Once you've got your new camera, you may start to wonder what accessories will help you get the most out of your photography. Camera shops are full of enticing accessories that promise to help with your new hobby, but which do you actually need? Our guide will help you decide what kit to buy.
We've picked some of the most common DSLR accessories - including camera bags, tripods (travel tripods or supports and budget tripods and accessories), flashguns, remote releases, lens filters, diffusers and softboxes, battery packs and grips, SD cards and storage, colour calibration and monitors - to explain why you may need them and how to pick the right one to buy for your needs.
We've scoured our Best... articles and product reviews, and those by our sister magazines Digital Camera, PhotoPlus and NPhoto, to gather together only the best of each category (those that we've rated 4, 4.5 or 5 star camera accessories), with market prices at the time of review in British pounds and US dollars.
Much of the following information is equally applicable to those who have just invested in one of the more recent compact system camera (CSC) alternatives instead, although the pool of great camera accessory options for these is more limited, thanks to the infancy of the formats on which these models are based.