Hey, this is Scott of Photography Banzai. In this video I'm going to go over accessory
equipment gear hacks. Anything that can help me be more efficient in the field.
Makes things more protected. Easier to use. A bunch of little things here and
there. I'm sure you've used some of these things. Maybe not all of them, so it might
spur your imagination a little bit. First one are these gears snakes. Also called
rubber ties. In a previous video you might have noticed, I'll put a little
clip, my friend was using something very similar to this. They were more high-end
higher quality than these ones, but looked really interesting. So I found
this locally pretty cheap. Maybe three or four dollars. It's simply just wire with
rubber around it. So you can adjust them. You can cut this to length. Basically, easy
way to make sure your light stands... your tripods... don't fall off your backpack or
whatever you're using. Next one are cable ties. These are more of a permanent
solution. The good thing about these is you can make loops, semi-permanent loops,
on your bags. Allow you to attach things and, like I said, it's semi-permanent. It's
waterproof. It's not gonna fall off. You can even use a little bit of tape if you
want to make sure. But those are good, they're cheap, and they're easy.
These ones are fake carabiners. They don't hold a lot of weight, but they're
good for attaching any type of light modifier like a large reflector to your
backpack. I've definitely done that in the past works pretty well. On this large
strap here I have two carabiners on both sides. This allows me to make sure this
quick-release does not come undone when I'm wearing it. This is a cheap double
camera strap. Idon't trust too much and I really don't trust these quick-release
plastic things in general. So it's nice to put a little extra protection like
that. So the strap itself has two points of failure instead of one.
Another easy way to be more efficient with camera straps is to buy straps that
are quick and easy to remove and add back to the camera. Especially with the
higher end cameras that have those small circular lugs on the sides. You have to
add that triangular piece, and those are really hard to deal with. So I tend to
avoid those when I can. That way simple strips like this... They have a
circular, basically a keyring, on the end instead of that triangular lug. This is
easier to deal with and just works pretty well. So I can take it off and this
whole back into the strap... I don't do anything with it. Just stays as is and
then simply reattach those circular key rings to the camera. When you're dealing with
memory cards. Usually have some type of little memory card wallet. In this case
this came with an old Kata backpack that I have. And it has (hook-type) Velcro on the
back. That's really nice. Most bags of course have the inside where the Velcro
works, so you won't lose this in many cases. Just stick it in there. It just
stays in there, and you can open it up as you need. Or take it off yet when you
really have to. But it'll be inside the bag and it won't fall out. UV filters are
kind of a... You definitely use them, or you definitely don't use them... But I'm more on
the side of using UV filters. They're quick and easy. They work well to protect
your gear in some ways. Not all of course, but definitely I've dropped a few
things or scratched a few things and the filter was what took the damage. So
you've got the protection side, but you also have the simplicity side. In this
case I don't use lens caps. I just simply have the UV filter on the camera. It
stays like that. It's much easier to clean. And I don't have to worry about
scratching it nearly as much of course as the lens itself. And just works really
well for me personally. So I like using those filters. Cleaning wise, I tend to
not use any type of liquid. I simply use microfiber
cloths. A lot of them I've gotten from different places. This was from the camera
shop. These other ones were from either lenses like actual.. these type of lenses.
Or any little piece of equipment that I buy, (sometimes) comes with a little microfiber cloth.
This tiny one here. They work pretty well. It depends on the cloth. I do wash them
in the washer. Don't use any type of fabric softener, but haven't had any real
issues with that. Of course you'll get a little bit more lint when you do that,
but they still work pretty well anyways. And I just simply wipe down UV filter
and that's it. I don't touch lenses.. rarely.. very very rarely.. will I touch any
type of lens to clean it. Because just stays pretty good in most situations.
Might blow some air on them, but otherwise I'll use just a simple
microfiber cloth without anything. Most of the time. I do use liquids when I
have to. Besides a cloths, there are these Giottos bags. They're microfiber
material. They work really well. I have quite a few of them. Used them over the
years. They have a draw strap. Works very nicely in many situations, and they
protect equipment pretty well. So those are nice to get if you can find them.
This little bag right here actually is from a pack of pillowcases. So big box
store.. you want to buy some pillowcases? The bag that it comes in can be pretty
useful. In this case can put a few extra things inside, and this top here has some
elastic. Works pretty well. There are various types. I also use simple Ziploc
bags. Some situations is good for weather resistance. You zip it up and there's a
less likely chance to get water in whatever you're trying to protect.
They're also decent for protecting any type of lens element by itself. So if I
put this little action camera in a Ziploc bag.. no issues there. Usually I
use a clean one, or a new one basically. But this has been used quite a bit. The
Ziploc bags are good also with business cards. I do usually store my
business cards in a Ziploc bag inside a backpack, or any type of camera bag. Just
in case it gets wet you can protect these things. This one here you've
probably all used at one point or another. Great for tripods. A simple coin.
Any type of coin for the most part as long as it's thin enough to work in your
tripod of a choice. Especially with those quick releases. A lot of them work really
well with a simple coin. With straps like these that have the tripod socket
connection. They do work well, but then you still have that one point of failure.
If this comes loose. There's.. there is some type of risk where your camera can
fall. So in these cases, I often use something... In this case these neck straps
from conventions. They just work simply like that, and then they have a
connection here. They're not too strong, but they do help. So I'll just wrap this
around a strap.
And then you can easily attach this to the camera end of things. And it works
pretty well. Just as a added protection. I saved the best thing for last. This is
what I use a lot lately. It's duct tape. It is not your usual duct tape. It is no
residue from 3M. About nine dollars for the roll, so it's not cheap. But it works
really well, and it's pretty easy to find at home
stores. It's probably very similar to gaffers tape. I haven't used that because
that's even more expensive, but this does what I need for it to do. I put it on my
camera's battery doors to make sure they don't open. I cover labels. In this
case I cover this little diopter adjustment on X100F just so dust
doesn't get in there. And I do remove the tape occasionally because it probably is
good to refresh it. You don't want the adhesive to stay on too long. Even though
it is no residue... It's not perfect, but it does work very well. Those were some of
my accessory related equipment gear hacks. Hope you found this video
interesting. I'm curious to know of any that you have devised in the past. How
they worked for you, and maybe I'll try those out as well. But these are basic
ones that I've used in the past or would like to use. Such as these gear snake
things. I'm looking forward to trying these out. See how they work in practice.
Simple stuff. Especially keyrings, tape, the coin... It all works really well
though. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please consider
subscribing. That helps me out a lot. Likes and shares help out a lot as well.
Thanks again!
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