My Favorite Thingys | Blog | Mikko Niemelä - Freelance photographer

For me, it's the little things that make my life easier as a photographer. It really doesn't help if you have a super-expensive camera but your flash falls from a stand or fails to fire. These three items help my life in the field.

1. Stroboframe Accessory Shoe

It's light, durable and cheap. It does it's thing and nothing more.  The Stoboframe has a 1/4" hole in the base and a knob that fastens a flash to it. And it keeps the flash on it really good.

(Not available in Finland as far as I know. Got these from B&H.) Update: Flashzebra has a very similar shoe, which is even nicer that the Stroboframe)

2. FlashZebra screwlock-PC to miniplug

It's a cord. Nothing fancy about that. It has a 3,5mm plug on one end. Nothing fancy about that either. But on the other end it has a screwlock PC connector, that fastens on really minimal threads on PC ports found in flashes like Canon 580exII and Nikon SB-800/900. This means that it's very unlikely for the cable to come separated from the flash. Like the Stroboframe, it's really simple but has a twist that lifts it above the competition.  A fellow shooter at newspaper Keskisuomalainen reported that after getting this FlashZebra cable his flashes have been firing every single time since.

(Available from http://www.flashzebra.com/)

3. Canon CP-E4 Compact Battery Pack

OK, this one is not light or small. And for what it is, I think that it's way overpriced. But stick the coiled cord to a 550/580/580II and your flash really starts rocking. It takes 8 AA batteries, it has a plastic exterior with a hole in the midle so it can be fastened to the tripod socket on a camera or it can be worn on a belt or a pocket on the accompanying pouch. Cords are always a hassle and with Canon seem to be made for shorter Japanese arms (Nikons always seem to have longer cords) but I don't mind since it shortens the recycle times and feeds power to the flash much longer than just the internal AA's. By the way, the CP-E3 pack is identical apart from the weather sealing found on CP-E4.

(Available from http://www.maitolaituri.tv/)

(All pictures: Canon EOS-5D, 50 1.8 mk1)