Camera Accessories

The Lens-hood

There are many accessories for your camera. For me at least the top two most important ones are to protect the lens and protect the camera during transport.


There is a wide variety of camera lens hoods available for the Fuji HS10 and other DSLR cameras. Most favoured appear to be the petal lens hood. I personally like the full lens hood as it gives all-round protection.On very wide lenses such as the Fuji's 24mm and my SLR 28mm there is a little vignetting. When this occurs I can shoot with the vignette or fold the hood back momentarily. It works out at about 50/50 for this as a lot of my wide shots will be cropped a little anyway.

The Fuji HS10 with standard full cover lens-hood with lens cap fitted.

This website has some of the more common generic hoods such as I use. http://www.camerafilters.com/pages/lenshoods.aspx

Classic example of lens-hood vignetting.

I use the standard rubber hood. You may find that your local cameras store will carry brand name hoods designed for your camera. I strongly suggest you use one. It improves contrast as the lens is shaded from a lot of sidelight. It helps to reduce angular lens flare when shooting towards a sunlit object. It also protects the lens from light rain as well as scratching when moving through vegetation if you are birding. There is the choice of screw or bayonet types. I prefer the screw on type, its less likely to be dislodged and allows the use of a lens cap.

The Camera Bag

The second item on the accessory list is a good quality gear bag to carry all the items you need. While I usually have one camera sitting on the seat in the car or on the desk in the office at home the rest are kept in good quality gear bags. I recently acquired another camera and that left me with a problem. Too many cameras and too small a bag. I looked at several types online but it is difficult to get a feel for how the equipment will fit, you really need to go to a local photography shop, or electronics goods outlets and try them out for fit. Make sure you take at least 1 of your cameras.
The major brands have there own ranges of camera bags but I found that the available types somewhat limited. There are a number of good photo equipment bag makes available and one of the most prominent here in N.Z. is the Lowepro make. They have a wide variety of styles and you should be able to find one that suits.


At times I need to carry 3 cameras, the Fuji HS10, Pentax k1000 with a 28-80mm lens,Pentax zx-50 with a 70-210 lens, a spare AF 28-80 Lens ,batteries, several rolls of 35mm film, note books and any other small item like a cable remote shutter release. Why so much gear? When I'm travelling to and from work (116 km) there are often things I see that I also want to take a shot of. This usually comes into the Fuji domain as its fast to use. However digital cameras can be difficult to use in a number of shooting situations, especially against bright bland skylight. This is where the film comes into its own. Providing the exposure is right film will record everything the eye sees without the need for EV compensation and worrying about white balance. There are other reasons for having SLR's, the large format file size gained from film can be done cheaply, is currently a better option for most people wanting a 35mm size image from a DSLR.
With these requirements I settled on a Lowepro Slingshot 200AW. http://products.lowepro.com/product/SlingShot-200-AW,2035,4.htm
Video http://vidego.productvideocast.com/player.php?p=t8353j52


The AW stands for all weather. Its a mid sized sling backpack that is very comfortable to wear and easily carries all my gear. The final piece of equipment that will go with this setup will be a telescopic monopod. I suggest you watch the video Lowepro provides as it gives a good account of how useful these bags actually are.
So there you have it. Two important accessories for your photography equipment.