5 Upgrades You Can Make To Your Photo Gear That Will Make Your Life Better

I can see it in your eyes! Excitement is brewing for some sort of fancy new lens or the latest camera body that breaks all the megapixel records. I know because I do the same thing! Surprisingly, though, in my experience it isn't the latest, fancy, glass that truly improves my photography, rather, I've found that making the right small upgrades tend to have a much more profound impact as they make the act of doing photography so much less of a hassle. Which, in turn, frees more of my focus to attend to the images I'm creating rather than fighting with gear which is refusing to perform.

1. Use Good Batteries

Good batteries changed my life. I had always hated working with speedlights because they always seemed to be problematic when in use. It didn't matter if I was using name brand or third party I experienced an endless flow of problems such as lights recharging slowly, randomly turning off, etc. I thought I was using good batteries. I spent the extra money on the upgraded name brand Duracell or Energizer batteries as Costco, I figured my problems were just a symptom of small lights being asked to work too hard. As a result, I used large strobes most of the time unless I absolutely needed portability. That is, until I gave high quality rechargeable batteries a try. Personally, I tried Eneloop Pro, however, I expect virtually any high quality battery would reproduce my experience. All of a sudden all my speedlights stopped having problems. I was amazed, I went from hating my speedlights to preferring them. I almost never use full size strobes anymore. High quality batteries changed everything for me.

2. Magnify Your Viewfinder

I've always had very poor vision, and as a result, always struggled to manual focus, even when looking through big full frame viewfinders. The problem is that I simply am not able to perceive when a sharp image actually is sharp by looking through a lens. Even after diopter calibration and a trip to the optometrist to make sure that my glasses were precise to my prescription I struggled with manual focus to the point that it was effectively unusable. The only thing that has helped was when I invested in an upgraded, magnifying, eye piece for my D800. I love it. No, it didn't make my manual focus problems completely go away but now I can actually manual focus with a hope of actually succeeding. I also love the shape of the larger eyepiece as it fits more comfortably against the eye.

3. Arm Yourself With A LCD Hood

Bright sun is the bane of LCD displays. While shooting in bright conditions the photo on the back of your camera becomes almost invisible which makes reviewing your images incredibly difficult while shooting. The addition of a simple LCD hood hanging around your neck completely solves this problem at a very reasonable cost.  Most of the good ones also conveniently magnify the image as well to make evaluation much easier, even when you don't need the hood to block sunlight.

4. Get A Mini Boom For Your C-Stand

C-Stands often come with an extension arm that we tend to use as a boom when we need to extend the light away from the stand. The problem with extension arms is that they are quite weak and have a tendency to rotate within the grip making a photographer's life extremely difficult when trying to boom a large, heavy, modifier regardless of how well the extension arm is counter-weighted. The Mini Boom solves this problem, it is designed to replace the default C-Stand extension arm with a much stronger, much sturdier, arm that has longer range and is more easily counter weighted. By upgrading your C-Stand to have a mini boom you will eliminate many of your grip headaches that extension arms create. 

5. Get A Wireless Commander For Your Lights

Il admit it, a wireless commander capable of controlling the power levels of your lights, from your camera, is pretty lazy. It allows you to adjust without needing to upgrade to voice activated lightstands (assistants) or fight with line of sight transmission that is built into speedlights. More importantly, though, a wireless commander allows you to make subtle adjustments to your light power without needing to disrupt the flow of the shoot, which, in my opinion makes these devices priceless. Personally, I use a Yungnuo YN-622C which works perfectly for my use.

Conclusion

Sometimes the smallest upgrades can have the biggest impact on your life. I'd argue that each of the above has had a greater positive impact on my photography than any expensive lens or camera body ever could. When considering investing in your photography your first instinct will be that new, fancy, lens on the market but, in reality, it is the little things that often have the most tremendous impact (Even if they aren't as exciting).