Camera Filters and Accessories.

Once upon a time, photographers had dozens of filters, for black and white, the most common were Red, orange and yellow, for colour we often had filters that allowed daylight film to be used in indoors (80A a blue fliter) and the 85 or 85B (orange), which allowed Tungsten film to be used outside. Then there were filters that could be used with both, such as the 1A, UV, ND filters, graduated ND and there were even FL-D and FL-W which could be used with fluorescent light, to take away it’s greenish tinge.
Many of those filters are not needed anymore, digital cameras can be setup to use white-balance, where the camera can work around colour casts. Cameras can automatically adjust “film speed” to negate the need for ND filters, and HDR (High Dynamic Range) has replaced the graduated ND. Cameras and software can replicate all kinds of effects.

There are a few we still use, the Polarizing filter can remove glare from an water or a window, to allow the camera to see through shiny surfaces. A Skylight (1A) filter can still remove the haze you see in some telephoto images. It can also be handy, as a lens protector, it’s much better to scratch the front of a $30 filter, then a $300 or $3,000 lens. You do need to check them once in a while, to make sure that you haven’t damaged the filter, and they should probably not be tight on the lens at all times.

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Filters were one of those accessories we all had, and while you need a lot fewer now, some of the other accessories can still be handy. If you like using big telephoto lenses, then a tripod can be critical, if you like really sharp images, the tripod can work there too. For compact use, nothing beats a monopod, which is basically a 1 legged tripod, you attach the camera, and use your own body as the other two legs.

An accessory that goes well with the tripod, is a remote release, this allows you to trip the shutter without touching the camera, in the old days this was either a cable release that threaded onto the shutter release. There were also pneumatic versions, where you had a similar screw on unit, attached to a cylinder with an air line and a squeeze bulb on the end. Many cameras still have a B shutter speed, where holding the release allows for, the shutter remaining open until you release it. With modern electronic cameras there is often an accessory socket, that takes a electronic release. Some of these have a “hold” option. I recently added one of these for my T5.

The one best accessory for any camera that uses specialized batteries, is a spare battery, name brand batteries can be expensive, third party work-a-likes can be much cheaper and work just as well.