Black Friday 2022 is a great opportunity for photographers to buy not only equipment, but also digital services and software for photo processing. I’m going to focus mainly on software, because here on Black Friday there are really cool opportunities that I often use.

When is Black Friday in 2022?

Black Friday this year falls on Friday, November 25. However, we can expect different variants, where stores will already want to fight for our attention earlier or later. Usually, Black Friday is followed by submitted promotions under the name Black Week, or Black Weekend. November 28 is also Cyber Monday, which is dedicated to online stores, but at the moment this border has blurred a lot, so probably everyone will use it.

Hardware or software on black friday?

Regarding photographic equipment on Black Friday, I would not expect fireworks, because the equipment in the pre-Christmas period is usually in demand, and in post-pandemic times it is usually missing on store shelves and stores are not willing to lower prices. I would not count on any larger discounts and promotions for something that without promotion is hard to get today.

I would rather expect a promotion with prices before covid, or a sale of some really old models, but here too there are exceptions, because the new is the enemy of the old (people fixate on old products that have a history of ratings and opinions, which is not always a good choice, but I would have to make a separate entry on this topic). After all, I will tell you how to shoot good deals on the equipment you want to buy and at the same time not to be made in bambuko.

With software and services it is a little easier and more pleasant because digital products as they are in the promotion, it is almost always without a quantitative limit. You just have to hit the right moment. Sometimes it is also worth subscribing to the newsletter of a given software manufacturer. I will probably collect the most of these opportunities for you.

amazon Prime price cuts

One of the options for buying photographic equipment is Amazon Prime, which for some time now can really offer good discounts. Even before Prime, by e-mail, the opportunity to order much cheaper from the Amazon.es WD RED 6TB drives for my NAS server, which were inserted into a RAID case on USB. Everything came by courier in a few days. There was also no problem with the invoice. At the moment, most of the opportunities I see on the web come from Amazon.

Free amazon Prime account for 30 days

A month before Black Friday, you can create an Amazon Prime account for free for 30 days. Although comparing their offer to, for example, Allegro Smart, it is to pay 49 PLN, I have access not only to promotions, special offers and free shipping, but also there are a lot of interesting productions on Prime Video. (I recommend the series “The boys” about superheroes in the hardcore version).

In this post I will be adding all the bargains found on an ongoing basis, also from Amazon.

How not to be deceived on Black Friday and look for real bargains?

Black Friday is the best time to make an opportunity out of something that is not, because stores can plan a pricing strategy so that they raise prices up earlier, and then lower on Black Friday and almost everything is on sale. I myself once worked as a supervisor at a Promotional Campaign of Coca-Cola (when sugar was cheap) I witnessed how people encouraged by hostesses bought 4-packs of Coca-Cola for about PLN 10 with a promotional sign, and for pieces there were PLN 2 each. With a smile on their faces, they put these four-packs in baskets and rushed to the checkout.

Although real bargains happen, most of them are standard price, next to which they cross out, for example, the RRP (Recommend Retail Price), which may be from a year ago and no store sells at this price anymore. Fortunately, there are different methods for because you check it, which you will find later in this entry.

Check price history

A simple way to check if the price is actually there is to check how it has developed in recent months. Of course, you cannot always count on all this to be cheaper, because the economic crisis has shown us that the opposite is true. Due to the fact that it is difficult to buy LED scanners for computers today, their prices have doubled. So it’s hard to count on the fact that their prices will suddenly fall below the historical ones due to Black Friday. A good example are Epson Perfection V19 scanners, which used to cost PLN 299 in stores.

Wayback Machine

If you want to sniff further, you can use the Wayback Machine website, which archives websites and allows you to go back in time even a few years. You just have to bear in mind that after the Covid-19 pandemic there were a lot of problems with supply chains, and everyone had to prepare for remote work and the prices of computers, printers and scanners went into space. To this day, we still feel the effects of this.

FakeFriday 2021

One of the hits of the last Black Friday was the website FakeFriday.org, which, after entering the name of the product, showed their historical price in popular online stores. I haven’t seen an update for 2022 yet, but let’s wait. So far I have another way that I use on bierżaco.

My favorite tool is “Price History” on the Ceneo.pl where I can not only check at what price a given product used to be, but also set an alert for a specific amount. In this way, if I do not have the pressure to buy something, I can wait for the right moment. In this way, you can also determine before Black Friday how much you want to spend on a new lens and if there is no cool price, then wait a little longer.

How to look for Black Friday deals with Ceneo?

Jesse we are already logged in to Ceneo, and for this we have the Ceneo application for the phone we can:

• Add products to your favorites and receive notifications about price changes by phone or email
• Check your price history before buying
• Set an alert for a specific amount

It is known that the end of the year is the most intense period in trade and a lot of promotions are only after Christmas, because stores do not want to stay with the goods in the spring, because in the last quarter they usually buy the most. So it’s good to have cash set aside and set such an alert all the time, without waiting for Black Friday, because you never know when the right opportunity will come.

All Black Friday 2022 occasions prepared by Ceneo can be found by clicking on the banner below. You will find there all store promotions, and discounted products divided into categories.

Pepper

Another place where you can look for bargains is the Pepper website, which works a bit like a trench, but with promotions. Pepper users themselves add promotions from online and stationary stores, so it may be that something interesting is to get only locally in given cities or stationary stores. There are also published price errors, but those usually when they come to Pepper are often canceled by stores.

On Pepper you can also set notifications for specific keywords, or you can get a newsletter with the occasions of the day, but this is often a mix of occasions from games to garden shears.

What did I buy during the previous Black Fridays?

Recently, I’ve been trying to postpone a lot of digital purchases to Black Friday, because as I mentioned at the beginning. These are not cameras that end up on store shelves, due to the lack of electronics. So there is a good chance that they will want to get our money in this hot pre-Christmas period,

JPEGmini – the best program to compress JPEG files

JPEGmini seems like an unnecessary expense for an amateur, but looking from a business perspective, where every year I take thousands of photos that I have to keep on a NAS server, disks and flash drives, it turns out that within a year this purchase pays off. After buying JPEGmini, I spent hours compressing files on my NAS, where I already wanted to replace the drives, but from tens of thousands of photos I regained a lot of space.

An investment for the future

By the way, it saves me space in online galleries for customers, pendrives, backups and, above all, on hosting, which affects its cost (I use hosting euhost.co (former serwer.io) where I have 40GB of space on SSDs) and the performance of the entire website, which also affects its position on the Internet. It is already today that the purchase of JPEGmini has paid me back and is already part of my work, thanks to the integration with Lightroom, all photos are already properly compressed by up to 80%!

How much did I buy JPEGmini for?

I bought my JPEGmini Pro Suite license already in 2020 for 78.60 €, which currently costs 89$ + VAT. Most importantly, this is a lifetime version that I could update for a year and I also caught on to support compressing video files and HEIC files to JPEG (photos from iPhone). This is not a mega discount, but the purchase of JPEGmini has already paid me back.

In 2021, on BlackFriday, you could buy JPEGmini by 25% less, so maybe this year it will be similar. You have to follow the JPEGmini website – Photo optimization for creatives and preferably social media, because there may be some coupons there.

RAWSIE – RAW file compression

RAWSIE is also an application for compressing photos, but already for RAW files, which I approached very skeptically, but testing it for free (30 photos / day) and checking all tests, reviews and opinions with a large dose of skepticism. Because as you know, YouTubers and bloggers like money from cooperation and will say everything you need.

RAWSIE vs JPEGmini

Actually, I have a dilemma whether it should start with RAWSIE or JPEGmini, if I had to choose the first one, because JPEGmini, however, these are mainly photos that we share and publish, so they take up space in online galleries, flash drives and our hosting. On the other hand, having a large collection of photos since 2009, where over time I started to leave RAW files, it has accumulated a lot of it and at the moment my files from Sony A7III with 50MB weigh an average of 11MB each. Not only do they now take up less space, but LR itself works faster with them.

In my opinion, you have to count for yourself how many RAWs you have in backup, and how many photos you keep on servers, but over time it’s good to have just both of these applications.

How much did I get RAWSIE for on Black Friday?

RAWSIE can be purchased as a subscription for $ 79 / year, and in the Lifetime version for $ 199 + VAT.
I bought my lifetime license for $ 179 + VAT and I am silent that I did it then, because today there is no longer this option, and looking at how much GB of space I save thanks to it and I will be able to save in the future, I consider it a great purchase. The application is still in version 0.9 and will certainly develop and the creators want to develop it on an ongoing basis, so he gave up the lifetime plan.

Quadralite Reporter 360 TTL

In 2019, on Black Friday, there was information about the actual Quadralite promotions —50% and I bought a very powerful Quadralite Reporter 360 mobile lamp for bizneos sessions, which can cope even on sunny days. I think I caught this opportunity from the Quadralite newsletter.

I bought a reporter 360 then for only 947 PLN, and today this lamp is still worth 2x more and costs about 1900 PLN.

GeneratePress – a very light template for WordPress

GeneratePress is, next to Blocksy, one of the lightest and best wordpress templates to optimize, which is free, but gives the most possibilities in the paid version. A good template is not the only thing for an optimally created website, but it is the basis from which it is worth starting.

Free and delicious wordpress templates.

The mistakes I made at the beginning of my adventure with wordpress were the choice of either free templates that lost support and had limited capabilities, or I had a problem with them and it was hard to count on any help.

Then I used paid templates, which had a lot of water sprays, but were often based on bulilders, not Gutenberg blocks, which caused problems with the performance of such a site. In addition, it tied me strongly to a given template / bulilder and while it was easy to create a nice and responsive page on the Uncode template, it was difficult for me to optimize it well, and Google’s requirements in this matter strongly emphasize the speed of landing the page.

For how much did I buy the GenratePress template on Black Friday?

During Black Friday, I bought the Lifetime version, which has no limit on websites, full support and updates for $199 from $249. At that time, there was also a promotion for the annual version, but I found that I prefer to have peace of mind for longer, especially since it is really a lifetime version that also includes all future updates and support, without a time limit.

What will I be waiting for this year on Black Friday?

My shopping list is quite long and certainly there would not be enough for everything, but if I have the opportunity to jerk a little today, and it will be useful to me in the future, it is worth looking for opportunities. Some of these things are rather dreams, but it’s good to have your finger on the pulse, because sometimes you will get an opportunity like Quadralite for 50% of the price, so I follow these products.

• BenQ PD3205U Monitor – as an additional 32″ 4K monitor with HUB and charging function. It is not a graphics monitor like the NEC PA271Q, but as they say for facebook and the internet enough.
• Sigma Art 35 1.4 DG DN to Sony FE and even better version 1.2 DG DN , to have a bigger jump from Sigma 35 2.0 , which is light and cool, but has its drawbacks.
• Sigma 24-70 2.8 DG DN to Sony – because sometimes there is not enough space and time to change lenses and usually these are events where I also use the lamp. Light 2.8 in this case does not bother me.
• Sony FE 24-70mm F/2.8 GM2 – if there was a great opportunity that I would get it at the price of Sigma, I will be very surprised, but it is good to have a hand on the pulse.
• Sony 70-200mm F/2.8 GM2 OSS – because sometimes I can not go somewhere to make a portrait I also consider the first version and 70-200 F / 4, because it is not a lens of the first need, but sometimes I can not get closer and it would be nice to have it up my sleeve.
• Sony A9II – although I am not a Sony fanatic and my thoughts are inclined towards the Canon R5 and R6, I consider the A9II to be a suitable camera for reportage than the A7III, which has its problems like the risky silent shutter mode, due to the slow sensor that suffers from a terrible rolling shutter.
• Sony A7IV – because less silting, better display, faster AF and protection of the matrix with a shutter when replacing glasses as in a SLR, but also without pressure.
• Canon R5 – despite the smaller choice of glasses, expensive shutter replacement, it is the perfect mirrorless camera for me. I would be happy to try it because it is at work in a set with a 28-70mm F/2.0 lens. Fast matrix like in the A9II, which on a silent shutter practically does not suffer from rolling shutter, quiet shutter, top display and metal foot for flash units. And the screen, and the viewfinder, which look much better than in the A7III, which after switching from nikon D750 simply hurts my visual feelings.
• Fuji X100V – a beautiful camera for holidays and street. Terribly expensive and hard to get, but I would be happy to take him in. Although it will probably end up with some X-T30II because I always wanted to have Fuji for trips.
• Ricoh Theta Z1 – I wanted to go back to 360 photos, but instead of spending a lot of time gluing and processing photos from a SLR, Often the customer underestimates such quality, and Google destroys it by compression. In this way, I could take more and faster photos, which would offer a nice product, at a good price, because the market for virtual walks has been spoiled a bit by guests pretending to be “people from Google”.
• Viofo A119 V3 car camera – It may not be before work, but I move a lot by car on orders. Since my previous one was long after the warranty, she was catching memory errors and could no longer be counted on, so it’s time for something better. From what I checked after samples of recordings, this is probably the best car camera up to PLN 500, but some say that it has some deficiencies in parking mode. All I have to do is record idiots on the road.

I also have the opportunity that there will be some sensible offer for JPEGmini users taking, because I have already lost support for updating, and my version, although it works nicely, it is the x64 version, and subsequent updates are optimized for Apple M1 / M2 processors.

Black Friday Deals 2022

Here I will give the most interesting opportunities just before and during Black Friday, so stay tuned.

Digital products and services for the photographer on Black Friday 2022

Rank Math Pro

If you have a website on Wordpres and you care about good SEO, then the ideal tool that helps in this is Rank Math Pro. Everyone used to use the Yoast SEO plugin, but with Rank Math it already looks archaic. Today it is my obligatory plugin, helping me to position my websites, thanks to which I acquire about 80% of customers.

Right now, you’ll get the Pro Plan for $59 instead of $129. And a guarantee of the same price when extended for another year. At this price, you can install the plugin on any number of your websites, and track up to 1000 keywords.

Adobe Creative Cloud and other plans

Now that you’re here, I’ll tell you the secret of how to buy Adobe CC plans very cheaply. For this you will need:

• VPN – it can be free, but I use NordVPN also recommended by Niebiezpiecznik.pl. It is also useful on holidays and public WiFi networks.
• Multi-currency card – I recommend creating a free Revolut account (you can use a free virtual card immediately after account verification)

If you have it all ready, it’s best to create a new account from an email address that you have not used yet, because usually after creating an account, Adobe sets the region to us permanently. You can also try to write for a request to support, but why lean out.

1. Launch VPN choose Turkey
2. You have to go to the Turkish page from this link – https://www.adobe.com/tr/ or change it manually select from the menu in the lower left corner. If you do not understand Turkish, you can fire up the Polish/English version in incognito, or do everything through a browser with a translation.
3. You buy with your Revolut card number. It may be that you will have to confirm that no one wants to rob you, because Revolut can fool you through VPN and shopping in lira. Do not enter a NIP on the company, because the transaction will probably convert you into euros or dollars.

Blocks Blocks for WordPress up to -30% for Halloween

If I had known blocks more about Blocksy before buying GeneratePress, they would probably be on my pages today. These are some of the most interesting blocks that have great performance, without builders, and at the same time a plethora of options to customize the entire template. In this way, we have a great base for creating a website or a store based on WooCommerce.

A halloween promotion has just started where you can buy -30% annual versions and -20% lifetime versions, which I recommend, because in this way you can already for $ 225 licenses for an unlimited number of pages. You can also check for $35 if it’s something for you.

There is also a very good free version of Blocksy, but when you buy the Pro version you get access to all the features. If you go to the “Pricing” tab, you also have a comparison of features in the Free and Pro versions.

The offer is valid only a few days, but it is also worth following it on Black Friday, because maybe there will be even better discounts. Who knows.

Retouch4me – AI plugins to speed up photo retouching

I learned about R4M plugins from Tomasz Puszczyk – an extensive post about them can be found at this link . At the moment, as on Blocksy, the Halloween offer has been launched with a 25% discount on all plugins.

Retouch4me plugins are a few AI-based plugins that also work as separate applications, but like most of these types of plugins, it’s better to fire them up in Adobe Photoshop. Each of the plugins costs about $ 124-149 and each is used for something different, but the most interesting of them are “Heal” and “Dodge & Burn”, which can save us a lot of time. So if someone deals with professional photo retouching and devotes a lot of time to it, he will certainly appreciate such a tool that gives really great results.

We can choose from plug-ins:

• Heal – removing imperfections
• Dodge & Burn – every retoucher knows what’s going on
• Eyes Bundle – a set of 2 plugins. One removes the veins in the eyes, and the other illuminates them.
• Fabric – irons clothes
• Skin Mask – marks in the photo only the area of skin on the face and body
• Portrait Volume – I do not know how to describe the operation of this plugin. It gives more depth in portraits, a bit like D&B but on a larger scale, e.g. emphasizing facial features more.
• Clean Backdrop – helps clean the background/cyclorama in studio photos
• Skin Tone – improves and evens out skin tone
• White Teeth – Whitens teeth like Colgate

Of course, you don’t have to have them all and not every one works perfectly yet, but you can download them for free and try to see if you like this effect. I think that this is the future of retouching and unfortunately a lot of people who have mastered retouching at a basic level, either will not have anything to do, or will be able to go a step further and not focus on repetitive tasks, but on a more artistic approach to photo processing.

Photographic equipment for Black Friday 2022

So far I have not seen anything interesting, but I will add cool opportunities if I hit something. 🙂

Obiektyw Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM (Sony E)

One of the most decent zooms from Sony in the first version, appeared in the BEA Foto store by as much as PLN 1,000 less. I will wait until the GM II version appears at a better price, because I do not have the need to buy such a zoom. Although if I finally learn how to film and edit films, it will probably tempt me more.

Manfrotto Tripod MK055XPRO3-BHQ2 with MHXPRO-BHQ2 head

A sensational tripod that I do not have to present, now to buy for PLN 999 in the GearPro store, so hurry up. I have already ordered mine, due to the fact that I do not have a tripod with a broken head that I can use perpendicular to the ground. You can see more about this tripod and what a good tripod is in general in the video from DR5000.

Nikon D7500

Do not confuse with the Nikon D750. This is a high model of SLR camera with APS-C matrix for hobbyists and photography enthusiasts. Recently, despite problems with the availability of equipment, the D7500 has fallen from about 5000 to 4600 PLN. This is not a mega bargain, but maybe someone was waiting for a better price. If anything, I also invite you to the entry about the equipment that I use to photograph events .

Sony A7 III

If you have not yet been frightened by the price of nikon D7500, then Sony A7III is recently at a very good price after the recent turmoil when used copies went even for 7000 zł. Today you can buy a new copy for 7499 PLN, so probably not bad, only more that CashBack works on it (more info below). It is true that this is already an old body, which has its problems, but they will still become famous as the cheap and good one. I have been using it for about a year and I have mixed feelings, but maybe I will write a separate post about it, because for many people after switching from the SLR camera it will be a big upgrade when it comes to AF speed and ISO sensitivity.

Recently, there have also been nice discounts on the Sony A7IV , which goes below 9999 PLN. It is possible that this is simply due to the fall in the dollar exchange rate, but if someone was thinking about buying a new Body, then I think this is a good opportunity, despite the lack of CashBack for this model, then you can register it and get Lens CashBack for lenses.

Canon EOS R

Another quite popular can, this time from Canon, which is a little younger design, having more megapixels than the A7III, but I will not tell you too much about it, because at this price I chose the A7III. It is not a great offer to pull out of shoes, but you can already get it a few hundred cheaper. Although personally I would prefer to add to the R6, and my dream is R5. 🙂

Sony Winter CashBack 2022 to 2000 zł

Finally, Sony’s Cash Back returned not only for lenses, but also for the body, which many people have been waiting for. The more that the prices of bodies began to fall and became more available, this is the perfect time to buy.

Below you will find a list of cameras and lenses included in the promotion, and under them a link to register Cash Back.

Cameras covered by Sony Cash Back 2022/2023:

• Sony Alpha 9 II – 1500 zł return
• Sony Alpha 7R IV – 1500 zł return
• Sony Alpha 7 III – 1000 zł refund
• Alpha 7 III + LENS FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS – 2000 zł return
• Alpha 7 III + FE lens 28-70 mm F3.5-5.6 OSS – 1000 zł return
• Sony Alpha 7C – 1000 zł return
• Alpha 7C + FE lens 28-60mm F4-5.6 – 1000 zł return

Lenses covered by Sony Cash Back 2022/2023

Some of the lenses covered by Sony CashBack 2022/2023 are:

• SEL50F12GM – 1000 PLN
• SEL2470GM – 1000 PLN
• SEL1224GM – 500 PLN

How to get Sony Cash Back 2022/2023?

You must purchase a camera or lens during the promotional period from November 1, 2022 to January 15, 2023 and then by January 28, 2023 at the latest at 23:59, complete the online application form on the promotion page at www.sony.pl/cashback where you must send the serial number and information from the proof of purchase. We also need to add a photo of the proof of purchase and the serial number cut out of the box. Otherwise, our application will be rejected.

If the application is considered positively, we will receive a refund within 30-60 days from the date of submitting the application. There is a limit of 5 products for each user included in the promotion.

Stores participating in Sony CashBack

To get CashBack you must purchase a qualifying product in one of the stores below. It can also be purchases on Allegro and Amazon Marketplace if the proof of purchase contains information about the fact that it was purchased in one of these stores:

• AB Photo
• Aster / Fotostrada.pl
• Beiks
• CEWE (Fotojoker)
• Cyfrowe.pl
• E-EYE
• Photoapararacts
• Photoform
• Photo-Plus
• Komputronik
• Media Expert
• Media Markt
• We doTV
• RTV Euro AGD
• Sony Center and scentre.pl Lounges

Promotion – Welcome to Alpha

If we register the purchased Body, we can additionally get an additional Cash Back for the purchase of the lens, which you will receive after registering the camera on the Sony website. By the way, you can also get an additional year of warranty, which should inform you about the leaflet in the box with the camera.

The Welcome to Alpha promotion applies to the following cameras:

• ILCE-7M4
• ILCE-7M4K
• ILCE-7R4A
• ILCE-7R3A
• ILME-FX3
• ILCE-1
• ILME-FX6
• ILCE-6000
• ILCE-6000L
• ILCE-6000Y
• ILCE-6100Y
• ILCE-6100L
• ILCE-6100
• ILCE-6400M
• ILCE-6400L
• ILCE-6400
• ILCE-6600M
• ILCE-6600
• ILCE-7C
• – ILCE-7CL
• ILCE-7M2K
• ILCE-7M2
• ILCE-7M3K
• ILCE-7M3
• ILCE-7RM4
• ILCE-7RM3
• ILCE-7RM2
• ILCE-7SM2
• ILCE-7SM3
• ILCE-9M2
• ILCE-9
• ILME-FX6
• ILME-FX30
• ILME-FX30B
• ILCE-7RM5
• ZV-E10L
• ZV-E10

Eligible lenses in the Welcome to Alpha promotion:

• SEL2470GM2
• SELP1635G
• SEL70200GM2
• SEL14F18GM
• SEL50F12GM
• SEL35F14GM
• SEL2470GM
• SEL1635GM
• SEL70200GM
• SEL85F14GM
• SEL100400GM
• SEL100F28GM
• SEL24F14GM
• SEL135F18GM
• SEL1224GM
• SEL200600G
• SEL50F14Z
• SEL1224G
• SEL1635Z
• SEL2470Z
• SEL70200G
• SEL55F18Z
• SEL90M28G
• SEL24105G
• SEL70300G
• SEL20F18G
• SEL35F14Z
• SEL24240
• SELP28135G
• SEL1670Z
• SEL24F18Z
• SEL1655G
• SEL70350G

After registering the body, you will receive 3 promotional codes, which you can use on the Welcome to Alphpage andthere take the serial number of the lens, a promotional code that you will receive by e-mail after registering the body, the date of purchase and the name of the store. You must also attach a cut serial number from the lens box to the form.

Black Friday Promotions for Memory Cards

Black Friday deals have just appeared for memory cards in Amazon.pl. So it’s worth following the appropriate tab.

From myself I can recommend primarily SanDisk Extreme Pro cards and Samsung cards, which when using UHS-I have sufficient transfers, and by the way cool white cases. At the moment I use any body with 256GB and a few 64GB that change during the shooting.

Black Friday Hard Drive Promotions

Do you know what counts for Christmas? Memory. Hehe.

When it comes to professional photography, there is never enough memory for photos and their backups. By the way, it is probably the perfect gift for a photographer for the holidays, because sooner or later it will be useful for him to store more photos in his collection. It’s worth following the Black Friday opportunity for hard drives on Amazon.pl. You can do this by selecting the “Black Friday Deals” filter on the right side of the search engine.

If you use or plan to buy a NAS server, an interesting opportunity is WD MyCloud pockets, which are not popular, but often have WD Red server drives in them, which in such a pocket can be cheaper than bought separately.