The Sony ZV-E10, a camera designed to be the go to for vloggers and beginner content creators. For me, the ZV-E10 is my everything camera, I film, take photos, and everything to do with my content creation all on this camera.

I want to see is if I can turn this camera into a professional like camera with accessories all within the price that it costs to buy one ZV-E10 with the kit lens brand new.

First of all, we need to see how much the Sony ZV-E10 costs right now on Amazon, (at the time of writing this article) I can get it on Amazon currently for £698.98. So that’s my budget for my accessories.

A few rules to this challenge, I can only choose accessories compatible with the Sony ZV-E10 bought on Amazon, whatever price it is at right now is the price I work with even if it’s on sale and it has to be an accessory that’s going to benefit my own use of the ZV-E10 and I can use accessories that I already have that I’ve purchased only from Amazon.

I’m giving myself the most essential accessory which you should have anyway, a memory card.

I’ve categorised these accessories into 4 sub categories, lens, handling, audio and visual.

The lens

As much as I like the kit lens, for me, it can be a bit limiting and in low light conditions, using it can be a bit tricky, but that doesn’t stop people including myself from getting amazing photos and videos out of this lens.

I bought the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 lens, which on Amazon you can get for £385.99, which if we deduct that from the budget, leaves us with £312.99 left to spend.

This is a wide-angle prime lens. It has a fast aperture of f/1.4, compared to the f/3.5 on the kit lens, which allows you to capture more light and create a shallow depth of field. This lens is ideal for vlogging, as it gives you a wider field of view and a brighter image.

If you value speed, sharpness, and low-light performance, then getting a lens like the Sigma 16mm f1.4 might be a good choice for you. If you value versatility, convenience, and portability, then staying with the Sony 16–50mm kit lens might be a better. But getting the Sigma 16 shouldn’t be the end of you using the kit lens because you can still use both lenses for different situations and purposes, as they complement each other really well.

Handling

One of my the bug bears around cameras, is that there are no additional mounting points if I want to add additional accessories and the camera on it’s own is potential fragile from falls. To remedy this, I bought the SmallRig camera cage.

It solves my two issues with providing mounting points and giving the camera body that protection with its metal frame which attaches to the camera. At £55.90, takes my budget down to £257.09.

It has multiple 1/4″ and 3/8″ threaded holes, a cold shoe, and a built in quick release plate that is Arca-Swiss compatible for quick tripod attachment, and a handy screwdriver at the bottom for easy installation.

When I’m filming something freehand, I prefer to have a variety of different positions that I can hold the camera in, other than the traditional positions. So in addition to the cage for handling, I’m also using, which I’ve bundled these into one accessory, two handles, both from SmallRig, a top handle and a side handle, each costing £29.90, leaving me with £197.29.

These handles attached to the top and the side of the cage, both have comfortable rubber grips and additional mounting points. The handles are very useful for carrying the camera, stabilising shots, as well as providing additional mounting points for even more accessories.

Audio

With the native microphone on the ZV-E10 is ok, there’s certainly room for improvement, so I’m using the Hollyland Lark M1 wireless microphone. You can get this for £56.00, leaving us with £141.29 remaining.

This delivers long range crystal-clear audio for your videos. The version I have comes with just the transmitter and receiver, but you can also get one that comes with two transmitters, a receiver, and a charging case. The microphone transmitter is small and lightweight, has a one-click noise cancellation feature that filters out ambient noise, and has a clip, which fits nicely on clothing, as you can see here.

The receiver is also very compact and has a clip, which goes perfectly on the cage. It connects to the ZV-E10 via a 3.5mm cable. They both have USB-C ports for charging, automatically pair together when turned on, and can provide up to 8 hours of operation time.

I mentioned before its long wireless range, if you haven’t since my review video on these, go check that out after this as it put the 650 feet range claim to the test.

Anyone who is vlogging or doing the front of camera shots like this, indoors or outdoors, is going to benefits from a wireless microphone system like this, as its going to allow you to record high-quality audio without any wires or hassle.

Visual

I don’t mind the screen on the ZV-E10, particular as you can twist and turn it so it facing you if you’re recording in front of it like this. But there are certain situations, where it needs to be a bit brighter, a bit bigger and a bit clearer.

I got the Portkeys PT5 II camera monitor for £123.00, leaving me with £18.29.

This is a 5-inch touchscreen monitor that connects to the camera via an HDMI cable. It has a full HD resolution, a wide colour gamut, and a 500-nit brightness. It also has a dual battery plate that accepts various different battery types.

This monitor has many professional features, such as waveform, histogram, vectorscope, peaking, false colour, the ability to add your own LUTs, so you can see what your post edited content will look like with your LUTs applied. You can also adjust the sharpness, chroma, brightness, backlight, tint, and colour temperature of the monitor. For me, the PT5 II is a great monitor for my A Roll, as it lets you see your image clearly and accurately, and visually see those minor setting changes with ease, without having to struggle looking at the LCD screen of the ZV-E10.

Unfortunately, the monitor doesn’t come with batteries in the box, so my final purchase is a double pack of these NPF550 batteries, at £15.99, which are compatible with this monitor as well as other accessories like lights that you may have.

So with these accessories, I’ve turned the Sony ZV-E10 into a system that is going to enhance the ZV-E10’s performance, functionality, and versatility in different shooting scenarios and for different purposes.

Challenge completed: I’ve got £2.30 spare change from my original budget.

While this setup is perfect you me, there are going to be various modifications and substitutions that I’m sure you would make, like you might want a mini tripod or a gimbal instead of the handles for increased stability, if your primary function of the ZV-E10 is for vlogging, or you might add an external flash module if you’re more photography focused, or you might even want to add various filters and different lens to the camera.

The good thing about camera setups, is that there is no correct, one setup fits all answer, you will find the accessories that meet your criteria, that will enhance the way you work and create with your camera, whether that’s with the ZV-E10 or another camera.

If you want to see the video version of this article, check out the YouTube link before: