| Overall Rating: |
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5
out of 5
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Very, Very Good,
11/29/2008
You don't need to read the rest of this review. Just buy it. It is awesome
The newest version in the Digital Rebel line, the XSi is a seriously beautiful machine. Not to be confused with the XS (no "i") which is the smaller less functional version of this. This is the upgrade to the 400D Rebel Xti
Aesthetics: When I said beautiful, I meant that metaphorically. It is still too plasticky for my tastes, but that effects nothing. It is still a very small camera. Even people with normal sized hands will have trouble. I can only fit 2 fingers on the grip for this. The battery grip is highly recommended. Note, however, the battery and grips from previous Rebels are not compatible with this. The camera uses the newer Canon battery which offers about 30% more power. Which is important when you consider the:
Tech: This offers Canon's Live View which allows you to use the screen on the back instead of the eyepiece. This is wonderfully useful when you are taking shots on a tripod, macro, or at an akward angle. It is not very useful for taking normal shots, as once you get the battery grip on there, your good lens, and a flash, you're trying to hold 10 lbs in mid-air a foot in front of your face.
The camera also has a whopping 12 megapixels squeezed onto the sensor. Maybe too much. However, the camera uses the New Digic III precessor and has advanced algorithms for reducing pixel noise especially in higher ISO. The practical upshot of this is the camera lets you take bigger and better shots, in lower light, with better quality. Noise is much improved over the XTi, but not quite as good as the 40D.
Useless Tip: You can even do something called "pushing" the ISO, where you shoot in Av or M mode and set it to take shots in RAW at -1 or -2 exposure compensation. Then you fix the exposure in the computer. This sadly magnifies the noise, but allows you to take faster shots in the dark.
Since you'll need a lens, I suggest you look for the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L, which can now be found on this website. You probably know, but just in case, this is a 1.6 crop sensor APS-C camera. The sensor is smaller than a regular full frame camera so the sensor only picks up the central portion of the available image from the lens. The good thing about this is that you benefit from seeing only the "sweet spot" in the center of the lense where the image is usually sharpest. This also effectively "magnifies" the pictures you can take. The 70-200 lens I recommended turns into a 112-320mm effective focal length. The bad part is that it turns all your wide angle lenses into medium length lenses. If you want a truly wide angle lens you must look for lenses like the Canon EF-S 10-22 which is about equal to canon's top of the line 16-35 lens, although there are other off brand wide angle lenses that work nearly as well, like the Sigma 12-24, the Tokina 11-19 (I think) and others.
Which finally brings me towards the end of my long winded review.
More Useless Tips: This camera can use the full line of Canon lenses, including the special EF-S lenses designed for the crop sensor cameras. The EF-S lenses extend farther back into the camera and so can't be used on any full frame film or digital cameras, but are usually a bit cheaper with focal lengths made specifically with the small sensor multiplier in mind.
| Value: |
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5
out of 5
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| Meets Expectations: |
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5
out of 5
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10 of 10 people found this review helpful.