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Gifts related to hobbies or passions of your friends and family are often well received. For the content creator in your life, I’ve pulled together a list of some potential gift ideas that would be appreciated (at least by me) and show that you support their creative work. I’ve separated the list into two categories, based on whether you know some details about the gear they use or their personal preferences.
Know Some Details?
These ideas require some knowledge of the kinds of gear the recipient uses, or in some cases their personal preferences.
Camera Batteries – USB-C
This one requires you to know the camera(s) that the recipient uses, to ensure you get the correct batteries. Camera batteries usually require charging either in the camera itself, or with a dedicated battery charger. But companies like SmallRig and K&F Concept have started making compatible batteries for most camera manufacturers that incorporate a USB-C port for charging with any charger or power bank that you already have, making it easier to charge your batteries in any scenario. Just be sure to get the right one! If you know the camera model they own, it’s easy to look up the correct battery on the manufacturer’s website or simply by searching the model on a site like B&H Photo and reviewing the specifications.
Memory Cards
Having an extra memory card is always a good thing if you record your video to SD or CFexpress cards. Again, this requires you to know the type of memory cards the recipient uses, including the card speeds that they need. V60 SD cards are commonly used for reporting up to 4K 30fps, while V90 cards are needed for recording 4K 60fps, and the blazing-fast CFexpress cards come in Type A and Type B varieties. Capacity is the other major detail – I would generally recommend going for at least 128GB because recording in 4K quality eats up storage quickly.
For SD cards, I recommend Sandisk Extreme Pro, ProGrade, and Lexar. For CFexpress cards, I recommend Sony, Lexar, and Sabrent.
Artlist.io Subscription
This one requires you to know if the recipient has a content-creation service subscription like Artlist.io already. They also don’t exactly have a gift subscription, but they suggest that you sign up and pay for an account using the recipient’s email, and then they receive the sign-on information for their account and establish their own password. Feel free to contact Artlist’s customer service if you have questions about that.
Artlist is an all-in-one service for content creators that offers a massive library of royalty-free music, stock footage, sound effects, templates, and plugins for video editing. Subscriptions are available monthly or yearly, and tools like this can really help content creators improve the production quality of their video content.
Quality Audio Cables
Now onto the audio side of things – if you know that the recipient uses XLR microphones (not USB microphones), some high-quality cables can be a nice gift. When it comes to length, you can always give a set of different lengths, such as 3ft, 6ft, and 10ft, unless you happen to know what they use or need.
There are several manufacturers known for making excellent XLR cables, including Mogami, Canare, and Gotham. One of my favorite cable makers is World’s Best Cables, available through amazon. They assemble cables from manufacturers like Mogami with top-tier connectors from Neutrik and offer them for relatively affordable prices.
Another option if you want your gift to offer a pop of color would be to go with Rode’s XLR cable collection, made from Canare cable and Neutrik connectors, and available in seven colors.
NuPhy Air75 V2 Keyboard
This option requires you to know the recipient’s personal preferences when it comes to keyboards. The NuPhy Air75 V2 is one of my favorite pieces of new tech to come out in 2023, and is quite possibly the best 75% low profile mechanical keyboard on the market currently.
You will want to know some of their personal preferences for two reasons – one is that this is a low-profile keyboard. If they happen to prefer regular/high profile keyboards, this may not be a good fit. The second reason is that the Air75 V2 has no less than seven different options for the switches, including linear, tactile, and clicky. Linear is a good bet if you have no idea what they like (Cowberry is my personal favorite), but if they like tactile switches that give a little bump of feedback when typing, the Moss option is quite nice. Clicky switches (gateron blue) are the loudest and give the most feedback – generally not a great idea if you’re not sure what their preferences are. The good news is that the Air75 V2 is fully hot-swappable, meaning the switches can be changed out easily if they want to swap them.
I have a full review of the Air75 V2 if you want to check out more details or watch the video.
Microphone or Headphones
My last suggestion in this category requires you to know the exact thing the recipient wants. Content creators often have gear in mind as their next “upgrade” and this may include a new microphone or pair of headphones. This can be a great gift opportunity and save them the expense of a planned upgrade at the same time.
Of course, they may also have their eye on a new camera, but I’m trying to keep these gift ideas to items likely to cost anywhere from under $100 to a few hundred dollars. If you’re springing for a new camera, I’ll be happy to send my shipping information 😃.
Have Less Info?
These gift ideas are great for any content creator and don’t require any advance knowledge about their gear or setup.
A/V Multi-Tool
I never knew how much I needed one of these until I got one like this from SmallRig. These A/V multi-tools range in price from $15-35 and all offer similar tools, but perhaps the best one is the flat bar, which is wide enough to turn those pesky 3/8 to 5/8 adapters for microphone stands. These are also pretty small in size so they make great stocking stuffers.
External SSD
Everyone needs a good portable SSD, for a multitude of reasons. Content creators often need several, and larger storage capacities. Unless the content creator you know has a huge NAS bank and tons of portable drives already, chances are they’ll appreciate having an extra SSD.
For content creation purposes, I would recommend drives that have at least 1,000MB/s read and write speeds. That will ensure the recipient has quick transfers of big video files and can even use the drive for external recording if they have a need for that. For capacity, I would suggest 2TB or larger. My top recommendations are:
Samsung T7 Shield – better drop & water resistance (good for travel)
Crucial X9 Pro – smallest size
USB Power Bank
Another tool that content creators appreciate having multiple of us USB power banks. Even though I record indoors in my studio space about 95% of the time, I still use at least one power bank every time for powering my audio recorder because I don’t have an A/C power cable long enough for it. They’re also great for powering gear on the go when you don’t have access to wall power.
I personally have and trust Anker power banks, though there are plenty on the market. Two of my favorites are the Anker 20,000mAh powerbank which provides 20w power delivery and the Anker 24,000mAh powerbank that provides up to 65w power delivery.
Friction Clamp Arms
These are another studio “helper” item that I couldn’t live without. They come in multiple sizes but the general idea is that they have a clamp on one end that can hold on very tight. The other end is usually a 1/4 inch threaded mount which can connect to multiple types of mounts and devices. You can use these things to mount just about anything to just about anything, and they come in very handy for many different purposes in a recording space.
My favorite affordable “magic” arm is from SmallRig, and it comes in 5.5 inch and 9.8 inch sizes.
Compact RGB Video Light
My last suggestion for this category is a compact RGB video light, like the 20 watt M20c from Zhiyun. I thought this would be the kind of thing you have to have a very specific purpose for…until I got one. It’s actually very handy to have around and more versatile than I realized. 20 watts of output is actually quite powerful for a light of this size, and the built-in power bank allows you to use it wirelessly for around 40 minutes at full power.
The RGB and bi-color functionality means you can get a full range of light temperatures in addition to RGB, so you can use the M20c as a hair light, a motivator light, general color accent, or for lighting smaller scenes like product b-roll.
Out of Ideas?
Don’t underestimate the power of the gift card! (or e-gift card). Retailers like B&H Photo and Adorama offer a huge selection of gear that content creators need, and being able to get the exact thing that you wouldn’t expect others to know about is a better gift than you might think.
