Bare essentials

I just had a thought.

Over the few years I have had my D80, I have collected many camera equipments and gears and sold some. I found some quite useful and some tend to stay home 95% of the time. For those newbies to DSLR world, below are the things I find essential almost everyday and things I can live without for a while. This list might help you decide what to buy for yourself:

The bare essentials:

• A telephoto (18-200mm) walkaround lens
  
• A good UV filter that stays on the lens all the time
• Vertical hand grip with a built-in battery (good for over 1000 shots)
  
• 8 GB memory card (good for about 1000 Hi-Res photos)
  
• A hotshoe flash with a diffusion dome
• A (foam) bounce card
  
• A school knapsack (or if you want to be fancy, a camera case/bag)
• A point-and-shoot camera
• Leather hand strap
  

That is pretty much what I carry around with me everyday. Then, there are the stuff I leave at home that I use frequently. These are stuff I would naturally bring with me on a long trip, but if it's a short trip within the city, they stay at home:

• Micro-fiber cloth for cleaning the lens filter
  
• Dust blower
• Artic Butterfly brush for cleaning the sensor
• Wet cleaning kit for cleaning the sensor
• Rechargeable batteries for the flash (I have two sets -- one in the flash, one outside ready to be used at any time)
• Extra memory cards (I have 17GB in total I think)
• Memory card reader (I have two)
• A computer to view photos on
  
• A file server or a couple of USB disk drives (I built a RAID-5 NAS to store my photos in)
  

And then, there are items that rarely get used. They go into my luggage on long trips too:

• Tripod (I have a great OPUS tripod)
• A DYI lightsphere
• Extra lenses (my 18-200mm tend to stay on the camera all the time)
• Extra camera batteries (my vertical hand grip with the built-in battery tends to stay on my camera all the time now and I never have to switch to another battery as long as I recharge it before a shoot ... but I would carry the extra battery if I shoot an important event)
• Circular Polarizing Filter
  

That is about it. Have fun.