Jada and David Parrish
2024 Holiday Gear Guide for Camera Gear and Accessories - Jada And David Parrish

2024 Holiday Gear Guide for Camera Gear and Accessories

Blog by Jada Parrish | Article | 11/14/24


This past year, David and I had the opportunity to use a lot of new gear! Everything from lighting equipment to novelty items, cameras and lenses, and studio accessories.

Photography gear is expensive, and with so much on the market, it can be hard to decide what’s actually worth the purchase. So in this post, I’m sharing our holiday gear guide—a list of our favorite photography tools that we’ve used and absolutely loved this year. We see a lot of value in these products!

Everything is linked below. And yes, some of these are affiliate links, but we only recommend products we fully support. We tried out alot of gear this year and not everything made this list. If you decide to purchase anything using the links, you’re not just grabbing cool gear—you’re also helping support David and me so we can keep sharing our creative shoots, tips, and tools with all of you!

I’m posting this now so these items can be on your radar for Black Friday, but a lot of them are already on sale at great prices!


TetherGuard LeverLock Plate

  

We use the TetherGuard LeverLock Plate in all of our shoots. It allows you to connect or remove a cable from the camera without having to remove the plate itself. I love it because during shoots, I often switch between tripod shots and handheld shots. The LeverLock Plate keeps me securely tethered while making it easy for my ADHD self to jump back and forth between handheld and tripod use.


V-flats

We started using V-flats in August, and they really add a lot to a shoot. They are dual-sided, foldable foamcore panels that reflect or block light. They’re great to have in the studio to help manipulate light more easily. Instead of setting up another light, you can often just throw in a V-flat and get the result you need.

They’re not intended for this, but David and I have even used them as backdrops during headshot sessions when we needed a white or black backdrop on location, and they worked perfectly for that too.

  

 

 

RODE Wireless Micro 2-Person Ultra compact Wireless Microphone System

So, this isn’t camera gear, but if you do any video work, make reels, or create content with audio, you need to invest in this mic! It’s incredibly small and compact—just slightly larger than AirPods—and there are no cords at all. It’s an ultracompact, 2-person wireless microphone system designed for content creators, and RODE really nailed it. The case that holds everything is so small you can literally throw it in your pocket or purse. We also have the RODE Wireless GO, but this is such an upgrade.

The system includes a pair of tiny, lightweight clip-on transmitters, each with a built-in omnidirectional microphone, and a single dual-channel receiver that plugs directly into the USB-C port on your Android or compatible iOS smartphone or tablet.

The audio quality is really impressive, too. My voice is pretty high-pitched, and it automatically levels it out, making me sound a lot better without having to make any audio adjustments.

They come in both black and white. We decided to get them in white.

2024 Holiday Gear Guide for Camera Gear and Accessories - Jada And David Parrish 

Aputure Infinibars

David and I have a set of four 4-foot Infinibars, and they are our favorite tube lights. The Infinibar is designed to be used as a key light, integrated directly into sets, or combined with its connector ecosystem to create new shapes and designs. It offers full-color lighting, and the coolest part is that you can connect multiple Infinibars together. Aputure provides a variety of Infinibar connectors, so you can create all kinds of shapes. If you’re looking for lighting to integrate into a set, these are seriously amazing. They also have grids and different modifiers you can add to them.

They work great on C-stands or as hair lights. We’ve also used them in tabletop shoots as key lights, with two Infinibars—one on each side of the subject—and the quality of light was beautiful.

 

Prism Lens FX Filters

If you love in-camera effects, you’ll love Prism Lens FX filters. These are lens filters that attach to your camera and create unique effects and distortions in-camera. Prism Lens FX sent us a mystery box with a handful of filters to use in a shoot, and I ended up liking them way more than I expected.

You can get 15% off your purchase with the code JADAANDDAVID—so use that at checkout and save yourself some money.

They have a filter for every type of look or effect you can imagine. Here are my personal favorites:

The Halo Filter: This is my absolute favorite filter, and it's one I wouldn't have naturally gravitated to on my own, so I really want to highlight it for you all because it’s so cool. I’ve used it in a portrait shoot with a musician while taking simple promo photos in their home, and it made those basic shots look super cool and funky. I also used it in one of our sets where we created a super surreal, futuristic look, making it seem like our model was floating through a space portal. The way it interacts with light is incredible and adds a trippy quality to photos. I love that the center of the filter remains unaffected, so your subject stays clear and sharp while the surroundings get beautifully distorted.

  

 

Moody: This is a really cool filter that combines the starburst effect with the dreamy, soft haze of the Dream Filter. If you want a soft, hazy starburst effect, this one is perfect. I’ve used it for live music photography, and it worked amazingly in that environment. This filter loves light!

Nostalgia: This filter is great for creating a retro vibe or adding warm tones to your photos. I’ve used it in portrait shoots, and I love how it enhances skin tones. It softens the skin and warms everything up beautifully.

  

Lucid Dream: This filter is perfect for adding softness to your images. It gives photos a dreamy, hazy effect and is great if you're aiming for a film-like aesthetic or a soft, ethereal vibe.

 

Godox AD200Pro II TTL Pocket Flash

Godox sent us this to test out, and to be honest, I hadn’t used a pocket flash in quite a while. But after using it for a series of retro portrait shoots, I was really impressed. It’s so small yet so powerful. It fired consistently every time, even while I was shooting quickly. It's battery-powered and has a bi-color LED modeling light. It’s super small and lightweight, making it a perfect travel light.

2024 Holiday Gear Guide for Camera Gear and Accessories - Jada And David Parrish  2024 Holiday Gear Guide for Camera Gear and Accessories - Jada And David Parrish

For our shoot, we used it with the Godox Witstro H200R Round Flash Head for the AD200 TTL Pocket Flash to give us a bit of diffusion, and it worked really well. It’s a solid, affordable pocket flash.

 

 

Camp Snap Camera

  

Okay, this is a novelty item, but it’s fun. It’s a great stocking stuffer or gift for anyone who loves photography. It’s marketed as “the disposable digital camera.” It’s not actually disposable though. It’s an 8-megapixel digital camera without a screen, so the photo quality isn’t the greatest (your iPhone is definitely higher quality), but it’s so fun!

Since there’s no screen, you can’t see any of the photos you take, which gives it the feel of an old-school disposable film camera. This makes you more present and in the moment. I used this all throughout the spring and summer at parties and events. I loved that it made me feel like I was shooting film, but it’s just a point-and-shoot camera, so you can snap random photos with ease.

  

The Camp Snap Camera can hold 500 photos on a single charge and 2000 photos in total. Exporting your photos is simple: you can either use the provided USB-C cable to connect directly to your smartphone or device, or insert the included SD card into your computer’s SD card slot. It’s rechargeable, and the battery life is pretty long-lasting.

The photos have a sort of film-quality look, and you can also download different filters, like shooting in black and white.

I think this is also a great gift for a kid who enjoys photography because it’s totally drop-proof and not super pricey.

You can get $5 off with the code JADAANDDAVID.

 

Nanlite Pavoslims

These are LED continuous light panels with pop-up softboxes built in. You can also add more diffusion and grids to them if needed. They’re incredibly easy to set up and move around because they’re so lightweight and fold flat, making them super easy to transport. We love the beautiful, diffused light they provide, which is perfect for the heavily diffused lighting we use in our sets. We have several of these in different shapes and sizes, but if you’re looking for a portable, quick-setup, diffused continuous light source, this is perfect.

2024 Holiday Gear Guide for Camera Gear and Accessories - Jada And David Parrish  2024 Holiday Gear Guide for Camera Gear and Accessories - Jada And David Parrish

 

Canon EOS R5 Mark II Mirrorless Camera

This camera is truly amazing. Full disclosure: we don’t even own this camera ourselves—we just have the R5—but we recently got to use the Mark II for a fashion shoot, and it is definitely a step up. The ease of focusing and the sharpness of every shot is incredible. It’s a 50.3-megapixel full-frame camera. I was blown away by the photos we took, and it’s definitely on my "OMG, I need this" list! So, I think you should add it to yours too. I was seriously impressed.

2024 Holiday Gear Guide for Camera Gear and Accessories - Jada And David Parrish  2024 Holiday Gear Guide for Camera Gear and Accessories - Jada And David Parrish

On that note, for the same shoot, I got to use the Canon RF 24-105mm f/2.8 L IS USM Z Lens. JUST WOW! Normally, I like to shoot with a pretty wide lens, but this one gave me the best of both worlds. 24mm is wide enough for our sets, but being able to zoom into 105mm with the same lens and get incredibly crisp beauty shots blew me away. This lens is also on my must-have list. Maybe B&H will have a killer Black Friday sale for this? Fingers crossed!


TetherPro USB-C to 3.0 Micro-B Right Angle Cable

We shoot tethered for all of our shoots because it helps us double-check our work, ensure all lights are firing, and confirm the posing is correct so we can make any necessary adjustments. It also allows us to show what we're shooting to others on set. This is our go-to cable, and if you haven’t shot tethered before, I highly recommend it—it’s truly a game changer.

2024 Holiday Gear Guide for Camera Gear and Accessories - Jada And David Parrish  

 

Pass Gallery

If you’re looking for an online photo-sharing gallery platform, we’re big fans of Pass. This one isn’t new to us; we’ve been using Pass since 2018 to share galleries with our clients, and we’ve always been impressed with it. It makes the photo-sharing process easy for both you and your clients. They offer a variety of templates so you can style your gallery however you’d like.

  

What we recently learned is that your clients can order prints directly from their online galleries. You can link your Pass account to the printers of your choice (Bay Photo, Millers, etc.) and set up your own print shop within the gallery. You can customize the pricing and choose which products you want to offer—everything from albums and canvases to prints and ornaments. David and I had no idea this feature existed until a few months ago. We set up our print shop, and literally the next day, one of our past clients ordered $200 worth of prints. We profited $150 from that sale without having to do any extra work.

That blew us away. Since then, we’ve become Pass Professors—meaning we’ve been trained to help other photographers set up their own print shops through Pass, so they can start making money from print sales without extra effort. It’s really cool, and I wish we’d done it sooner. But hey, I didn’t know, so that’s why I’m sharing this with you now.

If you sign up for Pass using our link, you’ll get 2 months free! And if you decide you want to set up a print store, you can select me and David as the people you'd like to set it up for you.


Aputure LS 600c Pro II RGB LED

The Aputure LS 600c Pro II might be David’s favorite light. He likes to use it as a key light in a lot of our shoots. It’s incredibly powerful, but it also gives you so much control at the same time. You can make very small power adjustments to really fine-tune the lighting. It’s solidly built and incredibly well-made. Plus, it has full color, so you can get really creative with your lighting.

 


Those are my holiday gear recommendations for 2024! We’ve used a lot of other gear this year, but these are the items we truly loved the most. I wanted to spread the word about them and get them on your radar before Black Friday and Cyber Monday hit!



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Jada + David Parrish are mixed media artists whose work explores the connection between painting, sculpture, motion, and photography.