5 Camera Accessories You Should Buy Online (And 4 You Shouldn't)

Buying a new camera is the first step in photography. Once you start getting the hang of your new device, you will not only click brilliant photos, but you will also want to use various camera accessories with it, only to upgrade your experience. However, buying camera gear online is a mixed bag. Some things are available for cheap and so simple that it doesn't matter where you get them from because they will work fine no matter what. On the other hand, some things would look like an easy purchase, but they can easily cost you money or damage your gear if you are not careful enough in picking the best one.

Online, you will find plenty of round-ups and lists of accessories that promise to help you take better photos. Neither will tell you where it is actually safe to spend money online or whether you should go to a real store instead. That is what this list is for. It is important to know that spending thousands of dollars on an accessory won't turn you into a skilled photographer, just like an expensive riding suit doesn't make you a better rider. You need to invest in the right tools, and that too from trusted sources, to broaden your horizons.

We have compiled a list of camera accessories below, including five things that are totally fine to order online from any decent retailer and four things you should probably skip buying online.

SD cards are about as safe as online camera shopping gets. I have been purchasing SD cards for my mirrorless for years, and there hasn't been a single time I have been scammed. In fact, most of the time I have gotten them for great discounts and everything has worked perfectly. There is no glass to scratch and no moving parts, so an SD card either works perfectly or it doesn't. This is one of those camera accessories where buying online is actually a smart move, since they run heavy discounts compared to a physical store.

You are not losing anything when purchasing an SD card online, but only skipping the store visit itself. However, there is one thing that you should watch out for is fake capacity. Some sellers reflash cheap, low-capacity chips so they falsely report a bigger storage size than they actually have. Such type of cards will fill up quickly, become corrupted, or silently overwrite your files once you go past the real limit. This is a bigger deal than it sounds, since your files can get damaged or go missing. 

You should have an idea of how many photos a 32GB card can actually hold, since knowing real numbers helps you spot a listing that sounds off. Stick to listings sold and shipped directly by the seller, like this one from SanDisk, and you will be fine almost every time.

One of the most misunderstood and considered pointless accessories until you actually understand their use is a lens hood. Its job isn't to enhance the look of your camera but to block the light that is coming from an angle and hitting the front of your lens. A lens hood can be the difference between a clear shot and one that looks washed out and has those circular flare shots. When you actually want the flare in your photos, you can easily remove the lens hood and continue capturing.

Since a lens hood is a shaped plastic piece with no electronic or moving parts involved, there is very little that could go wrong if you purchase it online, even from a lesser-known brand. A lens hood is one of the camera lens accessories that protects the lens itself, taking the hit if you bump your camera against a door, a railing, or a crowd of people before the actual glass does. For a much lower price, you are getting a protective layer for your camera lenses. 

While most new camera lenses include one lens hood in the bundle, getting a cheap one online doesn't hurt if you lose the original one or it is broken. Just ensure that you are ordering the right size and shape as per your specific lens for best fit because generic lens hoods can end up blocking your shot instead of helping it.

Whether you are shooting with a mobile camera or a professional mirrorless camera, it's important to clean your lens before you start a photo session. A lens cleaning kit might appear as a boring purchase, but it helps remove the smudges caused by fingerprints mid-shoot that normal wiping won't do justice. Buying one online is as low-risk as it gets, and you will get a bundle for a much better deal online than going to a store.

It includes a rubber air blower, a small brush, a microfiber cloth, and a bottle of cleaning solution. You can purchase any one of the best lens cleaning kits available online, but make sure to check the ratings and what you are getting in the kit. While you can hardly go wrong buying a lens cleaning kit online, still read one or two reviews to confirm the quality, since cheap kits are often made of cheap materials.

Additionally, do pay some attention to the cleaning solution involved since anything that isn't alcohol-free can leave streaks behind or slowly damage the anti-reflective coating. Check the ingredients listed on the product page before buying, and always wipe your lens in gentle circular motions from the center outward.

A few years ago, purchasing a filter meant going to a store in person. However, thanks to the expansion of e-commerce, you can now get one from the comfort of your home. Budget filter glass has genuinely gotten a lot better, and now, whether you want a neutral density filter to slow your shutter speed in daylight or a polarizer to cut glare from water, glass, etc., these glass pieces are easily available online.

Before purchasing a filter, you should understand what ND camera filters actually do and how they block incoming light without shifting the color of your image. This helps in achieving a blurred-motion waterfall or cloud shot even in the middle of a bright afternoon. You should check these pointers in reviews when purchasing a filter online. A mid-tier or budget filter can handle this pretty well.

The catch is stacking cheap filters, since low-quality glass gets noticeably worse when you layer an ND filter and a polarizer on the same lens. This will soften the image and add an unwanted glare or a color cast. You can check out this lens filter kit from Neewer on Amazon that also includes a hood and lens cap.

As a photographer, you know how important it is to keep your camera as stable as possible. You can achieve that with a tripod, and frankly speaking, with years of experience purchasing a tripod both for my smartphone and camera, I can say that you get more variety online than you will get in a physical store. A tripod has three legs (you can get a four-leg one as well), a head to mount the camera, and a mounting plate. This simplicity makes it one of the safer items to get online for your camera.

The only thing that you need to worry about is the build quality, stability, and weight limit, all of which are listed on the product page. If you are still worried about it, you can do a quick YouTube search for that product or read the reviews and make your purchase accordingly. We have listed some of the best tripods for DSLR and mirrorless cameras to suit every budget, from lightweight aluminum models to sturdier full-size options for heavier gear.

A few things to keep in mind are that try buying one from a reputed brand, because that assures you of quality and build. Also, check the maximum load capacity against your heaviest lens before buying.

If you think we have mistakenly placed batteries on the "Should not buy" list, we haven't. Batteries are the heart of the camera, as they decide how long you can continue clicking photos before your camera goes dead. Unlike most accessories in this list, a battery isn't just a piece of internal hardware. It is an electrochemical device, and a badly made one or a generic one isn't just weaker; it can be genuinely dangerous to have inside your camera or anywhere in your gear, your bag, or home.

A study by Electrochemical Safety Research Institute, part of Underwriters Laboratories, found that fake lithium-ion batteries had thinner or completely missing internal insulators compared to genuine ones. This is the part that literally stops the battery from overheating and catching fire under stress. It is one of the biggest risks of counterfeit batteries, and generic ones available online fall under this category. You should not risk your camera, for which you paid hundreds of dollars, with cheap generic batteries.

This does not mean you should avoid third-party batteries altogether. You can use them, as long as they're from trusted brands. However, to be on the safe side, get batteries from brands that have real manufacturing accountability instead of buying anything you see online. If a listing has no brand name and an absurdly low price compared to a genuine one, see that as a warning sign.

This might be a bit controversial, but we have a solid reason why you should avoid purchasing camera backpacks online. Fit, comfort, and how the weight of a fully loaded bag sits across your shoulders and back are the things you can really understand once it is packed up and actually on your body for a good time. That's not something you can experience by reading a product page online or a five-star rating.

But comfort is just one part of the many things you should consider when purchasing a camera bag. There can be a vast variation between the actual bag and how it looks in the photos, from pocket sizing to how the internal components are divided for carrying different parts and accessories of a camera. A bag that is perfect for someone carrying two mirrorless bodies and a flash might be completely wrong for someone carrying a single DSLR with one long telephoto lens. Frankly, that kind of judgment is pretty hard to make when you are seeing a small image.

If you already know which brand and specific model works for your camera and your back, it is totally fine to buy it online, since you might get extra discounts. However, if it is your very first camera bag, then it is worth heading to a physical store and getting an in-hand feel.

Lenses are the one thing in this list where trying to save money online can end up costing you a lot more in the long run. A $50 mistake on a cheap filter is mildly annoying at worst. But a $1,500 mistake on a telephoto lens that turns out to have a voided warranty or hidden internal damage is a completely different kind of problem. And that is the exact risk that comes from purchasing a camera lens online.

When buying a used camera lens, you should be quite skeptical because a counterfeit lens can look nearly identical to the real thing on the outside while containing cheap internal components. This can quietly damage your camera body over months of use without you realizing why. Beyond outright fakes, there is also a gray market problem, where lenses are legitimately manufactured but imported and resold outside official and authorized channels.

Such products aren't covered under warranty by the company, and in case of any issues with them, your money is blocked, and you cannot do anything. For these reasons, you should avoid purchasing lenses online, and if you are feeling confident, then only get them through trusted channels.

A camera strap is the last thing that you would want to worry about when you are shopping online, right up until a badly stitched one snaps unexpectedly and your camera kisses the ground. Unlike almost everything else on this list, a strap is a genuine safety component for your camera, and it's what will hold up the most expensive piece of gear you have invested in. Cutting corners on a camera strap can result in you risking your camera.

This is one of those non-camera gadgets photographers should definitely get because sometimes even the strap included by camera manufacturers themselves is often mediocre at best, which honestly says a lot about how much quality varies across the entire category. A generic unbranded strap bought online purely because it is the cheapest one available on the e-commerce website gives you no real way to check the stitching quality.

You can't tell whether it can actually hold your loaded camera. This is one accessory you should go to a physical store and get. You shouldn't buy a camera strap just because someone gave it a five-star rating online.