Birthday Present Ideas for Someone Newly Interested in Photography

My brothers birthday is today (yea I know, I'm late) and he has recently gotten into photography. Does anyone have suggestions for an inexpensive (~$50 or under) photography-related gift that would be useful for someone who's just getting into photography? He's using a Powershot A-series P&S on manual mode to learn exposure, etc and has been reading "Understanding Exposure", which he got from the library as well.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

$50 amazon card?

Educational version of Lightroom?

The 3rd edition of Understanding Exposure and Learning to See Creatively, and a gorillapod or ultrapod.

inkista wrote in post #14446989
The 3rd edition of Understanding Exposure and Learning to See Creatively,

Both very good books, however I was able to get them at my local library as well so might not be worth the money. I would say a gift card is best.

gift card would work, given your time constraints

I've thought about a gift card, but think it'd be more fun to find some useful photography-related thing. My late timing is not a concern. I won't see him for a while to give it to him anyway.

I thought about the educational version of lightroom (or a similar program as well), since he was asking about them the other day. Unfortunately, I'm not a student or educator!!

Littlejon Dsgn wrote in post #14447009
Both very good books, however I was able to get them at my local library as well so might not be worth the money. ...

Ah. You have a good well-funded library. Mine only has the 1st edition of Understanding Exposure. You know, the one that was written for film, without any digital information in it at all, and no f/22 diffraction effect note. Given how copiously he pushes using f/22 throughout that book, to me that note in the 3rd edition's important.

You could burn a disk with the Gimp and RawTherapee, and the CHDK build for his camera on it, but then you'd be seen as really cheap.

inkista wrote in post #14447884
Ah. You have a good well-funded library. Mine only has the 1st edition of Understanding Exposure. You know, the one that was written for film, without any digital information in it at all, and no f/22 diffraction effect note. Given how copiously he pushes using f/22 throughout that book, to me that note in the 3rd edition's important.

You could burn a disk with the Gimp and RawTherapee, and the CHDK build for his camera on it, but then you'd be seen as really cheap.

Yes the local libraries are well stocked, if the local one does not have it they will pull it from a different and ship it to my local branch at no cost. I drop a couple bucks in the donation box every time I check out a book to make sure I do my part to keep it that way.

Even if you have a great local library, having your own copies of good books is a nice thing. I like having different texts on hand rather than having to run down and hope they have it in. Also easier to pull out and hand to someone who shows interest.

Luckless wrote in post #14450263
Even if you have a great local library, having your own copies of good books is a nice thing. I like having different texts on hand rather than having to run down and hope they have it in. Also easier to pull out and hand to someone who shows interest.

That is very true, when I rent a book like that I read it a couple times and make a note sheet of the important info, I have a small binder in my camera bag that has all my notes in it.

Bear in mind this is for a birthday gift!! So, buying a couple books could be cool, a gift card may be more cool, something from the library, maybe not so cool...!

get a tripod. i think thats the first accessory that helped me take better and a greater range of photos.

if hes comfortable with manual mode, get him CHDK. its free!

A new external hard drive to store all his photos. LOL

as a fun gift how about a lens cup?

edit: although come to think of it, maybe seeming a L lens then finding out its not real be more of a disappointment after the initial excitement?