2026 Mobile Photography Accessories Guide
You asked for it!
If you want to move beyond “home movies” and produce a travel show like PhotowalksTV using only an phone, you don’t need a million-dollar budget—but you do need a specific set of tools.
Take myself out of the equation and let’s turn to you—for general travel photography, you don’t really need any accessories to make your photography that much better, as a rule. For video, an external microphone is mandatory.
But it’s fun to shop, and there are little tools that could make life a little easier for you.
This was the crux of my talk this week at the online Kelby One Live iPhone Photography Conference about accessories. And so many folks asked for a written guide to my picks (thank you all those new KelbyOne subscribers), of course I’m happy to oblige.
The gear I actually carry to produce a TV travel show with a phone
Let’s start here: people often ask me how I produce PhotowalksTV with just an iPhone.
They assume there must be a huge camera bag somewhere.
There is a bag, a small Nomatic backpack — and it’s a whole lot smaller than the huge bag I used to drag around on wheels.
When I leave for a shoot, this is what’s in my bag:
3 iPhones: My primary 17 Pro (for video), a secondary 17 Pro (the one I cracked in Philadelphia, still great for stills) and a backup iPhone iPhone 16 Pro.
3 Power Banks: I love the Anker Nano as my main unit. It can recharge a phone in 30 minutes, has a built-in cable and sells for $50. More on power banks below.
2 Sets of Microphones: I always have a second set in case of interference or battery failure. I swear by the Rode Wireless Micro units.
3 Selfie Sticks: I never leave home without them.
2 SSD Drives: For transferring footage and stills and backing up on the road. Drive of choice: Samsung T7. (More on this below.)
Insta360 X5 and GoPro Hero cameras for specialized shots. Plus my DJI Mini 4 Pro for aerial photography.
1 Travel Tripod: Light enough to tote, sturdy enough for a timelapse. I like the ProMaster Scout series, which sells for under $100.
The “Cable Jungle”: A dedicated pouch of 60W USB-C cables and high-speed chargers. (Not every cable is the same—get the quality fast charging babies and always have two of these uGreen wall-mount chargers in your bag.
The One Accessory I Couldn’t Live Without
Stop me if you’ve heard this before.
If I had to ditch everything but one item, it wouldn’t be a lens, a light, or a fancy mic. It would be a selfie stick. Specifically, the $25 Insta360 stick/tripod.
It’s not glamorous, but it solves three critical problems:
It steadies video: By moving the phone away from your body, it smooths out the micro-shakes of your hands.
It gives you reach: It unlocks overhead shots and moving angles I simply can’t get handheld.
It’s a mini-tripod: It extends to 4 feet for quick interviews at cafes. I can’t use it for “stand-ups” as I’m way taller than 4 feet.
⚠️ The MagSafe Warning: I learned this the hard way on location in Japan. There are selfie sticks that offer MagSafe for your phone and they are terrible for video. Because the phone is only magnetically attached, the footage has a subtle wobble that you won’t notice until you’re in the editing suite.
For the selfie stick, know that you will also need a tripod phone adapter, which will set you back $30 to $40. I’ve tried them all, and most end up breaking at some point. (I’m looking at you Manfrotto) The best, and sturdiest I’ve found is the Stalman Clamp, from fellow creator Tyler Stalman, via the Kondor Blue brand.
What about a Gimbal? I don’t use them. Phone gimbals, from the likes of DJI, GoPro and Insta360 are OK for “smooth” pans, but they don’t solve the “human bounce”—that vertical bobbing when we walk. Modern phone stabilization (cropping, warping, and predicting motion) is so good that a gimbal often has very little left to correct. I’ve done back to back tests and can barely see any difference between the two. Selfie Stick requires no set-up; with gimbels you need to charge and balance. No thank you.
The Cage (Your Command Center)
An iPhone “naked” and used for video and photos usually has a dead battery by 11:00 AM. A Cage allows you to attach “life support” like power banks, SSDs, and lights.
The Picks: My favorite right now is a new model from Neewer called the Pro Vlogger Kit. It sells for around $50 and has two grips for the side of the unit, which steadies the shot and makes me feel more professional, plus multiple cold shoe slots for connecting accessories, or attaching to a tripod. However, be careful—Neewer makes many of these. I tried out a previous edition, the PA144 and hated it, as it was flimsy and fell apart.
Second opinion: The $36 basic SmallRig cage is made of steel, has plenty of slots, and can fit any phone, so it’s futureproof.
Question: “For these rigs, do you have to remove the case that you have on your iPhone for daily use?” On Neewer yes, on SmallRig, no. But just know that for me, the iPhone 17 Pro is a dedicated filmmaking camera that lives within its cage, so I’m not dragging it around otherwise. And the Cage protects it from dropping.
How to connect an SSD drive to the cage, for high-end filmmaking? (Apple lets you record directly to the SSD if you opt for its mega ProRes setting.) Buy an SSD connector to snap to the top or back of a cage.
Filters and Lenses
People always say, “Jeff, your stuff looks so good, you must use lenses.”
Or here’s another variation: “Jeff, I don’t think I heard you mention a zoom lens for the iPhone. Do you recommend them? I’m going on a Safari in the fall and wondering if I should get one.”
I don’t use them. The iPhone 17 Pro has a range from 13mm ultra-wide to 240mm telephoto built-in. Why carry a bag of extra glass? Especially when the quality really doesn’t look any better with the add-on?
Lenses: Unless you have an older Phone, save your money and upgrade to a pro model for the telephoto.
Filters: Polarizers and ND filters are popular, but they lock you into a look and it’s another thing you have to drag with you, plus you need an accessory tripod holder that usually fits over your cage. I prefer to achieve those effects in post-production. If you want cinematic motion blur for photos use the Pro Camera app to manually set your shutter speed.
P.S.: My friend Michael Sommer took his Galaxy on a safari recently and got amazing photos!
Lighting
Phones are versatile during the day, but they fall apart in the dark. Despite every year Apple, Samsung and Google telling us their new phones are way better in low light, they’re simply not.
The flash on phones are awful—I never touch them, but I do make use of the flashlight trick—having a friend hold his or her phone up for additionally illumination, especially for food photography.
But in the end, nothing beats a dedicated light. A small $90 pocket LED can usually do the trick. It adds a “catchlight” to the eyes, fills in harsh shadows at dusk and is great for food photography as well. (Worthless during the day—not enough light.) I like the Aputure Amaran MC, but know you’ll need additional accessories to connect it to your phone, like a phone tripod adapter with a cold shoe, or a cage, plus one of these $7 ballhead mini tripods that connect to the light.
Audio
You can forgive bad video, but you won’t forgive poor audio. The internal mic on phones is okay, but it picks up everything—your voice, the nearby bus, the gardener outside. We all need dedicated mics.
Again, I swear by the the RØDE Wireless Micro, which sells for $99 and connects directly to the phone via USB-C. No cables to fail, no heavy receivers. After years of fighting with $400 setups and “bad cable” mysteries, this changed my life. (Many prefer the DJI Mics, which are fine, but I’m a Rode guy, plus, I’ve had such good luck with them.
Power and Storage
Power: Never travel without multiple Power Banks. The Anker model is a little bulkier than the popular MagSafe models, which snap to the back of the phone. But they also re-charge your phone way faster.
Storage: Samsung T7 SSDs. They are fast and reliable. I edit every episode of Photowalks on the Samsung units, because they’re way faster and more reliable than traditional spinning disc hard drives. (After the edit, I move the project over to my massive hard drive backup system, a NAS RAID of 8 drives.) For the average person, this is the drive I recommend, even though prices have doubled in the last year. Expect to pay between $250 and $300, a price hike you can blame on the AI boom as companies scramble to get all the memory it can.
The Tripod
Yes, I still use a real tripod on every production. I need it for timelapses, group portraits, and night photography. I recently replaced a pricey lost Peak Design with a Scout series from ProMaster that I found in DC. It’s light, sturdy enough for an iPhone, and proves that you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a steady shot.
So that’s my gear list. Again, none of these will turn you into a better photographer, but they’ll allow you to have more fun on the shoot.
Questions? I’m all ears.
Meanwhile, Sunday on Photowalks on Scripps News we’ve got another Route 66 edition for you. As you know, the Mother Road turns 100 in November, and many people are looking to go out on the open road and explore 66 this summer. To make it easier, I’ve got a highlight reel for you, with 33 must stops, and itinerary suggestions. The show debuts at 10 a.m. ET.
Thanks as always for spending the time with the newsletter.
Jeff