MyScrapWorks! A Website for Manila (Philippines)-Based Scrappers

by myscrapworks Technical Photography columnist Din Cordero

Ah, the start of a New Year and along with it, the requisite New Year resolutions that we make to “put the house in order” so to speak and to start the year right. For serious photography hobbyists, I reckon that one of the most common resolutions will be to lessen expenses in photography gears or to avoid what we call the “dreaded” G.A.S. or “gear acquisition syndrome.” (I believe both my hubby and THIS columnist are seriously suffering from GAS! Haha! – Mabelle)

Point in case, one of my resolutions is to first find a common item as a substitute to an accessory instead of immediately buying what is available in the market. Another resolution is to look for cheap substitutes that will help in either improving my photographs or increase the longevity of my current gears.

In this regard, I would like to share what I consider to be my top 5 essential accessories which I got for less than 2,000 pesos. I hope this will provide some ideas or inspiration to some in there own quest for “bang for the buck” or even do-it-yourself accessories.

UV Filter

UV filters are used on camera lenses in order to block off UV light that supposedly affects image quality especially during bright sunlit days. On the other hand, since this filter looks clear and neutral it can also used as a protection for camera lenses.

It is for this purpose that I have UV filters in all of my camera lenses including that of my point and shoot camera (a Canon S2 IS). It protects the lens from dirt or moisture. It can even protect the lens from potential breakage if the camera is accidentally dropped. The filter can absorb the impact of the fall. It is a lot better for the filter to be broken rather than the lens which is a lot more expensive.

In this regard, what I bought are the cheap UV filters costing less than a thousand pesos for the 52mm and 58mm filter sizes. Of course, there are more expensive ones but since I am only after for the protection these filters provide, then the cheap ones will suffice. (Email Din to ask where he bought them or get a hold of him at the Forum! – M)

		Polarizing Filter If you would like to greatly enhance your outdoor images without resorting to expensive accessories or even lenses, one of the quickest and cheapest ways to do this is to buy a polarizing filter (polarizer for short). What it does is increase contrast, saturation, darken the blue of the sky and eliminate reflections from glass or non-metallic surfaces. See the two images below to see the difference between an image photographed without and with a polarizer. The cheapest polarizer in 52 and 58mm filter sizes is about 1,000 to 1,500 pesos.
Cleaning Kit Using your camera in the field will surely expose it to the elements, namely dust, dirt and moisture. There is a lot of professional cleaning kit available for cameras but instead of going through this route, I looked for items that I can buy cheaply. Listed below are the items that I found and currently using.

		Paintbrush or Make-up brush. You can buy the paintbrush in any hardware store for less than 100 pesos. I suggest buying the medium-size one. You can also buy a make-up brush for a bit more. Either way, you can use these brushes in removing dust and dirt from your camera. Microfiber cloth. You can use this cloth in further cleaning your camera after removing the dust and dirt. Face oil, spot marks or just the regular “shining process” can be done using this cloth. I suggest buying the small one for mobile phone or eyeglasses use. This is worth around 100 pesos. You can also use this to cover the LCD screen for protection when placed inside a camera bag.

LCD Screen protector

To protect the precious LCD screen of your digital camera from scratches, an LCD screen protector can be used. There are screen protectors already available in the market but are quite expensive. Instead, you can use the screen protectors for PDAs as substitutes for a lot lesser price. The cheapest is around 200 pesos while the Brando screen protectors are selling for around 800 pesos which is still about half of the price of LCD screen protectors for cameras.

Dry Box

One of the biggest problems for digital SLR camera users which already own a number of lenses is molds. These grow inside lenses and wreck havoc to the lens elements producing fuzzy images when used with an SLR camera. Eventually the growth of molds, if not stopped, will cover all of the lens elements which will make it unusable. To make matters worst, living in a tropical country such as ours makes mold cultures easily thrive.

The good thing is we can prevent this by putting our cameras and lenses in a controlled environment with constant humidity. This can be achieved by using dry boxes. Unfortunately the cheapest ones are about 5 thousand pesos while the bigger ones cost around 15 thousand pesos. The good thing is you can build your own dry box for less than two thousand pesos. Listed below are the components that you can buy from your favorite hardware stores.

Sealed container
One of the most popular brands of sealed containers is Lock and Lock. I am currently using the 9 liters model and it can fit a Canon 350D with an attached lens about 4 inches long, the Canon 18-55 kit lens and a Canon S2 IS. Removing the Canon S2 IS, you can put two more lenses in the container. The 9 liters model is less than 500 hundred pesos.
Silica gels
You can get packs of these in popular hardware stores for as low as 5 to 10 pesos per pack. But instead of buying these, I recommend the rechargeable sealed gels (I am using the Green and White Dryer), available in major hardware stores. It costs around 800 pesos. The benefit in using this is the ease of use in renewing the gels after it absorbed so much moisture. To renew the packed silica gels, you need to have a bright sunlit afternoon and a dry area to put the packs. You need about 3 to 4 hours of constant and continuous sunshine to renew the gels. After about a week or two depending on the weather, you will be doing the same process all over again.

For the rechargeable boxed gels, you can easily renew them by plugging the box in an electric socket. After about 10 hours you can use it again for about two months before renewing the gels again.

Hygrometer
You need this measuring device to know the humidity value inside the container. A specific value range should be maintained in order to prevent the growth of molds. Having a very low value, below 30, or a high value of above 70, invites certain breeds of molds. The most optimal range will be from 50 to 60. My hygrometer is about 400 pesos. The digital version costs around 700 pesos.

Besides the five accessories I mentioned above, I would like to mention another accessory that I find very useful even if it slightly exceeds the two thousand pesos criteria.

If you are a frequent traveler and own a few or even only one memory card, it will become a problem if you are on a 5-day vacation and you ran out of space in your memory card. Now, this accessory, an image photobank is the perfect solution for this problem. An image photobank lets you copy the images stored in your memory card. This will enable you to delete the images and start fresh again in capturing new images.

I am using the Digimate III. It is actually just a hard disk enclosure with memory card reader features. The enclosure costs 2,500 pesos. Unfortunately you need a 2.5 inches hard drive which serves as the storage. A 40GB hard drive costs around 4,000 pesos. If you already have one that is not being used, then this will be the perfect situation to re-use the hard drive. As a point of comparison though, the Epson P2000 is worth 30 to 35,000 pesos. I know, it is an unfair comparison since the Epson is not only an image photobank but also an MP3 and Video player. But, if your need is just to store images to enable you to capture more images, then I think the Digimate III or similar products is the perfect solution.

There are still a lot of practical yet affordable accessories out there. What I have listed here are those which you can find immediately in the market and which solves the problems I have encountered before. The main rationale behind this is to enjoy photography and its rewards without breaking the piggy bank.