Useless or absurd accessories

[AcutancePhotography]

Back in my B/W Darkroom days, I purchased a Soft Focus filter.  I had read that it can be flattering for some models.

I quickly learned two very important things about Soft Focus filters

1.  You can easily add soft focus in the dark room
2.  If you use a Soft Focus filter, you can't "fix" it in the dark room.

What was I thinking??

I blew an entire roll of film in one shoot because I used a Soft Focus filter but afterwards I really wanted the pictures to be sharp.

Friends don't let friends buy Soft Focus filters.

Second to this would have been my decision to buy a Pentax Auto 110 camera. An SLR which uses 110 film.  Can you imagine how difficult it is to load, develope, and print 110 film in a darkroom?  I don't have to imagine.    I bought this camera knowing that I would be developing and printing my own photographs.

What was I thinking?

 

[Don Haines]

I have a red rubber band on one of my lenses to add friction to stop the zoom from creeping up or down....

Is that really why you have a red rubber band around your lens?   

OK, now I am curious

It is because it is not a DO lens, and therefore putting a green rubber band on it would just be wrong

[Rienzphotoz]

OK, this is not an accessory but for me "Release Shutter Without Card" is a useless feature, which I never use but can get into trouble real easy ... during my vacation in UK, I visited Edinburgh, (Scotland) on a day trip from Glasgow (coz the accommodation in Edinburgh was way too expensive and Glasgow was very affordable and the train ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh was only 1 hour or so) ... anyway, I reach Edinburgh happily clicking away for half a day and the CF card in my 7D was full or I took it out for some reason or both (can't remember exactly) ... anyway, I kept clicking away for the rest of the day thinking I got some good photos ... and when I got back to Glasgow I fired up my laptop to transfer the images from the CF card ... to my horror there wasn't a single image for the second half of the day, coz the "Release Shutter Without Card" feature was on. ... I could not go back to Edinburgh as it was already my second, day trip to that city and I had already booked other trips elsewhere in Scotland ... a rare opportunity lost due to the "Release Shutter Without Card" feature was on.

[Vivid Color]

You may add me to the list of disappointed filter wrench owners. The clear filter on one of my lenses got stuck during my trip to Africa. I have been unable to get it off with the filter wrench. I thought perhaps I wasn't applying enough strength. Now I'm thinking I'll just try one of my rubber jar openers. I don't think the filter wrench idea is bad, but I do think the ones I have and maybe those the other posters have are poorly made.

On the other hand, I absolutely love my Think Tank memory wallets. Because I did not take a computer or other storage device along with me when I went to Africa, I took 20 SD cards in addition to the three that were in my three cameras. The two memory wallets I took worked great to keep the cards organized. And the ribbon and clips on them allowed me to attach the wallets to either my belt loops or the camera bag so they couldn't accidentally fall out and get lost. And when I was in my hotel room, I could easily throw the memory wallets into the room safe. Could have I gotten by with putting the memory cards in plastic baggies? Yes, but the memory wallets made everything so much easier and so much more secure. On the other hand, when I go out and I only need to take one or two extra cards, I don't use the memory wallets. By the way, even though my cameras all use SD cards, I buy the wallets for the CF cards. That way, I can keep my cards in the little plastic cases they come in and they still fit into the wallet. And if I ever get a camera that uses CF cards, I can still use the same wallets.

I think it may come down to filter quality too.  Ones that are built well usually have good threading, ones that are bargain bin can have poor threads.  I've never had to use a filter wrench on my B+W filters, but on the cheap ones the camera store sells, which several friends stick to, I've used my filter wrench before.  The shoe trick sounds good.

Also, I love my Gepe cases as I often kayak with my gear, or subject it to otherwise dicey situations.  I also really like the single hard SD cases as they make SD cards quite a bit easier to find than the stock tiny cases.

Thank you for the link to the Gepe cases. One of those might come in handy for me when I go to Hawaii in August.

As for filter quality, that may indeed affect the effectiveness of some filter wrenches. In my case however, I was using B+W XS Pro filters. The filter got stuck when I had a B+W circular polarizing filter on top of it and instead of just turning the polarizing filter I ended up turning both of them and screwing the clear filter in much tighter than it needed to be. (I was in a very dusty environments so I didn't want to take the clear filter off before putting the polarizing filter on.) Clearly user error and I love my B+W filters. I was able to easily get the polarizing filter off the clear filter, but the clear filter is really really stuck and I have not been able to get it off with the filter wrench I have.  It still may be a limitation of my strength. I'm going to try a couple more things and if they don't work I'm going to take the lens and the filter wrench and the rubber kitchen jar gripper to a photographer friend of mine who is much stronger than I am.

[mrsfotografie]

I bought a micro camera to clip onto Fluffy's collar to see what she did all day. The camera was set to take an image every 10 seconds. I managed to capture 9 hours of sleeping cat.

I tried it on her outside. She came back without camera and collar. I never found it.

That's just hilarious! Thanks for sharing

[mrsfotografie]

What have you seen for idiotic accessories or for items that were just not thought out....

I saw a car window mount tripod head..... You roll down the window, slip it over the edge of the glass, and mount your camera or spotting scope to it. This one was marketed as XXXXXX window mount, real tree camouflage. Why would you need camouflage? With a couple of square inches of camouflage the critters will not be able to see you? That somehow they will miss the car, the big white lens, and the person behind it, but it is the tiny mount that matters?

Sort of like camouflage flashlights

I believe it is intended to mount on the window of a deer blind while hunting.  I actually have a black Bass Pro version. Only used it once.  Most of the deer blinds I am in have a window seal that is two wide.  I know that it shows it attached to a car window but that is ridiculous. 

When I first started I bought a very cheep $19.95 Dynex tripod.  Being low on funds and insisting on owning a tripod it was my only option at the time. 

First thing the plastic tripod head popped right out of the aluminum center column.  I had to DIY fix it.  The plastic head had a small hole in the bottom of the tripod head.  I shoved a peace of an old broken fishing rod in the hold and taped up ring sections to add reinforcement and epoxied the tripod head back on the shaft. 

I would not trust the tripod with a 5d but it is fine will a rebel or other small camera and small lens.  I even used it for a while with my 60d.  (That was a little scary at times.  I finally bough a real tripod but I sometimes use it to hold my NEX or an external flash.

Sense I am using every excuse to test my 6D this week I include pictures.

Interesting, I hadn't thought of using my old Hama tripod for my NEX, but now I just might

[Pinchers of Peril]

My first digital camera was a Sony DSC S75 point and shoot.  The front of the camera had threads on it so you could add attachments.  I was so excited and bought a "fish eye attachement" and a "2X telephoto" attachment.  The photos actually looked pretty good on the 1 inch lcd on the back of the camera, but not so much on my computer screen.  When I downloaded them to my computer the image quality was so negatively affected that it looked like I had smeared a thin layer of vaseline on the lens. 

[mrsfotografie]

The most useless accessories I have: memory wallets (I have two), filters wrenchs and 40mm f2.8 lens hood.

Forgot about the filter wrenches - they are worthless!  Pipe wrenches, jar openers, rubber bands, and 100 other things all work better!

Ha, Ha, Ha, Dear mackguyver.
You are right, When I go to buy Filter Wrenches at my friend's Camera shop in my home town, He said to me = Forget it", and he take off his clean shoe ( which have rubber below of the shoe) , and  put my lens with stuck filter ( UV Filter) to the rubber sole and turn the Lens = Ha, Ha, Ha---It work, Yes, I save 2 US Dollars. But he tell me as you say,  , for Cir PL Filter, We must use the Big size rubber band, And Tell me that---DO NOT USE THE DIRTY/ MUDDY  shoe in this case = Prohibit---Ha, Ha, Ha.
Nice to talk to you, Have a great day.
Surapon

Dear Surapon, that's actually great advice! It may not have to be the bottom of a shoe, but a rubber matting will work too i imagine. I've struggled with tight filters before but have so far managed to get them loose by hand (took some patience though). Never thought they actually sold accessories to deal with this type of situation.

[emag]

OK, this is not an accessory but for me "Release Shutter Without Card" is a useless feature, which I never use but can get into trouble real easy ...

Film days, 1975 - I had my beloved Nikon F2 (cost me 1.5 months pay) and was hiking on the south end of Guam.  A trail runs along the crest of the hills providing great views of two postcard perfect bays, a lake in the interior and in general just gorgeous scenery while the ceaseless tradewinds temper the heat and humidity.  I followed a trail that went across to the east side of the island, met a group of boys enjoying the day at a shallow stream with a couple of carabao.  Rode with them through a bamboo forest until we reached the outskirts of the village where they lived.  Realizing I had miles to go to return to my car still on the east side, I resigned myself to a very long trek back.  About that time a pair of Navy Seabees tooling around the boonies in a jeep came by and gave me a lift around the south end of the island back towards where my car was.  We stopped at the ruins of an old Spanish fort overlooking Umatac Bay around sunset, all of us happily snapping away.  'twas just about then I discovered my film had slipped off the takeup spool, not a single shot exposed.........

[Botts]

Thank you for the link to the Gepe cases. One of those might come in handy for me when I go to Hawaii in August.

As for filter quality, that may indeed affect the effectiveness of some filter wrenches. In my case however, I was using B+W XS Pro filters. The filter got stuck when I had a B+W circular polarizing filter on top of it and instead of just turning the polarizing filter I ended up turning both of them and screwing the clear filter in much tighter than it needed to be. (I was in a very dusty environments so I didn't want to take the clear filter off before putting the polarizing filter on.) Clearly user error and I love my B+W filters. I was able to easily get the polarizing filter off the clear filter, but the clear filter is really really stuck and I have not been able to get it off with the filter wrench I have.  It still may be a limitation of my strength. I'm going to try a couple more things and if they don't work I'm going to take the lens and the filter wrench and the rubber kitchen jar gripper to a photographer friend of mine who is much stronger than I am.

Try a strap wrench maybe.  Something like this, it's rubber so it won't mar the finish.  They pretty much rock if you have problems opening things, my mom keeps one for tough jars and the like.  *** Could be a risk here, if it's cross threaded, you may tear the threads out of the filter or the lens.  I seem to recall that brass is softer than aluminum, so the threads on the filter should fail before the lens threads.  Based on the fact that the clear filter was installed and fine before, I would imagine that it isn't cross threaded though.

OK, this is not an accessory but for me "Release Shutter Without Card" is a useless feature, which I never use but can get into trouble real easy ...

We've all probably been there before.  Since then, that has been the first thing I have checked on every new Canon body I have used.  I also stick to 16GB SD cards, as if one fails during a day of shooting, I have only lost half the day, vs losing a full 32GB.

[Jerm]

My mom bought me a flash bouncer, I don't own a flash.

[Ruined]

Back in my B/W Darkroom days, I purchased a Soft Focus filter.  I had read that it can be flattering for some models.

I quickly learned two very important things about Soft Focus filters

1.  You can easily add soft focus in the dark room
2.  If you use a Soft Focus filter, you can't "fix" it in the dark room.

What was I thinking??

I blew an entire roll of film in one shoot because I used a Soft Focus filter but afterwards I really wanted the pictures to be sharp.

Friends don't let friends buy Soft Focus filters.

Second to this would have been my decision to buy a Pentax Auto 110 camera. An SLR which uses 110 film.  Can you imagine how difficult it is to load, develope, and print 110 film in a darkroom?  I don't have to imagine.    I bought this camera knowing that I would be developing and printing my own photographs.

What was I thinking?

 

I can definitely understand the draw to a soft focus filter.  I tried a soft focus lens because I use the soft focus effect in post often, and I found that the lens actually looked *worse* than the post effects I used and caused other unwanted artifacts.

While I try to use as little post tinkering as possible as I like the idea of natural optical effects, soft focus appears to be an area where post actually has the upper hand.

[tron]

The most useless accessories I have: memory wallets (I have two), filters wrenchs and 40mm f2.8 lens hood.

+ 1 for me , for Filter wrenches.
Surapon

I hadn't thought of them at all until I was at trouble to unscrew a filter from a lens I was about to sell in front of the buyer     

Fortunately I was able to unscrew it eventually  and he is the happy owner of a 16-35mm f/2.8L (version I) lens. Now Canon where is my 16-35mm f/2.8L III ? 

[Ben Taylor]

On topic - a lens brush...

I'd add all 'lenspens' to useless (or rather 'potentially dangerous') category. (A piece of microfiber fabric cleans a lens more efficiently. Or dry and clean t-shirt when I'm in hurry...)

 

[surapon]

Surapon and other colleagues, I am very sorry if I insulted any of you. My mistake was that I did not send a private message but wrote it publicly. I really like this forum due to its international community and very big pool of knowledge. In different cultures there are different perception of politeness. I come from Lithuania where people smile when they are happy and if you see smile you know that it is sincere (usually it is very easy to recognise foreigners in my country as they are smiling most of the time). Mr., Sir, Dear and other names are used more for business or formal matters. I perceive this community as a bunch of friends who share knowledge and communicate. Accordingly, i gave my subjective friendly advice to Surapon. Once more, sorry for inconvenience due to my previous post.

Dear Friend Efka76
Just The truth form your heart, and want me to talk like " from friends to friends"---Not thing wrong, And THANKSSS to you, I already change my way of talk to all of my dear friend and members of CR.
Have a great Wednesday night.
Surapon, your friend.