the image center clearly. Eyes get tired so quickly, probably sooner than you make any decision in image selection. There is no use to have many images to choose from if you can't select carefully and purposefully. Altough it is ideal to have a 4x and an 8x loupe, both from top of the line, for medium format and 35mm work, respectively, if the cost is a concern, a top quality 4x or 5x loupe is the way to go, omitting the 8x one, since a good 4x loupe is better than a poor 8x loupe, even when you are working with tiny 35mm format negative. (just ignore APS) This way no money is wasted. The problem, still, is that the cost of a top quality 4x loupe is a few hundreds of US dollars.
However, a cheap inoperative 50mm f/1.8 lens for a 35mm SLR camera can perform as well as a top of the line loupe! Most standard 50mm lenses for 35mm format cameras are derived from double Gauss design, which is superior to a $200 loupe's optical design. Many such lenses for obsolete camera mounts are sold at $5 to $30 range. I bought a Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f/1.7 with inoperative aperture diaphragm for $10, and took away the diaphragms and their control lever parts, which are useless for magnifier use. This gives me something like a 5x magnification, but I have no problem with 35mm negative, since human eye's image resolution is very high near the point of view, and lower in the peripheral, so a little lower magnification ratio can be easily compensated. Locate the filter ring side of the lens facing and close to your eye, and adjust the distance from the magnifying object to the camera mount side of the lens. Notice the standard lens is used backward when used as a loupe. Photographic lenses, except for those specifically designed for extreme macro purposes, are designed assuming that film to lens distance is smaller than lens to object distance. Since, in loupe use, the negative to lens distance is smaller than lens to eye distance (at least optically -- because there is another lens in the eye), it is better to use it that way.
A quick tip. Your computer monitor can be a quick light box. Just make it all white or grey, and use it as a light box!
Cable release
If you do a lot of long exposures, you need a cable release. If it is only occasional, then self timer may do, but they waste several seconds per shot. This may be too slow in a situation where lighting changes rather quickly. If you never shoot in foul weather or freezing winter, then you may well do with the cheapest thumb-screw lock cable release. However, I do quite a bit of shooting in difficult weathers, so I find another $5 or so of luxury well worth. My choice is Saunders 20-inch cable (disk lock), catalog number 350-120. (12-inch one is catalog number 350-112.) Assume any cable release breaks and have a few spares everywhere. The spare can be the cheapest one. Because of frequent bulb exposures, I wear a watch that is reliable, that does not kill me in cold weather, and that is easy to read in very dim lighting. Remember that films have different reciprocity failure compensations. I make a table from manufacturers' data and my experience, along with filter factors and other notes, then photocopy a bunch, and keep a copy everywhere.
Keeping flash connector (PC socket) clean
Most flash related trouble is poor contact at PC sockets. First, not every PC plug is made the same, so you want to find plugs that are comfortably tight to your sockets. Sockets are more prone to rusting. This very thin hard coating built up on stainless steel is not easy to remove with mild chemicals. Put a bit of toothpaste on the socket, and work with your spare plug cord a large number of times. Then, wipe everything with wet paper towel. Repeat until all toothpaste is wiped off. If you have dry compound or coarse graphite powder for door locks (usually graphite powder used for camera repair is too fine) they can be used instead in dry form. After working, you can carefully blow them off.
Radio Shack sells "glass fiber sanding pen" that is effective in cleaning up PC sockets, battery contacts and many things. This is a very thin wire brush made from glass fiber. Unlike metal wire brush, the bristles break off, so you need to be careful they don't fly around to come in to eyes. Cat No 64-1986.
Finally, make sure you use X-sync contact rather than M-sync with all modern electronic flash equipment.
Tripod
Tripod has no use if it is not with you when shooting. Pick one that's light enough to carry around but heavy enough for maximum stability. I use Manfrotto 3021 with 3029 head. 3021 was chosen since it goes as high as my height, in case I want a high viewpoint. For most cases, I do not need to extend all sections, and I rarely extend the center column by more than five centimeters (2 inches). I chose 3029 over ball heads since I use TLR on the same head. TLR on a ball gives you an endless nightmere. However, I could buy a separate short tripod for TLR uses since TLRs are mostly used at waist level. Here, my rule is to buy one excellent one rather than two ok ones. There are so many tripods and heads available, so if you are looking for one, think about your style carefully and do enough research before purchasing. Also, you do not have to use a head from the same manufacturer as the tripod.
Monopod
When tripod is too bulky or impractical, I use a monopod. When selecting the monopod, I was looking for one that has only one joint, i.e., one place to extend or shirink, instead of three. This results in a little long carrying size, but much quicker to adapt to the shooting position. The one I ended up buying was Benbo Trekker Monopod, product code BEN204. I use Manfrotto 3232 swivel tilt head on the Trekker. This simple tiny head is good enough for monopod use, and this small head does not interfere with new Mamiya 6's film spool, thus allowing to reload film without detaching camera from the head.
Camera straps
Straps are another important accessory. If you are not comfortable with the strap, you tend not to wear the camera, and therefore greater risk of dropping it. In particular, you will drop it almost surely if you are using a TLR without a strap. No strap is too expensive; it's more important to find one that you will wear all the time. I do not like neoprene-made straps. They tend to be made too wide, feel and smell like a cheap mouse pad, and stretches too much. Zing makes a narrow neoprene strap whose edges are sewn with cloth covering the cut. My best favorite strap is Tamrac N-35 and N-45. They are made of nylon and genuine leather pad. The difference is that N-45 has two connectors that allows to detach the strap easily. I use N-35 for cameras that rarely sit on the tripod. The color of the leather pad comes is brown and black, and the nylon part is always black, as far as I have seen. Both look good.
Cases, caps, etc.
Think about camera cases carefully for the same reason. If you damage your $3000 photo equipment just because you tried to save $100 for a good protective case, then you can't even cry. Buy or make lens cap, body cap and everything that you need to protect your equipment. Those pieces of stupid plastic may sometimes cost $20 a piece, but they are worth paying for the same reason. Imagine how much manufacturers pay for building a mold for making such plastic parts. Most of what you pay goes to pay off the development, design and those expensive manufacturing investment rather than bulk plastic. (And business overhead -- you are feeding the person you talk to when you call up the manufacturer) Also, use appropriate lens hood all the time. The lens hood not only cuts the noxious stray light but also provides more protection for the front element of the lens, in case your lens hits something. A UV filter is often left attached for protection purposes, but combined use of hood provides far better protection.
