What can I put on my christmas list, photography related, £50 or under…?

I could use a decent ball head. Any other neat thing I’ve not seen?

You could get a roll of film, have it developed and printed at 5×7. Probably just within your budget these days.

How about a 10 stop filter. Think you could squeeze a cheap one in for £50.

Forget a decent ballhead for under fifty quid

This one would do me I reckon.

ND filter – I thought of this.. I have needed one once or twice in the past.

Remote release? I must get myself one of them at some point….

Got one, was £3 or something stupid from amazon – works a treat and makes you feel like a studio pro 🙂

Rocket blowers, sensor cleaners, Nice bag from the Comet sale?

I could use a better bag, but I have loads already and I need to find the perfect one.. hard for a present giver…

Off camera flash triggers?

crumpler singapore sling

I’ve got a spare battery and an eyepiece extender on my Amazon wish list. 🙂
Might stick a remote on there as well, that’s a good idea actually.

POD beanbag support thing / Gorillapod?

Hmm… dunno about gorillapod style things. Maybe tho.

I’ve found a split circle focusing screen that should work with my cam, I’ll probably get that, then there should be enough room in the budget for a minipod. That could make for some nice low light outside shots.

The ballhead you linked to has a fairly small diameter base,so depending what tripod you use might be worth looking at the 496RC2

Crumpler New Delhi bag;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crumpler-NDE390-004-Delhi-Laptop-Shoulder/dp/B001HFHX4I/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354029605&sr=8-2-spell

I bought one of the last two they’ve got, discontinued and the inner bags have a bit of glue discolouration but nothing much. Think they were £130+ originally. Build quality is superb and they have the ‘3rd leg’ stabilser extra strap like good courier bags which means the bag doesn’t swing around when you’re riding your bike (not an off-road bag though). Last one in stock, be quick!

It’s cold out there – how about a scarf?

My tripod.

gorillapods make excellent flashholders for remote flashes, I find – it means you can easily set up your flash in a tree for instance.

How it’s done by Notoriously Bad Typist, on Flickr

Combine with a set of RF602 radio triggers or similar for instant remote flashiness

I’m very unlikely to be taking pictures like that though.

My tripod.

What’s this “quickshift” business?

The centre column can come out of the middle of the thing and it then articulates so you can put the camera right down on the ground next to a flower or something or out to one side. For macro work. It’s frankly ace 🙂

I used it to put the camera right close up over a table to take scarf closeups.

Like this (although this is a Benbo trekker – the only other tripod that does this afaik)

Remote flash is useful for product photography too, but hey, it’s only a suggestion 🙂

I like that a lot. Been looking for a decent tripod for ages. Nicely. Can you take the centre out and mount it upside-down?

Only thing it’s missing is a monopod conversion.

I have a benbo trekker. It’s ace for all sorts of things. Just not very good for quickly taking outdoors shots. I got it because I take quite a few product shots.

The manfrotto 055xprob does that too, although the centre column doesn’t actually come out – it lifts and flips without becoming detached

Cougar – yes you can. If you have the centre part in its normal place it’s identical to a normal tripod. They also supply a short tube to replace the centre column if you aren’t using its extendable capability. The legs are so long I (at 178cm tall) can look through the VF standing up without needing any centre column showing.

Not sure about monopod conversions though. A full on monopod is such a great item I’m not sure I’d want to compromise. Monopods need to be really long, longer than just your eye to the floor.

NBT – ah yeah I forgot about that one.

Cool. Though ofc, they only do the Quickshift on the larger models. Ho hum.

I’ve seen some tripods where you can take off one leg or the centre column (or both) to turn it into a monopod. Seemed like a nice option to have.

I’m guessing magnesium is a good compromise between aluminium and carbon, stability / weight / performance wise? Not really come across that before.

You can’t have it all with tripods. You either have a big stable one or a lightweight flimsy one.

You’re best off with one of each imo. And a monopod. When I first got a monopod I plonked it on the ground and thought ‘oh that’s useless’. Then I learned how to do with and all the creative options you have – they’re great 🙂

<nods> groovy. Ta.

Anyway – this thread needs more things like:

you could have my fully equiped darkroom for £125 if you canstretch to it. Very nice LPL C7700 colour enlarger, colour processing tank, colour analyser, Junghans timer etc etc….

Been trying toget rid of it all for a while now!

Darkroom? Sorry, not into antiques 🙂

The tablet – not a bad idea.. hmm…

Tempted to try one of these:

500mm mirror lens just for a laugh.

I’ve never seen that before. Surprisingly good images. Bonkers doughnut Bokeh!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1315212@N21/pool/with/7536409402/#photo_7536409402

Good article on it (or the f/8 equivalent) here:
http://dreuxsawyer.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/review-phoenixsamyang-500mm-f8-mirror-lens/

The Samyang lenses have a following in the DSLR video world too – where manual focus is par-for-the-course.

There’s an 800mm one too I think, that comes with a cheap 2x tele. Ok so it’s not for pixel peepers but it could be a bit of a laugh. And it might get a picture of that bird or whatever that’s 300 yards away.

You say it’s not for pixel peepers, but this is a fine shot for 500mm.

orange train by davedehetre, on Flickr

Spyder Monitor Calibration. Well worth it, the difference it makes it unbelievable.

The lowepro flipside is a great bit a’ kit! I did a review too. So yeah, maybe a backpack?

http://www.outdoorphotography.co.nz/lowepro-flipside-sport-15l-camera-backpack-review/