Canon EOS Rebel XTi (EF-S 18-55mm Lens, black)

Summary: Went to Circuit City on Sat and spent about an hour taking pictures with various cameras that were highly rated by CNET.I was impressed by the sales persons knowledge ...

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Summary: Went to Circuit City on Sat and spent about an hour taking pictures with various cameras that were highly rated by CNET.I was impressed by the sales persons knowledge of the products and felt this one was the way to go based on his information, and my father had an old AE-1 and it never let him down. Came home and pulled it out of the box, looked over the setting dial and began to shoot, over the weekend I took over 300 picutres, once I got the hang of shooting with a semi-pro camera it never took a bad picture, from still shots to taking pictures of cars moving at 75+ MPH it was crystal clear. I wanted a camera that was easy to use and fast, this one is it.

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Summary: Lori is beating down the new Rebel for silly reasons. Let me tell you why this is the best "bang for your buck" DSLR on the market.

10MP with anti-dust:

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Summary: Lori is beating down the new Rebel for silly reasons. Let me tell you why this is the best "bang for your buck" DSLR on the market.

10MP with anti-dust: Making big prints? Don't worry about it. Canon totally stole and reverse engineered Sony's anti-dust protection and also added a feature that vibrates dust off the sensor so it won't degrade your pictures. Absolutely brilliant!

Stolen features from Canon 30D: It has the same 9-point autofocus system as the 30D and can take almost the same amount of continuous burst JPEG shots... coming in at 27 next to 30D's 30.

Big Screen: The new 2.5" LCD screen was the biggest complaint on the XT. The XTi visits this issue and makes it 2.5" instead of 1.8". They have removed the status LCD panel and put it on the main LCD which makes viewing things from on a tripod, or in general use, a lot easier. Some people might not like this debating that it is hard to see in the sun and can drain the battery. The sun might be an issue, but you should be buying a backup battery anyway. The screen shuts off when you put your eye up to it anyway.

Amazing results in any situation: Low light, indoor, outdoor? Canon's CMOS sensor has you convered giving you low noise pictures all the way up to 1600ISO. Nikon, Sony, and Pentax are nowhere near where Canon is in this technology. Look at dpreview.com tests with the Nikon D80 and you'll see. The Rebel always pulls out more detail and you can acually print big pictures even at 1600ISO.

Here are my beefs:

No spot meter. If you need to have pictures come out well that have the subject backlit, this is sort of necessary. There are many tricks like locking the exposure on a higher value, or doing things in DPP, but it's A SMALL ISSUE. IT'S NOT THAT BIG OF DEAL LORI! LAY OFF!

Man Hands: If you have "man hands" like Lori does, then the ergonomic feel might not suit you. I have bigger hands, but quickly got used to it. Just like any other thing in life, you have to get used to it and it's not hard. I'm still able to access manual controls extremely fast just like I am on my father's 30D.

Kit lens = Garbage: Do yourself a favor and don't get the Kit version. Just buy the body. The only reason why I got the Kit was because I work at Best Buy and i get employee pricing on the Kit (we don't sell the body). I made some money off it on eBay. I use the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L. YES. L-Glass is a huge difference. It is worth every penny! Invest in glass... not the body!


Closing Notes:
I was cycling between the 30D and regular Rebel XT for about 4 months, then the XTi answered my prayers. I figured I would use the saved money for L-glass and wait until I have moved on out of college to get a 5D (or whatever is out)

HOPE THIS SETS YOU STRAIGHT!

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Summary: I picked up this camera for my girlfriend on Sunday. I played around with it a bit to see if I wanted one myself, and this is what I found. ...

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Summary: I picked up this camera for my girlfriend on Sunday. I played around with it a bit to see if I wanted one myself, and this is what I found. Once I give it to her and she uses it extensively I may update this.

First off, it's small. I'm only 5'8" and while it fit me ok, it seemed like your hands are cramped on it. It's got some weight to it, but not as heavy as the film slr cameras I'm used to. I did not like the kit lense it came with, so save some money and buy the body only in my opinion. Get your own quality lense. It seemed cheap, and I don't know how sturdy it is. On to the good stuff though. It does take great pictures. I was quite impressed. This would be a great camera for someone who would like to learn to take pictures manually, but wants to be able to take great pictures without all the practice. I'm not sure how important it is yet, but the self-clean feature seems pretty cool.

If you want a compact digital slr with full manual controls this would be a great choice. Wish it took SD cards instead of compact flash though. I picked up a D80 today, which has the ability to use SD HC cards which can hold up to 32 gigs. Your battery will die long before you fill it up, but it's nice when you don't have your computer handy. Since this canon will take something like 27 pictures in less than 10 seconds, you can fill up a card fast if you want to.

Another review mentioned battery life. Sorry I couldn't comment on it. I only played around with it for an hour or so before I put it back in the box. I'm sure there will be a million reviews on this thing in the next couple weeks.

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