Black Friday is an excellent time to upgrade your photo and video toolkit or snag a great gift for that aspiring TikTok star in your life. Right now, you can score some serious bargains on cameras, as well as our favorite gear for creating your own home video studio or mobile recording rig. These are the best Black Friday camera deals we’ve found so far, but we’ll be updating this post throughout the weekend.
WIRED tests products year-round and handpicked these deals based on the actual discounts, not just the discounts retailers claim to offer. Products that are sold out or no longer discounted as of publishing will be crossed out. We’ll update this guide through Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Be sure to check out our best Black Friday Deals.
Camera and Lens Deals
The Nikon Z6 II is our favorite camera for Nikon shooters. The 24-megapixel full-frame sensor has excellent dynamic range, and the phase-detect autofocus system is one of the best I’ve used. Video quality is also excellent, with 10-bit 4:2:2 N-Log output possible over HDMI. The Nikon Z6 II is also the most comfortable camera I’ve tested. But the real star of the show here is the Z-series lens system with its wider base mount, which allows more light to the corners of the sensors. The benefits of this can be seen in the incredibly fast 58-mm f/0.95 lens (manual focus) and the surprisingly small 50-mm f/1.2. If you’ve got a lot of legacy Nikon glass you want to keep using, there’s an F-to-Z mount adapter available for $250. Note that the B&H price includes a shoulder bag.
The Nikon Z7 II bests the Z6 above when it comes to megapixels. Aside from the larger 42-megapixel sensor, these two cameras are very close in features. If you can afford it though, the extra megapixels are nice to have. As with the deal above, the B&H price includes a shoulder bag, and in this case, an SD card as well.
The Canon R5 sports a massive 45-megapixel sensor and is a hefty beast, with a solid feel that reminds me of what I used to love about film cameras. Even the on-off switch is made of metal. The sensor is typically Canon, which is to say sharp, with good contrast and the characteristic Canon color rendering (it’s slightly warmer in tone to my eye). The phase-detect autofocus is fast and accurate. It’s not the cheapest camera by any means, but this is the lowest price we’ve seen.
This is a great deal on our favorite action camera for recording your outdoor adventures. The GoPro Hero 12 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) just launched in September and the previous model is still selling for $300, which makes this a pretty sweet deal. Not only do you get the latest version, but you also get two batteries and a mini tripod. The Hero 12 isn’t a huge change from the Hero 11, but it does have better battery life and can shoot HDR video in 5.3K. I still haven’t been able to overheat it in three months of trying. If none of that matters to you, you can grab the GoPro Hero 11 for $298 ($51 off).
DJI’s Action 3 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is last year’s model, but it’s still a fine camera—at this price, it’s probably the best value action cam you can get. The image quality doesn’t match the GoPro Hero 12 (or the new DJI Action 4), but it’s good enough for most people with 4K video and 12-megapixel stills. It has a great design with a magnetic clip system that puts GoPro to shame. The battery life is also outstanding.
Panasonic’s mirrorless cameras have been the go-to for independent filmmaking for years. The GH6 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) continues that trend with great image stabilization for those handheld shots, Apple ProRes support, and some great extras like a built-in accelerometer to display lean and tilt. Battery life could be better, but otherwise, this is a solid choice for anyone wanting to shoot high-quality video on a budget.
Camera Strap and Bag Deals
Wandrd’s Rogue sling (formerly called Roam) is the best everyday sling bag for carrying your camera and gear. It can be carried as a sling, messenger, or waist pack, and because the soft padding conforms to your back, it’s comfy to wear for long periods. The mix of 840-denier and 1680D ballistic nylon and water-resistant YKK zippers make it feel like it’s worth twice its price too. The 3-liter version is on sale for $87 ($23 off) and the mid-size 6L is on sale for $111 ($28 off). Not sure what size you need? We have a handy explainer.
Moment’s Rugged Sling is aimed at street photographers who trek around all day. It has a modular organization system inside, and its weatherproof fabric is made from recycled sails (technically it’s recycled polyester fiber and film, made by Northsail). There’s a large zippered front pocket that makes it easy to get to your gear, and the “winged” rear padding design makes it super comfortable on your back. The larger 100-liter size is also on sale for $90 ($60 off).
This is been my camera strap for going on eight years now and I still love it. It’s light, comfortable, and perfect for the average mirrorless camera. Now, full disclosure, if I had a 300-mm or larger bazooka wildlife lens, this isn’t what I’d use, but for my Fujifilm and Sony A7 cameras, this thing is perfect. I also love that it easily converts to a wrist strap. Simplr has one sale a year and this is it.
Mobile Photography and Video Deals
Moment redesigned its lenses this year and the new T-Series lenses will not work with older cases. That doesn’t matter if you’re just getting started and that’s why we like this deal. You get a new T-Series case with two mobile lenses (you can pick which lenses—we suggest the fisheye and anamorphic. Be aware that the lenses are backordered. Moment says they should ship around December 8.
As noted above, Moment has redesigned its lenses. This is the old lens, which we’ve always liked, but we wouldn’t suggest investing unless you already have an M-Series lens mount for your phone. If you do, this is a decent deal on what we’ve always thought was the company’s best lens. Otherwise, you’re better off with the new lens kit above.
Lume Cube’s Creator Kit is a mobile studio in a box. You get a Lume Cube light, a compact tripod that can open up to 55 inches in length, a shotgun mic with a windscreen, and a universal phone mount with clips to attach all of these accessories together. The mic quality is solid, and the windscreen keeps your voice clear and crisp even when recording in the outside world. It’s a great all-in-one solution for mobile video recording.
Lume’s mobile tripod is very stable, but the best part is that the ends of the clamp double as cold shoe mounts, so you can hook up a microphone and a compact video light for a full on-the-go studio. It’s fairly comfortable to grip and carry if you are moving around as you film. Our only gripe is that you can’t adjust the height.
Tripods, Lighting, and Microphone Deals
Good lighting is key to good video. This ring light provides great lighting and is easy to set up, just slot your phone into the universal mount in the middle and you’ll cast light on your face as you film (vertically or horizontally). The light gets bright enough to illuminate your face even in the darkest of rooms, and you can adjust the brightness or color temperature to make the white tones cooler or warmer. You just need to make sure to put it near a power source to keep it plugged in via the provided USB-C cable (you can use it with a power bank in a pinch).
You can hold up a lavalier microphone like everyone tends to do on TikTok these days, or you can upgrade to a wireless microphone system—no pesky wires! I love the DJI Mic (8/10, WIRED Recommends). It comes in a small case that includes two transmitters and receivers, so you can mic up two people. The case also includes a Lightning or USB-C adapter for the transmitter, so you can plug it into any smartphone. The sound quality is good, the range from how far you can move away from the receiver is excellent, and it’s just all-around simple to use.
We love Anker’s wireless mic system. It comes in a wonderful case that lets you magnetically recharge the two transmitters as well as the receiver. Even better, you have the option to plug the system into a variety of devices. There’s a Lightning adapter and USB-C adapter in the case itself, or you can use the Aux cable to plug it into your camera. The audio quality is solid too. Be sure to click the coupon to get the full deal.
This is one of the most compact tripods on the market—it’ll fit in the water bottle pouch of your backpack. Despite the compact storage size, it doesn’t compromise on height or stability. There’s a slightly lighter carbon-fiber version as well, but it’s expensive even on sale. Unless weight is your primary concern, this aluminum version does the job. You get a built-in phone mount, but we suggest grabbing the universal head adapter so you can pair it with a fluid head like the one below.
We love this tripod head for shooting stationary things, like products. Shooting any object head-on without any movement is very dull. You may as well just show a still photo. Fluid heads let you smoothly pan and tilt your camera around so you can add some motion to your B-roll footage. WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu has been using this for more than three years with no issues.
Fujifilm Instax and Instant Camera Deals
Fujifilm’s Link Wide is my favorite Instax printer if only for its size: those gloriously big Instax Wide prints just look better. They are pricier though at around $1.20 per print (print price varies by quantity). The Instax Wide has its own dedicated app that works well and has plenty of fun layouts and premade templates. The only thing I don’t like here is that it charges off a USB-A cable. This deal has been running since early October, so it’s not really a Black Friday sale, but it is the lowest price we’ve seen and a great deal. Note that this does not include film, you’ll want to grab a pack of Instax Wide Film ($14) as well.
Our favorite for parties, Fujifilm’s Mini Link 2 prints images from your phone. Fujifilm’s new mobile app is much better than its past efforts and includes some extras like Party Print, which creates collages from multiple phones, while Match Test takes images of two people (or two images of one person) and prints a combined image. It’ll also tell you how “compatible” it thinks the pair is, which is gimmicky, but what party doesn’t lighten up with a little gimmickry?
The Instax Mini 40 isn’t a camera I’ve used much, but it’s roughly the same as other Instax models in that it features automatic exposure, a plastic lens that’s passable, but not great, and a built-in selfie mirror. It shoots the roughly credit card-sized Instax Mini prints. This deal includes a pack of film and is the same price as the deal that doesn’t include a pack of film, so avoid that one.
