This is basically a list of my equipment (because everyone wants to show off their toys), but it's also what I recommend to DSLR enthusiasts in general. You will notice I've pretty much standardized on the Canon system. Back when I used film SLRs I used to be a Nikon head, but in my opinion Canon has surpassed Nikon in quality, quantity and specs since the mid-90s. I also normally don't skimp on $$ when it comes to photography. Some people splurge on their cars, some on their home entertainment equipment and some on jewelry, stamps or pet spas. I buy photo equipment and electronic gadgets, so there.

All of these images where shamelessly yanked from other websites (primarily Amazon.com) so if I suddenly disappear and send letters asking for cigarrettes and vaseline, you know that the Copyright Police caught up with me.

Body and Lenses

This set of equipment is what I consider to be the ultimate "prosumer" photography rig. Of course this is tailored to the type of photography I do and won't be a perfect fit for everyone. But it represents a good middle ground that I think covers what most people do with a DSLR. You could conceivably replace the 5D body with a Rebel XT (or slightly better 30/40D) one (be aware of the trade-offs though), but I would not skimp on the lenses, unless you're just starting out, in which case you should read the beginner's guide instead. Once you're ready to spend the big bucks, see here.

Canon EOS 5D This is my main DSLR body. Note that this is not the newer Mark II model, which is slightly more expensive but (in my opinion) other than the slightly larger LCD and UDMA CF support, really not that much better. The 5D is a full-frame DSLR, which means it has an image sensor of the same size as normal 35mm film cameras, not the smaller APS-C-sized sensor as other DSLRs like the Rebel XT.
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM This is my primary "walkaround" lens. A truly beautiful piece of opto-mechanical engineering, and the source of some of the most amazing and gorgeous images I've taken.
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4L USM This is the main "portrait" and medium-telephoto lens in my bag. On the 5D (which is a full-frame DSLR), this lens takes pictures that are closest to what you or I see out of our eyes in terms of angle and depth. The bokeh and color saturation on this thing are gorgeous, perhaps slightly more so than the 24-70mm. It's also great for low-light conditions, as long as the focal length is appropriate for said conditions.
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM My main telephoto. Words cannot describe the quality of the images this thing takes in just about any lighting conditions barring near-total darkness (well I exaggerate). Not exactly a flash lens or one to take family portraits at Christmas with, but at the USC game or in the trail, this baby goes all the way. The only problem is that it's heavy as hell. Canon makes three versions of the 70-200mm focal range tele. One with a maximum f/4 aperture and two with a max f/2.8 aperture, one of which comes with image stabilization (IS).
Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM And finally as far as lenses go, this is my wide-angle baby, for those shots that just have to include everything. At 16mm there is of course a slight fisheye efect with this, but you very rarely go that far down. This is also a very good indoor flash-friendly lens.

Accessories

This is the rest of the equipment I use. Everything here is recommended, regardless of which body you're using.

Memory Cards The 5D uses CompactFlash cards for storage. I love the CF format because it's not as easy to lose as some of the smaller cards, like SD or xD. I tend to carry around three or four 4GB cards. I think have two SanDisk and a couple of Lexar ones, and I can't really tell the difference between them performance- wise. There are newer cards that use UDMA, but these are not supported by the 5D (although the Mk II does use them). In general it's better to have multiple smaller cards (no smaller than 2GB though!) than one humongous 16GB one. In general when buying these cards, cheaper is not the way to go. Concentrate on the size & speed rather than the price.
Remotes I have three remotes. Two corded (one for the 5D and one for the Rebel XT) and one wireless for the XT, which I carry in the strap. Wireless remotes are useful as an alternative to the timer. Corded triggers are great for tripod work. You do not want to buy the hideously expensive Canon corded trigger though, I have an Opteka that works perfectly fine and cost about $20 less (Canon overprices accesories like there's no tomorrow). Just make sure that the one you buy works with the camera. The XT series bodies require different remotes than the "professional" 5D or the 1Ds.
Straps Aside from the neck strap on the camera, I find a hand strap to be essential, especially when doing a lot of shooting. Before I got this, my right hand would start to get tired to the point where (at least for me), I couldn't actuate the shutter correctly! I have the one pictured (from Mennon) that I use with the 5D and a no-brand one that I bought somewhere for the XT but works just fine.
Bags I buy Lowepro bags, because I had one a long time ago that I used to lug around my film DSLRs and lenses, and it was absolutely great. Currently I have two of them. One is a backpack format (the Slingshot 200) and the other is a "normal" bag (the Magnum AW). The backpack is the one that gets lugged around the most, while the classic one is usually taken on trips and whatnot. The latter is also the one where I keep al the lenses and stuff I don't normally use, as well as my Rebel XT body. You do not want to skimp on the camera bag. Aside from protecting your expensive gear from shock, these are also water-resistant. And that's not so much for hiking through the rain to get that super shot up in the mountain, it's for when someone at the party spills a can of Coke over it.
Tripod As Canon and Lowepro go for the other stuff, so goes Manfrotto/Bogen for tripods, heads and monpods. No other company balances quality and price in this niche like them. My primary tripod is the 3258, pictured on the right. I also have an older 3058 model, which I use occasionally with the XT.
Tripod Heads We go with Manfrotto on these as well. The first one is a rather spacy-looking quick release head that I got as a birthday present once and didn't know what to do with but eventually ended up liking because it's very handy (espcially for camcorders), and the second one (808RC4) is a more "professional" head that I use for long exposure shots, lightbox work and the like.
Monopod and Head A monopod is the hiker-photographer's best friend, and I have probably the best one made, the 680B also by Manfrotto (as is the 234RC head). Sturdy, chunky, not very heavy and also doubles as a walking stick of sorts.
Flash The Canon Speedlite 580EX II is insultingly expensive, but probably the best flash for Canon DSLRs. The sync between the focal distance transmitted by the lens through the shoe to the flash is extremely important for casual flash photography and I've experimented with various combinations only to come to the conclusion that if you're using a Canon body with a Canon lens, you better be using a Canon flash as well. A Sunpack flash on a Canon body with a Sigma lens is usually a bad combination that will probably over- or under-expose a significant amount of shots, and your wife will hate you for that.
Filters I buy B&W filters for all my lenses. I don't normally use special-purpose filters, like polarizing ones, except in some circumstances (daylight shoots at the pool, for example), but all my lenses always have at least a simple UV glass filter for physical and glare/haze protection. You bump that $1,300 lens on the corner of a table and you'll regret you didn't top it with a $50 filter, believe me. On the other hand when you drop that $300 polarizing filter you'll also kick yourself in the head.

Other Accessories
Aside from all this, I carry the following:

• Three extra batteries for the camera, and a charger.
• Two sets of NiCd rechargeable batteries (for the flash) and a small wall outlet charger for them.
• A pocket "bouncer" screen for the flash.
  
• A little plastic bottle with a tiny spray head, filled with a solution of Windex diluted with water to 1:50 or so.
• Two or three pieces of lint-free fabric squares, like the ones that come with sunglasses.
• A small camel hair brush.
  
• Two or three spare lens caps and dust covers (as well as the dust cover cap for the camera body). Also front covers for the large lenses, if I'm using them at all.
• A small notebook for logs, observations and sketches, and a 0.9mm mechanical pencil with eraser for it. With three spare leads inside (are we getting detailed enough now...)
  
• A piece of chamois rag.
• A pair of compact 12x24 Bausch & Lomb binoculars in a soft case, great for spotting birds and other animals. And snipers hiding in the bushes.
  
• A small Victorinox pocket knife (blade and bottle opener).
• The 5D manual (for when I can't remember how to set the exposure bracketing or whatever).
• A USB CompactFlash reader, for hooking up to laptops if necessary. I also used to carry around a PCMCIA-CF adapter, but now that all laptops have USB ports it's not necessary.
  
• The plastic cases for the CF cards.
• A small case with three DVD-R blanks.
• A set of protective plastic "skins" that I attach to the LCDs in my cameras, along with a little squeegee card thingy.
  

So as you can see, I travel light. It sucks to be in the middle of a family vacation and find yourself with the wrong lens, no way to free up space on CF cards or no spare batteries for the damn camera.

Other Gear

This is all the other stuff I have but really don't use that much. Every single one of these lenses is also recommended. They make an appearance in the beginner's guide as well.

Canon Digital Rebel XT This is my secondary 9and second) DSLR body. It's Canon's entry-level DSLR. I don't use it that much, but having an additional body is sometimes useful when you're in a situation where you have to switch lenses for some reason, so instead you just switch cameras. My wife used it for a while but considered it too bulky and complicated, so I bought her an Olympus P&S and she's happy as a clam with that. What do I know.
Canon EF 180mm f3.5L Macro USM I bought this lens in a fit of excitement about macro photography, took a few pictures of grasshoppers, spiders and pennies, and promptly shelved it. It's a great portrait lens, but kind of redundant at this point for me. It's also difficult to use because of the large focal length and the fact that it does not zoom.
Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3 EX DG HSM APO RF My brother and I bought this lens together a few years ago when he was allegedly getting into photography. He wanted a "big zoom" lens, and I was happy to fork over half the price just to play with it. Unfortunately he's now reverted back to a dinky Kodak P&S and this lens sits in my studio, majestically gathering dust. Don't get me wrong, this is a good lens. Sigma makes good glass at the higher end for both Nikon and Canon. But it's huge, and it's heavy. And at 500mm it doesn't even begin to compete with the Canon glass at 200mm (even stopped down), so I can't find many applications for it at the moment.
Canon EF-70-300mm f/4 IS USM This is actually quite a good lens that I used a lot, but it got sidelined by better Canon glass as well. A little blurry at the end of the focal length if not stopped down (so low light shots are out), but very decent considering the price. The image stabilization is also nice.
Tamron AF 90mm f/2.8 DI Macro This is my other macro lens. That I also don't use. Moving on...
Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8 DC IF This used to be my wide angle lens. It's actually quite good, again, considering the price. I have a print of a beautiful landscape I took in Wyoming with this lens hanging on my studio wall.
Sigma 28-200mm f/3.5 DG IF Another one of my general-purpose lenses, also sidelined by the evil Canon. You're not going to win any prizes with this one, but for Junior's birthday party on an APS-C body like the Rebel XT, it's more than fine. Just stick to the 40-100mm range. Also a good flash lens.
Sigma APO 50-150mm f/2.8 II EX DC HSM I've owned this lens twice. The first one had the distinction of being the only lens I've ever actually destroyed, by dropping it from the top of a staircase at my parents house while trying (stupidly) to switch it for another lens. I used to like it so much that I went and bought it again. This was before I realized that the best Sigma glass was not going to compete with the best Canon glass, and that I didn't need to "cover the entire focal range" or any of that nonsense. So it's in semi-retirement, although it does live permanently attached to the Rebel XT. In retrospect it was also redundant considering the 70-300.
Nikon F5 This used to be my main SLR body before going digital. I don't have the lens shown in that pic, but I couldn't find one with just the body. I keep it around for the nostalgia, and occasionally buy a roll of Fuji film for it, take it outside and give it a whirl. The problem is that I only have one lens left for this camera, a Nikon 300mm f/2.8 AF-I. It's an excellent camera. It's just that it requires... you know, film. My second "prosumer" film SLR (and my first Canon body) was an EOS 30 (also known as the Elan 7). It was stolen in 2001 during a road trip to Cabo San Lucas, using the time-honored technique of breaking a car window and grabbing whatever happened to be inside. Along with that went the lens, which thankfully was a dinky 35-80mm f/4-5.6 kit deal.

The Nostalgia Corner

This is equipment that I still have, actually works and gets used at least once every half decade or so.

• Nikon FG-20 - This was my second SLR body, and I used it for many years with a single Nikkor 35-70mm lens. I still have the body, which works fine (I think), but I have no idea where the lens is.
  
• Pentax K1000 - Not to be confused with the K-100 (a digital SLR also from Pentax), this was my first "pro" 35mm SLR body and I took a lot of great pics back in the day with it. I got it as a gift from one of my uncles, along with a rather weird 70mm macro lens, I think. This one also still works fine.
  
• Albinar-ADG 80-200mm f/4.5-5.6 Auto Zoom Macro - I felt like I was in heaven when I got this lens for the Pentax K1000 at a flea market in San Bernardino. Not the best glass in the world to say the least, but it looked impressive on the camera... and when you're young you don't care about the quality of the bokeh or aberrations at the end of the focal range, and every picture you take looks fantastic.
  
• Ricoh Singlex TLS - I got this camera as a gift in the late 80s with a "heard you like to take photos so there you go" send off from a family member who didn't really like me that much (just kidding). This is a 35mm body from the 60s or 70s that works OK for general photography. It came with a Rikenon 50mm f/2 lens which is rather not shabby. With Kodak Tri-X B&W film at f/5.6 this puppy actually doesn't do too bad. Kind of artsy. You can see a picture of the body here, although mine is probably a newer model than that. I even still have the leather cover for it. It's a bitch to get the battery for it though, just like the Pentax.
• A few older flashes, a Canon, a Sunpak and the one I used with the F5. I think it's an SB28 or something like that.
  
• An assortment of point-and-shoot Kodak, Minolta, Yashica and other 35mm and 110 format cameras from the 80s which I'd rather not talk about at this time.