10 Cheaper Alternatives To Expensive Photography Gear

If you’ve taken steps towards becoming a better photographer, the sticker shock that results from on all the products you “need” can feel very limiting. The folks over at DigitalRev TV have put together a series of hacks that can make otherwise expensive techniques much more affordable.

The video above runs through them all, but here are some highlights and thoughts:

• Use a Tripod as a Camera Slider: In the video, they just suggest rotating the tripod on two of its feet if you want to slide your camera to get dolly-like effects with video. That’s great, but only provides a small range of motion. We prefer furniture sliders.
• Use a Kitchen Timer as an Auto-Panning Camera Mount: Works well for time lapse photos, and definitely saves you some cash, but unfortunately you can’t beat the pro gear entirely on this one. Things get a little choppy if your time intervals are too far apart, and you’ll need to pay for the real thing if you want versatility.
• Store SD Cards in Your Camera’s Body Cap: You’re not using your body cap if you have a lens on your camera, so store SD cards in it. Some body caps only come with one side so you’ll need a lens cap to seal it as well, but that depends on the camera you’ve got. Most DSLRs come with a body cap and a top for it. Store your SD cards in there and you’ll never lose either.

Those are just a few cool tips from the video. Check the whole thing out above. It’s informative and pretty entertaining, too.

10 Photography Life Hacks You Need to Know [DigitalRev TV on YouTube via Gizmodo]