Canon Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D and f3.5-5.6/18-55 Canon EF-S II Zoom

Canon introduced the first sub $1000 dSLR (Digital Rebel/EOS300D) in 2003 and the company’s second generation Digital Rebel XT/ EOS 350D was the hands-down dSLR sales leader in 2005. Canon’s third generation Rebel XTi/EOS400D has a larger LCD screen, an improved hand-grip, a new user interface, unique “dust busting” sensor cleaning technology, a twenty-five per cent increase in resolution, and if all that is not enough, the XTi is one hundred dollars cheaper than its predecessor. Many of the XTi’s high tech innovations were first seen on Canon's upper tier amateur and professional dSLR models like the XTi's 9-point AF system (first seen on the 30D) and Canon’s nifty Picture Styles (first seen on the 5D) function which allows users to create their own Scene Modes (and modify existing Scene Modes) by tweaking contrast, sharpness, color saturation and color tone.

Entry-level digital SLRs provide serious amateur photographers with affordable access to the world of interchangeable lenses and the enhanced creative capabilities and expanded versatility of modular imaging platforms. They are designed to cover the middle ground between upscale Point & Shoot digicams like Canon’s Powershot S3 IS, Panasonic’s FZ50, and Sony’s N2 and mid-level digital SLRs like the Nikon D80 and D200 and the Canon EOS30D and EOS 5D.

What’s New? How does the Rebel XTi differ from the Rebel XT?

On the surface, the new Digital Rebel Xti/EOS400D looks very much like its predecessor. Discernible differences are minor - the XTi is a tiny bit heavier than its predecessor, has a larger LCD screen, and doesn’t have the XT’s top deck status LCD. The most noteworthy differences are under the hood - the new 10 megapixel CMOS sensor, a new more efficient user interface, a larger buffer, a new EOS Integrated Sensor Cleaning System, and faster processing.

NUTS & BOLTS

Viewfinder

The XTi’s pentamirror through-the-lens (TTL) optical viewfinder appears to be the same unit that graced the XT. The XTi’s viewfinder is actually a bit dim, especially with the slow f3.5 maximum aperture kit lens mounted. When users power up the XTi, the 2.5 inch LCD screen immediately comes up – when the camera is raised to eye-level a built-in IR proximity sensor detects the users eye/face and turns off the LCD display. Inside the viewfinder are 9 AF focusing points (the active focus points are illuminated so shooters know exactly where the camera is focusing). The viewfinder's status readout is very comprehensive and shows aperture, shutter speed AF/AE/FE lock, AEB, flash ready, ISO setting, WB, flash exposure compensation, processing data, exposure data, CF card status, and more. There’s a diopter correction adjustment for eyeglasses wearers.

LCD

The XTi’s new 2.5 inch hi-res (230,000 pixels) wide-viewing-angle LCD screen is bright and hue accurate (brightness levels can be adjusted via the menu) and shows almost 100% of the image frame. There’s a full info display and a histogram option for checking over/under exposure and tonal range (post-exposure) in case the need to re-shoot arises (plus a RGB histogram).

Canon EF/EF-S lens mount

The major reason for buying an SLR (digital or film) is to gain the ability to mount interchangeable lenses. The Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D features a metal alloy lens mount and can mount any EF lens or EF-S (formulated for digital SLRs) lens. The Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D is compatible with more than fifty zoom and prime lenses (ranging from a 14mm ultra-wide-angle to a 1200mm super-telephoto) currently available from Canon and dozens of EF/EF-S mount lenses from third party makers Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina. Purchasers should keep in mind that since dSLR sensors are smaller than a frame of 35mm film that all 35mm format lenses are subject to a multiplication factor of 1.6X (a 200mm telephoto lens magically becomes a 320mm telephoto lens) but the maximum aperture remains the same.

Kit Lens

Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D purchasers can opt to buy the either camera body only ($799.00) or they can buy the "kit" ($899.00) which comes with Canon's compact f3.5-5.6/18-55 EF-S II zoom. The kit zoom's maximum aperture (f3.5 at 18mm) is fairly slow and the f5.6 maximum aperture at 55 mm is even slower (too slow for virtually anything except shooting outdoors), but overall the f3.5-5.6/18-55 EF-S II zoom offers some pretty decent performance – especially for a lens that only costs a hundred bucks.

The f3.5-5.6/18-55 EF-S II (like most zoom lenses) is sharper in the center than it is in the corners, but since most purchasers of this zoom will be shooting outdoor event/travel/vacation and informal portrait/family pictures with the subject usually placed in the center of the frame so that shouldn’t be a problem for the XTi’s target audience. Resolution improves noticeably as the aperture gets smaller (with f8.0 as the optimum aperture). There is minor barrel distortion at the wide-angle end of the zoom range, but no visible pincushion distortion at the telephoto end of the range. Chromatic aberration is a big problem with many compact zooms, but the dreaded purple fringing (while present in high contrast color transition areas, especially at maximum aperture) is very well controlled in this optic.

Kit zoom users can get as close as 13 inches, which is OK for general close-ups. The pop-up flash provides decent macro coverage, although it leaves the lower third of the frame slightly darker than the upper two thirds. For frame filling bugs and pollen dusted flower interiors macro photography enthusiasts can opt for a Canon (or third party) macro lens, a sturdy tripod, the XTi’s mirror lock-up function, and a Canon external speedlight (with optional Sto-Fen diffuser) to shoot professional quality close-ups. Minimum aperture is f/22 and filter thread diameter is 58mm. Canon's compact f3.5-5.6/18-55 EF-S II zoom is sold only as part of a “point of purchase” kit and is not available separately from Canon dealers, but it is often available used on e-bay.

Auto Focus (AF)

The Rebel XTi/EOS 400D features the same 9 AF point contrast detection Auto Focus system used in Canon's mid-level EOS 20D/30D dSLR. Users can manually select the specific AF point they want to base focus on (which is handy for composing images with off-center subjects) or allow the camera to automatically select the AF point (closest subject priority). AF is noticeably faster than it was with the Digital Rebel XT/EOS 350D. The AF system evaluates subject movement and automatically selects locking or tracking AF mode, which vastly simplifies shooting sports and action. AF is consistently fast and accurate even in moderately dim lighting. Another useful feature of the XTi's new AF system is that the Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D users can trip the shutter without locking focus, which they couldn't do with the original Rebel or the Rebel XT.

Manual Focus (MF)

Manual focus is easy - just turn the MF ring on the lens to adjust focus.

Flash

The Digital Rebel XTi's built-in multi-mode pop-up flash has a maximum range of about 12 feet (3.3 meters) and coverage is adequate for the 18mm end of the kit zoom's range. In manual exposure modes the flash is released (manually) by pressing the flash button, but in all AUTO exposure modes the flash automatically pops up when the camera's CPU determines it is needed. In Flash-Off mode both the pop-up flash and the XT's hot shoe (and any external speedlight mounted) are disabled.

The Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D features Canon's proprietary E-TTL II flash system (from the EOS 20D). The E-TTL II system combines data gathered from the pre-flash (subject reflectance/contrast and ambient light level) with subject distance data gathered from the AF system to instantly calculate correct flash output. Maximum flash synch is 1/200th of a second and recycle time is about 3 seconds.

Hot Shoe & External Flash Compatibility

The Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D has a dedicated hot shoe (in addition to the pop-up flash) and can mount most Canon Speedlights, but some advanced features (FP flash sync, flash exposure bracketing with multiple flash units, and flash modeling) are available only with the 580EX flash. Canon’s nifty (and very useful) E-TTL II flash exposure metering system can only be used to full potential with the 580EX, 550EX, 420EX, 380EX, and 220EX, Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX or Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX. Third party flash units can be used, but only in manual mode.


Image Storage/Image File Formats/Connectivity

The Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D saves images to Type I or II CompactFlash cards (including high capacity Microdrives). Images are saved in JPEG and RAW formats and there is a RAW+JPEG mode that saves a RAW file with an embedded JPEG file. The XTi features USB 2.0 HS for transferring images and provides Audio/Video - Out jacks for TV connection (for slideshows).

Power/Battery Life

The Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D uses the same Canon NB-2LH battery as its predecessor. Canon claims the battery has sufficient juice to power the XTi through up to 500 exposures (up to 360 shots using the flash). I can't quibble with Canon’s numbers (since we didn't track numbers), but I can say that my friend and I used the camera through two weekends of fairly heavy shooting without exhausting the XTi’s power reserves. The included CB-2LW (CB-2LWE in Europe) battery charger needs about 90 minutes to charge the battery.

EXPOSURE

The Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D provides serious shooters with a comprehensive range of exposure options including: Auto (P&S mode), Program AE (P&S mode with user input), Shutter Priority mode (users select the shutter speed and the camera selects the appropriate corresponding aperture), Aperture Priority mode (users select the aperture and the camera selects the appropriate corresponding shutter speed), and Manual mode (users select all exposure parameters). The XTi also provides a small but useful selection of Scene modes (Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, Night portrait, & Flash off). In all Scene Modes the camera's CPU automatically optimizes all exposure parameters (aperture, shutter speed, white balance, sensitivity, etc.) for the specific image type selected. Based on my experiences, the XTi's Auto (Auto, Program, and Scene) modes deliver dependably accurate exposures in virtually all outdoor lighting. Exposure accuracy in the camera’s Manual Exposure (Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual) modes is primarily dependent on the skill of the photographer.

Metering

Metering modes include (default) 35 zone Evaluative, 9% Partial (spot-metering mode), and Center-Weighted Averaging. The XTi’s metering is consistently accurate – most users will leave the camera in the default (evaluative) metering mode full time.

White Balance (WB)

The Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D provides a comprehensive range of White Balance options, including TTL Auto and pre-sets for Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash, and a Custom (manual) setting that bases color balance on a white card. The XTi also allows users to bracket white balance (the camera captures one image and writes 3 image files with +/- 3 steps in 1EV increments from 5500K). Color space options are sRGB or Adobe RGB. The XTi’s auto WB setting does a very good job as do the outdoor settings (Daylight, Shade, Cloudy). We didn’t try the Tungsten, Fluorescent, or Flash WB settings.

In-Camera Image Adjustment

In camera image adjustment is very important because it provides savvy shooters with the additional tools needed to ensure tack sharp resolution, manage image noise, balance contrast, and fine-tune color saturation. The Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D provides a nice range of In-Camera Image Adjustment options. Shooters can utilize the Parameters options and choose Parameter 1 (sets contrast and saturation adjustments to 1 and increases sharpening to 2 for brighter and sharper images) or Parameter 2 (sets contrast, sharpness, saturation, and color tone to neutral). Parameters 3, 4 & 5 can be customized for user specific contrast, sharpness, color saturation and color tone variations. Also available under the parameters menu are Black & White, filter effects (like a digital version of the yellow, orange, red, and green screw in filters used by B&W film shooters and toning effects (which adds sepia, blue, green, or purple tint) to B&W images.

The Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D Exposure Compensation function allows users to tweak exposure (to incrementally lighten or darken the exposure) through a series of small increases or decreases from +/-2 EV in either one-half or one-third EV increments. The automatic exposure bracketing function permits users to capture three sequential images of the same subject and vary exposure slightly with each shot (+/- 2EV in 1/2 or 1/3 EV increments).

Last but not least is Canon’s exclusive Picture Style mode, which allows users to tailor exposure parameters to more closely reflect their personal exposure preferences by selecting one of six presets (Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful and Monochrome) that modify sharpening, contrast, saturation, and color tone. The Picture Style mode also provides three user defined settings permitting users to, in effect, create their own personalized Scene Modes.

Design, Controls, & Ergonomics

The Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D is a stylish compact dSLR that’s available in either amateur silver or pro black. Construction/build quality is excellent (polycarbonate outer shell over a metal alloy frame) and fit/finish is impressive, especially for an entry-level dSLR. The Digital Rebel XT/EOS 350D had a somewhat busy unintuitive user interface, but the XTi’s reconfigured UI interface is more intuitive in operation. All controls are logically laid out and easily accessed and menus are straightforward and easily navigated. Canon’s product development folks listened to all the complaints about the skinny handgrip featured on the first two Digital Rebels and made some changes - the XTi’s re-configured handgrip is a bit thicker, which provides a more comfortable (and more secure) hold and marginally better balance.

I liked the top deck status LCD and, in my opinion, the XTi’s new larger LCD screen is a bit “too busy” and cluttered looking. Canon should bring back the top deck status LCD and I’d also like to see an SD card slot (in addition to the CF card slot) added to the XTi’s successor.

Technical Specifications

Camera Type: dSLR (digital Single Lens Reflex)
Resolution: 10 Megapixels (3888x2592)
Viewfinder: TTL Pentamirror
LCD: 2.5” Color LCD screen
Exposure: Auto, Program AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, full Manual, and Auto Depth of Field modes
Auto Focus: 9 AF point contrast detection
Manual Focus: yes
Metering: 35 point evaluative, 9% partial, and center-weighted
Flash: built-in multi mode and dedicated hot shoe for external flash
Sensitivity: 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600 ISO equivalent
White Balance: TTL Auto with user selected pre-sets for Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash, and Custom (manual)
Memory Media: CF types I&II
Power: one NB-2LH battery
Lens Mount: Canon EF/EF-S

Price: Digital Rebel XTi body only - $799.00 or XTi body with Canon f3.5-5.6/18-55 EF-S II zoom - $899.00

Included

Canon f3.5-5.6/18-55 EF-S II zoom (kit only), NB-2LH battery & CB-2LW charger, neck strap, USB & AV cables, software CD-ROM, and (printed) users and software manuals.

Optional

Canon EW-60C lens hood (for the f3.5-5.6/18-55 EF-S II zoom), more than fifty EF mount Canon Lenses, 5 Canon EF-S mount zooms, several Canon external flash units, BG-E3 Battery Grip (2 NB-2LH batteries or 6 AA batteries) with vertical shutter release, Canon dual battery charger, and Canon AC adapter.

In the Field/Handling & Operation

I often get together with an old friend who shares my passion for photography. He works in the business (selling new and used digital and analog photographic equipment) so we can almost always come up with something new to play with. Between us we have more than fifty years of hands on experience with hundreds of cameras (digital and film), scores of interchangeable lenses (zooms and primes), dozens of flash units, tons of filters, and loads of tripods.

My friend was able to quickly get his hands on a Canon Rebel XTi/EOS 400D (the camera was just introduced) for us to check out. The first thing we did was to run some color tests. We use a homemade macro stage and a selection of brightly colored (red, green, yellow, blue, orange, and purple) plastic children’s beach toys arrayed on a white photo paper background. This test allows us to check color accuracy and the precision of each camera's white balance system (and compare the results from camera to camera). The XTi's Auto White Balance setting faithfully rendered hue correct color for all the plastic beach toys, but the red shovel and blue bucket were a bit brighter in our images (viewed on a NEC 19” CRT monitor) than they were IRL. Default color interpolation is a tiny bit warm, which is not surprising in a camera targeted toward the amateur/advanced amateur market niche.

After we finished our color tests, we headed for nearby Cave Hill Cemetery. Cave Hill Cemetery (Louisville's unofficial arboretum) started out as a small heavily forested farm on the outskirts of the city and became Louisville's primary burial ground in the mid 1840's. Since that time more than 200,000 people have been interred in the 300-acre walled cemetery. Cave Hill is one of the country’s best remaining examples of 19th century U. S. landscape architecture. Cave Hill is a popular destination for local photographers because there is always something to photograph - the place is filled with an almost dizzying array of plant life, thousands of old headstones, dozens of ornate mausoleums, a rustic groundskeeper’s cottage, and families feeding the resident ducks, geese, and swans along the shores of the small lake at the center of the cemetery.

The last couple of weeks we've had some really crummy weather, hot humid days and lots of rain, but the weather gods smiled on us and provided a classic Ohio Valley late summer day (mid 80's, blue skies, puffy white clouds, and oblique afternoon light) for our first outing with the XTi. We spent about two hours shooting a wide variety of subjects mostly in the oldest section of Louisville's premiere graveyard. We stopped to shoot anything that looked interesting, searching especially for spots of color amid the Victorian grave markers and early twentieth century family monuments. We stopped for a while, to shoot the rows and rows of small white marble headstones on a sloping hill that serves as a final resting place for thousands of Union casualties who died in Kentucky during the Civil War. At the crest of the hill are a smaller number of Confederate graves, making this area the only place in the country where both the Stars & Stripes and the Stars & Bars fly above the graves of Yankees and Rebels at rest, together. We also took pictures of some of the ducks, geese, and swans around the lake. The resident waterfowl at Cave Hill are quite tame (since most of the folks they see have bags of stale bread in hand) making them very easy to photograph, up close and personal.

After we completed a couple of loops at Cave Hill we drove over to nearby Cherokee Park and hit the scenic loop to shoot some outdoor “people” pictures. We didn’t find anything along the deeply shaded area of old growth trees parallel to Beargrass Creek, but once we got into the open meadow areas they were filled with runners, skaters, bikers, and dog walkers. We parked and spent about an hour shooting folks enjoying the lovely weather. The Digital Rebel XTi performed flawlessly in auto mode and also did an excellent job in the manual modes. The Canon f3.5–f5.6/18-55mm EF-S II zoom did an absolutely amazing job (outdoors in good light) for a zoom that only costs a hundred bucks.

We got together on Sunday morning (which was even prettier than Saturday afternoon) and headed for Louisville’s Extreme Park. The Extreme Park is the go to place for local photographers looking to capture some action shots. Skateboarders, BMX bikers, and rollerbladers are drawn to the park 24-7 to hone their moves and perfect their tricks in the industrial sized (24 foot) full pipe, 5 interconnected bowls, and twelve-foot half pipe. The kids at the Extreme Park make great subjects because many of them are very talented athletes and they all love showing off for the camera. We spent about four hours shooting skateboarders and BMX bikers. That may seem like a long time, but optimal framing/timing (centering the boarder or biker in the frame and stopping the action in mid air) is very difficult. We had to move in pretty close because the XTi's f3.5-5.6/18-55 EF-S II 3X kit zoom just didn't have enough reach to allow us to stand off at a safe distance and still get frame filling shots. Getting in close to the action at the Extreme Park can be pretty scary because skateboarders and vertical BMX bikers love taking risks - so getting hit by a 150-pound kid moving at 25 or 30 MPH is always a possibility. The XTi's AF was noticeably faster than the XT's AF and that really simplified tracking and framing, so I was able to get a couple of decent shots.

For our next outing with the Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D we headed for Iroquois Park in Louisville’s South End. Iroquois Park was designed by America’s most famous landscape architect, Frederic Law Olmsted who also designed Central Park in NYC and Audubon Park in New Orleans. The heavily forested park covers a large hill that rises almost 1000 feet above Louisville’s Southern suburbs. Once you are inside the park, it feels like you are out in the country, rather than completely surrounded by subdivisions, fast food restaurants, and strip malls. Our destination was a small area of restored native mixed grass prairie near the top of the hill. We wanted to try the XTi on late summer wildflowers and Eliot Porter style Intimate Landscapes. The late morning light was fairly hard-edged so our wildflower shots ended up being a bit too contrasty, but that wasn't the fault of the camera.

After three hours of shooting intimate landscapes and flower close-ups we headed for the Wyandotte Cafe, a funky old South Louisville tavern. Inside, the Wyandotte is one long fairly dark wood paneled room with a couple of pool tables, several TV’s, and a short off-set bar. The Wyandotte’s major charms are its neighborhood atmosphere, enthusiastic sports fans, cheap beer, and excellent cheeseburgers. My friend (like me) is a bar food aficionado, so we ordered a pair of cheeseburgers each and a two cokes and walked to the rear of the old tavern to shoot a couple games of eight ball and sneak a few candid (high ISO -- no flash) shots of our fellow bar patrons while we waited for our food. The XTi's kit zoom is dead slow (f3.5 maximum aperture) so our attempts to capture anything usable in the dimly lit old bar were an exercise in futility - but the cheeseburgers were excellent. Anyone who plans to use the XTi as a bar/party camera will need to cough up the dough for some faster glass.

After we finished our lunch we headed for the Americana World Festival, which celebrates Louisville’s immigrant/refugee community. The World Festival features food, dancers, musicians, and performers from Mexico, Central and South America, Cuba, the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific Rim. This event (in it's 16th year) draws about 15,000 people to Iroquois Manor shopping center. People shots, kid shots, colorful costumes, gyrating dancers, and colorful food stalls offer some interesting picture opportunities. We had to shoot tightly framed compositions because backgrounds at the huge strip mall are busy and blatantly commercial and the acres of overhead power/communications lines are truly ugly. We did manage to get a couple of interesting and very colorful semi close-ups and one very good environmental portrait, but overall the World Festival was a bust - photographically.

For action shooters the XTi and kit lens will do the job (if the photographer gets in close, picks his subject well, manages his/her backgrounds carefully, and pre-focuses on the spot where the peak action will occur), but serious shooters will opt for a longer faster zoom before tackling action. The XTi does a superb job in decent light - rendering outdoor scenes very nicely, but indoors (in poor lighting) pictures shot with the super slow kit zoom tend to be a bit lackluster. When we reviewed the images we'd shot over the course of our XTi tests (on a NEC 19” CRT monitor) both of us were impressed with just how good most of the pictures were.

PERFORMANCE

Image Quality

The XTi’s image quality is consistently excellent (especially at the 100 and 200 ISO sensitivity settings), with very good detail capture in both shadow and highlight areas, edge transitions are crisp, and noise is very well controlled. ISO 400 images show very low noise and actually look pretty good, but they do seem just a tiny bit soft, ISO 800 images are better than I expected, probably capable of acceptable enlargements up to 8x10. ISO 1600 images are also better than expected, although details are noticeably soft and I noticed some chroma noise at 1600 ISO. XTi noise levels are visibly higher than those from the Digital Rebel XT/EOS 350D and I suspect this is due to the higher pixel density (and smaller pixel size) of the XTi’s new 10 megapixel CMOS sensor. Colors are bright, accurate, and slightly over saturated, but not garish. Caucasian skin tones are a bit warm, but that is fairly common in entry-level digital cameras (including dSLRs). Overall, the XTi’s images tend to be just a tiny bit on the warm side of neutral, a bit contrastier than average, with good detail capture, and a very nice dynamic range. Digital SLR image quality is going to be as dependent on the lens mounted as it is on the efficacy of the camera's processing and exposure systems. Obviously, image quality will improve dramatically with better quality glass, but the Canon f3.5–f5.6/18-55mm EF-S II zoom provides performance that is easily worth a hundred bucks.

Timing/Shutter Lag

The Digital Rebel XTi is noticeably faster than the Digital Rebel XT. The boot up cycle is about 2 seconds. Shot-to-shot speed is excellent, noticeably faster than average (for entry-level dSLRs). The XTi’s Auto Focus is the fastest I’ve seen (to date) on any entry-level dSLR and surprisingly, equal to or faster than some mid-level dSLRs. Shutter fire is real time with pre-focus and barely noticeable from scratch even in dim/low lighting. The XTi is still a bit slower than a comparable 35mm SLR, but experienced photographers should be able to grab rapidly unfolding action shots by slightly anticipating the critical moment and tripping the shutter just before everything comes together.

A Few Concerns

The Digital Rebel XTi’s f3.5–f5.6/18-55mm EF-S II kit zoom’s maximum aperture is too slow, battery life is quantifiably shorter than most of the competition, and it would have been nice if Canon had waited until the new DIGIC III processor could be included. That said, I really don’t have any concerns with the Digital Rebel XTi. Canon basically owns the entry-level dSLR franchise and they could have rested on their considerable laurels, but they (finally) fixed the Rebel’s UI and simplified the menus, punched up the resolution, speeded up the AF, and threw in a larger LCD screen – and then priced the XTi one hundred bucks cheaper than its predecessor.

Conclusion

The Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 400D is targeted at amateur photographers who want the flexibility/capability of an SLR but don't want to completely give up the snazzy features and ease of use of point & shoot digital cameras. The camera provides entrance to the Canon EF lens system, but retains the ability to function like a point & shoot digicam. For shooters who’ve been waiting for entry level dSLR prices and features/capabilities to come together – Canon’s new Digital Rebel XTi/EOS 40D may be the tipping point – this may be the best time ever to buy an entry level dSLR. For those who don’t need 10 megapixels last year’s entry-level dSLR champ, the Rebel XT is still available for $799.00 (for the kit with Canon’s f3.5–f5.6/18-55mm EF-S II zoom) or $699.00 (body only). More advanced shooters who own EOS 20D, EOS 30D, and EOS 5D cameras and are heavily invested in Canon glass will find the XTi (or the XT) will make excellent back-up bodies.


For definitive advice on How to Choose a Digital Camera please see my review:
http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-2E46-17B174E2-39A418E3-prod1

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The observations, opinions, recommendations, and conclusions provided in my digital camera reviews are based on more than 30 years experience as a photographer and extensive hands on testing of each of the cameras reviewed. I receive no compensation from DCR.com for your visit or any subsequent purchase you may make. You can return to epinions at any time (either open the link in a new window or hit your back button). The Canon Powershot SD500 and the Canon Powershot A520 posts were submitted as text only reviews and the images that illustrate those two posts were shot by a DCR.com staffer.