It’s gift-giving season again! While many of us will be excited for any potential gifts that will be received, the idea of tracking down gifts for some of our more difficult friends makes many dread holiday shopping. I can’t help you with most of your friends but, if you have a photographer in the bunch, I think I can make some recommendations that will make life easier. All the items below won’t be limited to a specific camera brand or shooting style, so you don’t have to worry about finding out specifics or learning all that much to pick up an appropriate gift.
Instant Film Camera
Instant film is not only coming back, it is thriving. If you want something that is reminiscent of the good old days, Polaroid Originals brought back the biggest name in instant film and unleashed the OneStep2 VF, a superb modern-day take on a simple instant camera. If you want something else, however, be sure to check out Fujifilm’s INSTAX line, which is the most popular instant film today due to its fun colors, ease of use, and more affordable film. This includes the ubiquitous INSTAX Mini 9 or the hybrid instant/digital INSTAX Mini LiPlay.
Lens Wraps
I’m starting to feel bad that I talk about wraps so much in my accessories articles, and then I start writing about them again and it reminds me of how great they are. The reason I love these things so much is that they are so simple and yet they accomplish their goal perfectly, which is to protect your equipment. It’s just padded fabric with hook-and-loop fasteners at each corner for securing. The Domke Wraps are my go-to pick and they come in various sizes and colors for organizing gear ranging from a full-size DSLR to a small prime lens to an external monitor with equal ease.
Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan
Since Adobe moved to a subscription format, updates have been much more plentiful and more affordable than years past. Even if your friend already has a subscription to Adobe’s Photography Plan, which includes Lightroom and Photoshop, the two most widely used pieces of photography software, getting them another 12 months will always be appreciated. If they are a beginner who is just starting out, learning how to edit is a fun and exciting world to which you will be introducing them with this plan.
Memory Cards and Hard Drives
Okay, so you may have to know a little bit about your friend’s setup to pick up something appropriate in this category, but storage is something no photographer can have enough of. Memory cards for cameras are simple enough since most manufacturers have settled on SD cards, even if only for the second slot, like the 5D Mark IV and Nikon D850 have. It’s certainly a safe bet to pick up a UHS-II compatible SDXC card of 64GB and up, because this is currently the fastest standard and a decent capacity for most shooters’ needs. Another option is to pick up a portable hard drive. Small drives are used often during travel and they tend to get filled up very quickly by many photographers. USB 3.0 is a must—transferring large numbers of photos can take time and the faster the connection the better. Unless you are going for the speedier and more durable SSDs, you’ll want to get something that contains at least 1TB of data.
Pouches, and All the Stuff You Can Fit in Them
This section is basically your stocking-stuffer selection—while many of these tools are nice, I’m not sure how your friends will react to you getting them just a roll of gaffer tape. Getting them a pouch to hold all these odds and ends is a good start, especially since a workspace can quickly become a mess of cables and batteries. Since a pouch can be fairly boring, you should fill it up with some other practical choices, such as a weatherproof notebook or film shooter’s notebook, a small flashlight for shooting at night, the aforementioned roll of tape, or even a tub of AA batteries. Photography may seem like a specialized hobby, but many of the small things still get used up on a regular basis.
B&H Gift Cards
If you really can’t think of something to get, or know that they are saving up for something bigger than you can afford, you can always get them a B&H Gift Card!
BONUS: Sandbags
This might be best for a practical joke than a practical gift, but if you and your friends have a good sense of humor, wrapping up a 25-lb sandbag as a gift to convince your friend that you got them something substantial might be the way to go. Or, you could get an empty sandbag and fill it up with coal. I would say that you should only get a sandbag if your friend often uses lights and stands for shooting, otherwise they are just going to have a heavy bag on their hands with no idea what to do with it.
If you are a photographer, what kind of gift would you like to receive? Let us know in the Comments section, below!
4 Comments
An instant film camera is really fun and practical, I feel most people would like to have one but probably wouldn't really think of buying one. They are also relatively affordable so it's a great choice for a gift. The film is a little expensive though.
Dear Santa,
I would like a Sony A9ii as a gift for the 2019 holidays. If that is too pricey, a couple of new camera batteries would be nice.
Instant film camera
Great choice!