I am a photographer regularly finds himself in need of new gadgets and camera accessories. Sometimes it’s a cord or a cable, sometimes it’s an adapter and sometimes it’s a budget flash unit or a battery charger—there’s always something on my list. And I like budget options. Not just because they help my dollar go farther but also because I don’t have to worry about breaking or losing them. When it comes to critical items like camera bodies and lenses that have a very direct and tangible impact on the quality of the images I make, I am very particular about I use. But accessories are less important to the outcome so I don’t stress about the quality of them quite as much. Ultimaxx makes a lot of budget accessories and today I’m looking at a whole range of interesting lighting accessories and drone accessories sent to me by the good folks at Best Buy.
Video microphone and bracket
This video microphone is compatible with any DSLR mirrorless or compact camera that has a hot shoe on top and a mic input. It is a unidirectional condenser microphone which means that it picks up whatever sound is directly in front of it—really useful for shooting interviews. It comes with a foam windscreen, an aluminum bracket, and a battery is included – nice touch!
Low profile automatic flash
This low profile flash unit will work on any DSLR, mirrorless or compact camera with a hot shoe. It’s an entry-level flash unit which means it’s very straightforward to use but it doesn’t a ton of functionality or setup options. I personally like cheap and cheerful flash units because having more flashes means that I can set up more interesting lighting scenarios without worrying too much about damaging equipment. This flash takes four AA batteries and has a recycle time of about four seconds. It can fire approximately 200 times with a set of alkaline batteries.
Slave flash and bracket
This slave flash operates by sensing when another flash is activated and firing simultaneously. It has a few different mode settings but it’s basically a very simple unit. It’s honestly not the highest quality flash unit I’ve ever used but I actually found it really reliable. It takes two AA batteries and has a recycling time of approximately three seconds. The included bracket allows you to mount the flash on the tripod mount of your camera. I was surprised to notice when I put the flash on the bracket that there was no way to tighten the unit on, and although it didn’t slide off under its own weight, I think it easily could do so if you were walking around at an event for example. I’d probably add a bit of electrical tape to secure it tightly.
Copper parabolic antenna range booster for DJI drones
This copper parabolic antenna range booster is a cool accessory for all the DJI drone users out there. This range booster is really easy to attach to your controller and concentrates the signal going out to your drone. This improves reliability with the goal of reducing incidents and it does so with very little weight increase.
Ultimaxx LED video light kit
This universal LED video light is actually one of my favorite Ultimaxx  accessories. It comes with an aluminum bracket which gives you the option to either mount it in your camera’s hot shoe or attach it to the tripod mount underneath your camera. It comes with two rechargeable batteries, and has an impressive two hour run time. When I’ve used this unit in the past I found it provided a nice even lighting source. You can ‘gang’ multiple units together to create a bigger, more powerful light source too which is awesome.
160 LED professional video light
For an even bigger light source, this 160 LED video light can be mounted in the hot shoe of your camera to provide high power lighting which is nice and even. The provided mound allows you to tilt the lighting unit to vary the angle of the light. It also comes with three filters that allow you to either soften the light coming from the unit or adjust the color. It takes six AA Batteries and has a battery test button to let you know how much power is left. It also comes with a battery adapter plate which allows you to mount Sony or Panasonic camcorder batteries.
Dedicated TTL off-camera shoe cord
This TTL hot shoe cord allows you to attach your flash unit to the top of your camera and hold it at a distance to give you a more interesting way to light your shots. The heavy duty coil cord extends up to 6 feet, which is obviously farther than most peoples arms can extend! Moving your flash off-camera is one of the easiest ways to improve your photography so this is an accessory that I highly recommend to anyone who shoots weddings or events.
Extender bracket for DJI drones
This device bracket allows you to attach almost any smartphone or tablet from 4 to 12 inches in width to your DJI drone controller. The build quality is pretty low I’m afraid to say, so I’m not sure how confident I would be trusting it to safeguard my devices.
Mavic 2 rapid battery charger
The DJI Mavic 2 charger can re-charge three Mavic 2 batteries simultaneously. It also has two USB outlets to charge your drone controller or other USB devices. It has an LED display to show you the voltage and amperage of each charging port and can provide a full charge in about 70 to 80 minutes. This rapid charger would be a huge boost for any drone user because it drone batteries tend not to last very long.
Submersible action camera housing
A submersible housing is a fantastic accessory for any action camera and this one provides water resistance up to 45 m with a scratch resistant lens and large shutter and power buttonss. It has a nice large thumbscrew which makes it really easy to mount on supports and it also comes with 12 reusable anti-fog inserts.
Submersible LED video light
this submersible LED video light is designed to work with action cameras and comes with a rechargeable battery. It is water resistant up to 40 m and comes with its own mount which allows you to attach it to your action camera housing.
Mavic 2 Pro six piece lens filter kit
Finally we have this Mavic 2 Pro six piece lens filter kit which comes with a handy carry case and a cleaning cloth. The set includes a multicoated ultraviolet (UV) filter, an ND4 filter, an ND8 filter, an ND16 filter, an ND32 filter and multicoated circular polarizing (CPL) filter. Filters are a fantastic way to tweak the images coming from your drone, but be prepared to doing a little research and testing in order to figure out what the optimal conditions in which to use each one is.
Be sure to check out the entire range of Ultimaxx accessories available at BestBuy.ca!
