Retirement gift for an avid hobbyist photographer

lykaon78

Golden Member
Sep 5, 2001
1,174
9
81
A guy I work with is retiring this month and I need a good gift for his retirement. I know he shoots with a nice Canon but other that, very little. What is a good retirement gift in the $50-100 range for a digital photographer?

I can buy a gift card but something more personal would be preferred.
 

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
18,828
184
106
Best "personal" gift I can think of is a compact, Joby Gorillapod SLR + tripod, for ~US$ 80 -- I have one, don't trust it to hold my full-frame to be honest but I do trust it to with my commercial, "drop-resistant" infrared camera for some reason. There's a more expensive Groillapod Focus for US$ 100 too.

Base model, knock-off, or used GoPro Hero is another idea. Might go over budget though.

Otherwise, he's probably very particular about the equipment he uses but could use a gift card.
 

Syborg1211

Diamond Member
Jul 29, 2000
3,297
26
91
It's hard since you don't know what he has, but here are some suggestions. A hot shoe bubble level. An Eyefi sd card. A padded camera insert that allows him to protect his gear in any non-camera bag he might have - Tenba makes cool ones. The gorillapod was a great suggestion. Lens cleaning supplies. A lumu light meter that he can attach to his phone and use. A portable external hard drive to back up all his photos while on vacation - they even make some that have sd card readers built in so he doesn't need a computer. I'm not sure how much those run though. If you get a gift card, you could do it to a printing service.
 

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
Assuming the retirement hasn't come and gone, and he's into hiking, a Peak Design Capture Clip is a useful tool in that price range.
 

Sean Kyle

Senior member
Aug 22, 2016
255
20
51
A Capture Clip is definitely a good idea, but I would also suggest you to check out a Quadcopter with Camera attached. I think you will find a decent one in the said price
 

Beer4Me

Senior member
Mar 16, 2011
564
20
76
Canon Selphy CP1200? $100 Prints excellent 4x6 borderless photos, quality is better than any photo inkjet since it uses dye-sublimation technology. We bought one for printing out pics of the new kiddo.