Going on holiday - beginner's essential kit?

New(bie) owner of a D40 with kit lens. Going away next week for a 10-day holiday - nowhere particularly demanding.

Has anyone got recommendations of essential kit, e.g. cloths/brushes etc. that I should make sure I have?

At the moment, I just have my old camera bag which will serve but nothing else. If you can include makes, all the better. (I'm UK based).

Thanks.

If you intend to go bag shopping, lowepro makes very nice bags in all sizes. Look for the allweather series.

As to other essentials, well, I'd pack a (rocket)blower and a microfiber lens cloth. Depending on your destination you may want to add a UV filter or circular polarizer as well.
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Don't wait for the Nikon D-whatever, have fun now!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/j_wijnands/

Make sure you have enough memory. It's very inexpensive now, and having an extra 1 or 2 gb card means many extra shots.
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I use a Lowpro Orion Trekker II. It is a back pack which has 2 sections. The lower section is padded with dividers where I put D80+17-80+lens hood, a 35/2, and has spare for a tele such as 70-300vr, a flash or blower. The top section, I can carry a bottle of water, a snack, some clothing, travel docs, camera accessories, etc. It can really carry a lot of stuff. When I am at the destination, and out shooting, I unload most of the stuff, and carry only the camera, and the lens and bottle of water. It is a back pack, and works like a ling. If you put the wait belt on, and take off the right shoulder belt, you can turn it around to your front to access your camera and you can change lens too. I really like it.

About the camera, before you go, make sure you blow the mirror and sensor clean. I did not, and ended up with a little dust on some of the photos. Luckily it is on the top right corner where I can clone it out or crop it out. I have been using it for a few months since I last blow it out. You can also check it by shooting at a clear blue sky to see if there are dust.

Have fun on your holiday.

Lens cleaner and blower
assorted filters, i mainly bring a circular polarizer and ND filter
spare battery just in case + charger
A few extra memory cards.
memory card reader
Way to dump the pictures off. I normally bring my laptop.
Tripod and monopod.

Now, you don't necessarily need to carry all this with you all the time.

hander said:

New(bie) owner of a D40 with kit lens. Going away next week for a
10-day holiday - nowhere particularly demanding.

Has anyone got recommendations of essential kit, e.g.
cloths/brushes etc. that I should make sure I have?

At the moment, I just have my old camera bag which will serve but
nothing else. If you can include makes, all the better. (I'm UK
based).

Thanks.

Click to expand...

where are you going?

and all I'd really bring would be a laptop to dump files on, that's about it.

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hi, I use a camera, flash, and lens. I'm also grumpy most of the time.
http://www.andrewthomasdesigns.com

' I should tell you that of all the shots I’ve taken in my TFCD portfolio-building adventures, yours are definitely my favorites – and I think we got the highest number of use-able shots as well. Point being, if you want to do some shots sometime, I’d definitely be down.' - Mandy Ingram

Thanks for the answers. Still have time to get stuff so please continue adding if you have anything. So far we have:

1) A bag - lowepro recommended.
2) A (rocket) blower - I'm presuming this is a blow cleaner thing.
3) a microfibre (UK spelling!) lens cloth
4) UV filter/polarizers
5) Spare memory
6) Spare battery
7) Laptop

In answer to at: I'm going to the Alpuheiras - the mountains near Granada in Spain. Staying in a rented Cortijo. So, it's bright and hopefully, nice 'n hot.

and maybe another photography book- holidays are normally a good chance to catch up on some reading. Take lots of shots!
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David