I love the black body ! The XTi has been criticized for being too small in size. OK enough size for general use. If it is too small for you I suggest adding a battery grip. The kit 18-55mm lens is adequate. I just use the kit lens for casual, indoor parties. The 18mm setting is a good wide angle for taking photos of large groups of people (minus 1.6 crop factor of course).

Great budget lens without breaking the bank. It also has Macro & it comes with a nice hood. Currently I have upgraded to a Canon 70-300mm lens with the image stabilization which is a better lens, but it costs more than twice as much as the Sigma 70-300mm. The Sigma lens is still adequate enough for simple uses if you are on a budget and an overall good value for a lens in this range.

Great external flash if you want to save bucks compared to the 580EX. Works good enough for me.

Nice remote for the same reasons as the wireless. Convenient because you can stand behind the camera while taking photos. Not necessary to have both kinds of remotes, but I like having both as it depends on what the situation calls for.

Nice to have an extra battery whether you use the battery grip which uses two batteries or simply have an extra as a back up.

I bought the Promaster off-shoe cord instead of the Canon off-shoe 2 cord because I heard about so many problems with the Canon 2 cord. Check out the website by Arthur Morris (a bird photographer) at http://birdsasart.com/accs which convinced me to go for the Promaster.

A step above the basic UV filter and one of the best filters to use for all-around shooting. Remove reflections & make those blue skies more blue! The circular polarizer filter is a must have for all serious photographers!