Elusive Accessories

The following items are relatively cheaper in price than compared to the camera body and lens. These items are just as important in your kit and is worthy for some forethought before purchasing. I will now describe some of the detail and feature about each item.

• Memory Card
  Memory cards come in a variety of forms and different cameras use specific types of memory cards. Essentially all memory cards perform the same role and that is to store digital images from the camera. There are two things that should be considered when making a purchasing decision about which card to purchase (omitting the price).

Size
Speed
The size of the card is important as it states how much space is available for storage, this usually refers to the quantity of images the card can hold at one time. The size is often quoted in gigabytes, and today (2011) the size of the memory cards are ever increasing, up to 32GB for a single card. The general rule is get the largest card that you can afford. That way you won’t have to be switch cards when one becomes full. This will minimise the amount of equipment you have to carry on a trip and the chance of misplacing a card.

Some photographers would prefer to own more, smaller-sized cards, as this would prevent in case of a card corruption less images will be affected. This is personal preference, but I have never experienced a corrupt card yet and prefer to hold larger cards myself (Personal opinion).

The second consideration should be the speed of the card. This is often neglected over the size of the card, and in my opinion it should not. Faster cards allow for images to be written and read faster by the camera. So when you are in a situation where you need to fire many shots in a short amount of time, you would prefer a faster card, with faster ‘write’ speeds. You would not want your camera to be processing whilst an important moment is happening, as you run into a situation where the camera will not be ready for use.

The speed of the card is often stated in a multiplier of 150k/sec.

• Memory Card reader

A memory card reader is not essential however, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Just about all DSLR cameras have the ability to plug into a computer and transfer the images, however this can often be a slow, power draining and tedious task. Not to mention some cameras require the installations of specific drivers so you would need to install the camera onto a computer before it can begin transfer. This is often not practical if you are sharing images onto computers other than your own.

A memory card reader is a universal device that can plug into a computer and read the contents on a memory card. This allows for quick and easy image transfer from the card to a storage medium (computer hard drive)

• Extra Battery

It would be wise to consider purchasing at least 1 spare battery for your camera. Digital cameras are high powered devices and often operate on rechargeable batteries. Fortunately the average DSLR’s battery has more endurance than a point and shoot camera, however; no photographer should ever be struck with the unfortunate luck of no battery power during a photo session.

Also bear in mind, that if you consider travelling to the colder climates, where temperatures are near freezing, battery life tends to be shortened in these environments. Thus it would be wise to have several batteries for these expeditions.

• Computer

This is obvious, but often eluded. A digital camera requires a computer to come back to, in order to do any image transfer, storage of image processing. The price of a computer can vary.

• Photo-Editing software

Digital images don’t require a darkroom, instead they use image-editing software to perform those tasks. There are many different types of programs out there, and they range from basic tools to high end professional editing. The higher end programs usually need some training and practice in order to use them effectively.