Useful Digital Camera Accessories

One of the greatest inventions that has hit the world of personal electronics in the past 10 to 15 years is the digital camera. It’s almost hard to even remember a time when we used to actually used to buy expensive film, put it into out camera, take 24 shots, get the film developed and only have one copy of each photograph to share with our friends and family. I today’s digital age a camera can take a few shots and within seconds literally millions of people could potentially see it, not to mention that it’s a piece of cake to share them with your friends and family. Oh, and all of this is practically free once you have bought the digital camera, which means no more developing photos of you taking an accidental shot of your hand.

But, like with any shiny, new gadget just buying the digital camera is never enough, you also need to buy a few accessories so that you can get the most out of your latest and greatest piece of technology. This article will help you figure what all you should spend your money on after you have made the leap into becoming a digital photographer.  

The first digital camera accessory that you’re going to need to invest a little bit of your money in is a new digital media storage card such as Flash memory, Secure Digital or a Sony Memory Stick. Even though your new digital camera most likely came with it’s own memory card, the card is probably only going to be able to hold a handful of photos. As digital cameras get better and better and the resolution of their lenses get higher and higher, the photos take up more and more room, so getting a new, larger memory card (I would suggest 2, 4 or 8 gigabyte) is going to be something you’ll have to do. These memory cards aren’t very expensive anymore and usually range from about $20 for a 2gb card and up to $45 or so for an 8gb one.

Secondly, depending how active you are you should think about purchasing some type or carrying case for your camera so that you don’t end up breaking it, getting it wet or sitting on it while it’s in your pocket. Many people (such as myself) don’t ever get a case for our digital camera, which is why I end up replacing mine every 6 months or so. The case will protect your camera from the elements and more importantly it will protect it from yourself. Cases aren’t very expensive and you can usually find one online for around $10-$15.

Finally, an accessory that I don’t think that my mom could live without now that she has a digital camera is a printer to print out all of the awesome photos that you’re now going to be able to take. Of course, with buying the digital camera printer you’re also going to have to stock up on some nice and glossy photo paper, but that’s pretty much a given. With the popularity of digital cameras the photo printer selection has really come a long way and depending on what need you have you can select one of three main types.

1. The first type is a photo-only photo printer that is a small and compact printer that’s built to only print out 4×6 photos on specifically sized photo printer paper.  These usually run around $200 or so.

2. The second type is a multi-function photo printer that allows you to scan, fax, copy and print photos. If you need each of these options then you should expect to pay anywhere from $100-$300 on one of these.

3. The third type of is a basic printer that you can use for both every day printing as well as photo printing if you would like to print out some of your new shots in high resolution. Most of these printers either come with software options that allow you to print in photo quality or not or they come with a separate photo ink cartridge that you can use when printing photos. These printers have a price tag that ranges from $100 to about $250.

Now that you have your camera and you know the main accessories that you now need to get I guess the only thing that you need to do now is get out there and start shooting (and of course have fun while you’re doing it!).