Photographic Equipment

Choosing camera equipment can be very difficult for beginners, it's difficult to know which camera to get and which accessories you will need and there seems to be so many different gadgets it's hard to know where to start. If you buy a DSLR camera chances are that you will want some extra kit too some are a necessity and others a luxury. Below is a list of my camera equipment which I use all of the time, and carry with me everywhere I go.

My camera is a Nikon D40X, I choose this camera after looking at many others, I liked it because it was light and compact and it just felt good. It's easy to use and comes with loads of on-screen help to assist with choosing different settings. The D40X gives you 10.2 million pixels but you don't necessarally need that many unless you intend to use your images in a large format.

The lenses I have are a 18-55mm for the wider angles and a 55-200mm for zooming in. The 55-200mm comes with a lens hood which eliminates glare. I wish I had bought the 18-200mm lens just because sometimes it's a pain changing lenses when you are out and about, although it was a lot cheaper getting them separate.

I use three filters mainly, one is a polarizing filter which is great for getting bluer skies and taking reflections off glass and other shiny objects. A neutral density gradient filter which helps balance the exposure between the sky and ground and lastly a skylight filter which is great for skin tones

I generally use a Velbon Sherpa 600R tripod because it's lightweight and has a quick release plate which makes setting up so much quicker. It comes with it's very own carry bag and great for outdoor use. I also have a monopod which I use when it's unsuitable to set a tripod up this folds up small enough to fit into my camera bag. Lastly I have a tabletop tripod which is very small and not exactly professional but it only cost about £10 and comes in really handy sometimes.

To get sharper photos I use a remote control instead of pressing the shutter button, this eliminates any camera shake which will result in blurred images. It is also great for taking self portraits.

I always carry a spare battery and a few memory cards too. I generally use 1Gb cards and they allows me to take over 100 images using a fine setting at a large image size.

Apart from my camera bag and a cleaning kit thats about it. Both of these are as important as any equipment I own, you need a good bag with compartments to keep your camera equipment safe and stop it all banging together. It's also better keeping everything together in one place then you have always got the kit you need when you are out shooting. I always carry my cleaning kit with me to make sure if I need to I can clean off any dust that collects on the lenses.

Photography can be expensive but you don't have go out and buy everything at once, it's best to think about what sort of photos you will be taking and choose the correct equipment for your needs. In a lot of camera shops you can try out equipment before you buy it so you can make sure your purchase does what you expected it to. Once you know what you need you can nearly always find it online a little cheaper, camera shops probably know we do this!