Buying a new camera can be quite daunting but what most people like to do when they have made their purchase, is immediately begin to think, what accessories am I going to need for my camera?
When I purchased my Sony ZV-E10 this is exactly what I thought and to this day, I still ‘Always looking’. If you’re thinking the same and looking for some accessories that are hopefully going to help you get the best out of your camera, then here are my top 10 accessories with the first 5 accessories definite must haves and the last 5 accessories that would be useful to have.
The first thing you going to need if you haven’t got one already is a memory card, the ZV-E10 is compatible with Sony memory stick duo cards as well as familiar SD cards.
I prefer SD cards because everything uses SD cards. While you can use any SD card you want to take just pictures, a camera like the ZV-E10 (which can obviously do much more than that), is able to shoot high quality videos in HD or 4K, so you’ll need a SDHC or SDXC card, which provide increased data capacity and quicker data speeds compared to a standard SD card. If you get one of the quicker SD cards like the SanDisk 128GB micro SDXC card which fits into SD card adapter, then you’ll definitely be futureproofing yourself if you end up upgrading your camera in the future.
Next, is spare batteries. While the battery capacity of the standard Sony NP-FW50 battery isn’t the best, it’s rated for being able to take about 440 still images or 80 minutes of video shooting.
So if you’re a power user who could be out all day on a shoot, then you can easily go through a full charge in no time, that’s why it’s good to have spare batteries, while there are loads of third party brands on the market who claim to have near or better battery capacity compared to the Sony battery, I’ve always felt their performance to be a little inconsistent, so I’ve got another Sony NP-FW50 battery and two third party batteries which I’ll turn to if my Sony spare runs out of juice.
Some third party batteries also come with the charger, either as a single charger or as a dual charger, usually with notifiers telling you the progress of the charge, so I’d definitely recommend getting a charger as well so when you’ve made your first battery change, the original battery can be charging and you’ve still got that third battery as a backup if you need it.
Staying on batteries, if you film long indoor sessions or you’re using your camera as a streaming camera, then you should definitely have a dummy battery.
This looks and fits in the camera just like a normal battery but the difference is that it also has a lead that is powered into the mains, giving you unlimited power to your camera, so that means you’re not relying on those spare batteries and you can save them for your outdoor shoot.
Next is an external flash, if you’ve got the ZV-E10, then you’ll probably have noticed that it doesn’t have a flash on board than getting an external flash like the Godox TT350S is going to widen the type and variety of photography shots that you can get, all because you’re able to give your scene so much more light, just with something like this that fits on top of your camera.
And as an upgrade to this, if your camera is compatible, you can also get a wireless flash trigger, like this one, also from Godox, that works with the external flash, but instead of having the flash module on your camera, you can have it anywhere else, useful for those portrait shots and for anything that you just want more control over the direction of the light source, because as you know, if you’ve got the flash attached to your camera then front on is the only direction you’ll be able to get the light from the flash hitting your subject, which can be somewhat limiting, but with the wireless trigger you can vary the direction of light.
If you intend to vlog with your ZV-E10, then you are going to want to purchase an external microphone, because in conditions other than perfect, you’ll often find that the onboard microphone even with the windscreen attached, doesn’t always project your voice how you want it to be portraited. So having an external microphone like this Movo VXR10 microphone, which is directional, only needs to be plugged into the camera’s microphone slot, has a budget value and has a windscreen to make your ZV-E10 look like a proper vlogging camera.
Staying with the vlogging theme, holding the camera without any form of handle attached isn’t practical and can sometimes be unsafe for the modern vlogger, so you’re going to want something that’s going to make it alot easier to hold out in front of you, as it gives you a bit more room to get yourself in frame, useful if your lens isn’t wide enough to get everything in and obviously it’s safer to hold your camera like this.
You can even place it down on the side as you’re doing some b roll, and even as a quick place, point and shoot tripod for your photography shots, this mini tripod from manfrotto is another must have, I think this was one of the first accessories I got when I had my (previous camera, the Sony….) A5000. It aesthetically looks the part, it’s comfortable to hold and it’s easily adjustable by pressing the button and letting go locking it in place.
The next 5 are useful accessories that would also help, some will further aid your shots and some will have focus on protection.
The LCD screen on any camera or phone is usually the first thing on your device that going to be prone to scratches, so why not protect it with a cheap tempered glass screen protector that’s easy to apply and it’s going to protect your precious camera.
The next one is extension tubes, I love these because, not only do they allow you to get closer to your subject and start to explore macro photography, if attached with the appriopriate lens, like the kit lens, but it also means that you’re not having to spend loads of money on a dedicated macro lens. Consider this a money saving option as well as a practical one.
Everyone talks about filters, that’s why they are on this list, for me not vitally essential, but very useful. I use either an ND filter, in particular a variable ND filter, which essentially allows you to vary the amount of light coming into the lens simply by rotating the filter between its minimum and maximum points, without ever effecting the colour, sharpness or contrast of your shot.
I also sometimes use a UV filter, less so compared to the ND filter, but this one does what it says on the tin, reduces the amount of UV or Ultraviolet light hitting your camera sensor.
There’s very practical and protective reasons to use filters on any lenses and that is that it act as a protective shield by protecting your expensive lens from dust and dirt.
Ask yourself this, would you rather your inexpensive filter be scratched or damaged from a drop or your lens?
If you do have multiple lenses, then buying multiple filters can start to be expensive, then why not use step up and step down rings.
These act as filter size convertors that will allow a smaller or larger filter to fit on a small or larger lens with a different filter size.
I’ve got a 49mm ND filter that fits on both of my 55–210mm and 35mm lenses but not on the 16–50mm kit lens, which has a filter size of 40.5mm, so with a 40.5mm to 49mm step down ring, I can fix it to the kit lens and now it becomes compatible with the 49mm ND filter.
I prefer using the step down rings going from larger filters onto smaller lenses rather than the step up rings, because you will usually get the vignetting, which is the actually the ring of the visible smaller filter, but you can see why these are another useful accessory to have.
The last accessory is important but it’s not in my top 5 because of the expense, and that’s lenses.
For a long time, I only had the 16–50mm kit lens and I mostly was happy and content with the shots that I got. But when you get to a stage where you want to take your photography to the next level and you feel like you’re being hampered by the equipment, some people blame the camera, but it’s usually the lens that is the culprit.
But as we know lenses can be very expensive and depending on the type of photography you take, will ultimately push you into the directional of the types of lenses that would best serve your skills.
For me, I have the Sony 16–50mm kit lens, a Neewer 35mm F1.7 manual lens, a Sony 55–210mm lens and my newest lens, the Sigma 16mm F1.4 lens, which until I got this, I didn’t realise how hampered you are compared to primarily using something like the kit lens, which don’t get me wrong isn’t a bad lens but compared to a premium lens like this, the quality is night and day.
So that’s a look into the, what I think, is the essential and useful accessories not only for your ZV-E10 but for any camera that you are using.