Samsonite Microfiber Deluxe Camera Bag with Lens Cleaning Kit & Tabletop Tripod $15 on Amazon. If this bag is not one you would recommend, which one would be advisable to hold the S3, battery charger, cards, telephoto lens, hood and adapter, etc.

Opteka 70" Full Size Professional Photo / Video Tripod $30 on Amazon.

What does everyone think about these two products?

Buying the s3 and the teleconverter. Is a tripod necessary? And in which situation(s) would we use the tripod? We are true beginners. Thank you for your patience and all your help.

Bag looks like it'll do the job. Personally, if I were looking for something this size, I'd go for the Domke F-5XB. But each to their own.

Definitely wouldn't bother with that lens cleaning kit - those things are more trouble than they're worth. Look around for a Lenspen MiniPro II instead - should cost about $10 and will do the job faster and better.

You're picking up a lot of gear very quickly, by the way. Assuming you've bought everything you've been scouting around for, you'll be racking up a big credit card bill already!

For me, one of the attractions of digicams is their smallness and the fact that, all you need to take pictures, is camera, batteries, memory card, and maybe a bag to pop them all in, if your pockets aren't big enough...

Maybe, catch your breath, put your wallet away, and spend an afternoon taking pictures? You could post some here on this forum if you liked.

sorry, just saw this post. appreciate the info. you are right, it's really rushed, we always plan at the last minute. our last camera broke, so we figured even without a computer that this would be the way to go.

We are considering the teleconverter mainly because we are going to alaska. it's really expensive and we don't know if we will get back there or maybe for many years. We were told that there are situations (denali park bus tour) in which this item may be the only way to see animals out there. Not sure. Otherwise, we are on small cruises where hopefully whales and such will be close by.

so thanks much. B & H was pushing the card reader and we don't even know what a card reader will do for us! that naive! they also were really suggesting the uv filter, but we didn't have time to hear exactly why. From what I read here, it's to protect the lens from the sun, etc. but also if we drop the camera, it would save our lens. Does one leave the UV lens on all the time, or would that decrease the clarity of photos?

until next correspondence, thanks.

let me know if you can get to nyc ever, because I can help with theater/concert tickets, etc.

Strictly speaking, the UV thingy isn't a lens, it's a filter. It's a piece of glass that's supposed to be as optically neutral as possible (though it can;'t be completely neutral, otherwise it wouldn't filter anything), and neither magnifies or reduces. it does have some effect on the light, blocking UV to some extent (and supposedly reducing haze), but glass tends to do that anyway - when was the last time you got sunburn from sunlight through a window?

Some SLR users make use of UV filters as a cheap way to protect the front element of their lenses, especially while handling them. When their lenses cost hundreds (or even thousands!) of <local currency>, a filter that cost a few tens of <currency> can save some grief.

With SLR lenses, the filter screws on to the end of the lens and can basically be left on there. It really doesn't add much to the bulk of things, as lenses are basically bulky things to begin with.

What they have for the S3 is a converter that screws onto the camera at the base of the lens (like the teleconverter does) and which the filter screws into. Since this doesn't retract with the lens when the camera is turned off, it adds a lot to the bulk of the camera.

Going back to Amazon again, they have shots of an S3 with the lens adaptor attached and in various states:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cu...&sr=8-3#gallery

In particular, look at piccy #2, which is the whole shebang (lens adaptor plus hood). In terms of size, that's just getting ridiculous for a compact camera - you might as well be carrying an SLR at that point.

Personally, I would forego the lens adaptor and hood, and thus the UV filter. I can sort of see the point of a teleconverter if you're really looking to get close up (though the S3 can do a pretty good job of that by itself), but not this thing.

Oh, and a filter won't save the camera if you drop it. Chances are that the camera will get buggered up by a drop from a reasonable height anyway, so just don't drop it, OK? To that end, there's a neck strap in the box with the S3 - use it.