Photofocus

Photo Coutesy Rich Legg

With less than six weeks to go until Christmas, (insert your holiday of choice here if you don’t celebrate Christmas) it’s time to start with the proverbial holiday gift buying guides here at Photofocus. With the recession in mind, we’re going to start small. This list is all inexpensive gifts. We guarantee you there’s something here for every budget.

1. Chase Jarvis’ crazy popular “BEST CAMERA” is a must-give gift this holiday season. At only $2.99 it’s more fun than many more expensive gifts. It’s an iPhone photo app that allows you to shoot, add creative effects, and share your images more simply and powerfully than ever before. Virtually limitless creativity, and the ability to share photos directly from Best Camera to Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Best Camera Link

2. Kubota Lightroom Presets V3

I’ve recently started using Lightroom and I’ve tried lots of commercially available presets. So far, the Kubota Lightroom Presets V3 are my favorite, and at only $49 they are a must have for any serious Lightroom user.

Kevin’s presets are real-world useful, well named and tasteful.

Kubota Presets Link

3. Kelby Training

For less than $25 a month or $200 per year, photographers can access hundreds of hours of photography-related online training at kelbytraining.com. You name it, they teach it. Portrait lighting technique, Photoshop and Lightroom training’ How to use your flash or your DSLR. There are lots of titles to choose from and there’s no month-to-month contract required. I’ve sampled several different titles and found the material to be top-notch.

Kelby Training Link

4. Manfrotto ModoPocket Mini-Tripod

This is one of those “Why didn’t I think of that” kind of items. It’s a $20 mini-tripod that attaches to your compact camera. It works in almost any place where you can find a flat surface. It’s cheap, portable and well-made. And this part I love – it stays attached to your camera and folds down out of the way when you don’t need it. I will NEVER use a compact camera again without one of these babies attached thereto!

ModoPocket Link

5. Hoodman Hoodeye

The HoodEYE costs less then $25 and easily installs in place of most camera’s stock eyepiece. It helps block out light from the side that might reduce a photographer’s ability to see well in the viewfinder. It installs in less than a minute and rotates to accommodate both left and right-eyed shooters.

Hoodman H-EYEC18 HoodEYE for most of the Canon 18mm SLR models

Hoodman H-EYEC18L HoodEYE for 5D and 5D Mark II DSLR Cameras

Hoodman H-EyeN22R HoodEYE for Nikon 22mm Round Eyepieces

Hoodman H-EyeN22S HoodEYE for Nikon Square 22mm SLR Line

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This post sponsored by Ray Flash – Ring Flash Adapter