 The best thing I've ever bought |
| Review Date: March 23, 2005 |
| Reviewer: L. Wimberley, Berea, OH USA |
The XT is amazing. The battery comes partly charged so you can immedietly start using the camera (thank you Canon!) I've already shot about 200 pictures with it and the battery hasn't died yet.
I can't give you a comparison between the XT and the 20D as I haven't owned a 20D, I can tell you a few things you may wish to know before buying.
This camera, is TINY. Extremely tiny. I'm a woman in my early twenties and I have small hands. The camera fits just right in my hands, but honestly, I don't see how someone with bigger hands would be 100% comfortable holding this. If my hands were any larger, they would be slipping off the bottom.
I had tried holding a 20D at a camera shop once and it felt too large in my hands to grip. The camera size is perfect for me, but just beware if you have larger hands. You may want to look into the battery grip, or test out holding the camera at a store before you order it. See the picture I uploaded above to get a size relation and how the camera fits in my hands.
For anyone who is migrating to this camera from a standard point and shoot digital camera, you cannot frame the image you are about to take using the LCD screen on the back. You must look through the viewfinder. The LCD screen is soley for menu use and preview mode after the picture has been taken, nothing more.
Something I've noticed is the camera makes a ratteling sound when moved around. I couldn't figure out what the heck it was, and then I finally reazlized it's the hinges from the pop-up flash. It sounds like they are loose when the flash is closed. I went to Best Buy and looked at their display model, and yep, it has the same problem. Well, it's not really a *problem* but frankly something ratteling around like that sounds cheaply made to me. My Canon film SLR doesn't make that sound.
I use a 420EX Speedlite flash with my SLRs so the popup flash doesn't concern me, but it was something I noticed and thought I would share.
I love that Canon gave the option to have a black finish over a silver one.
The startup time is instantaneous which is absolutely wonderful.
The burst mode is excellent with 3 fps.
It's extremely quiet.
The image quality is excellent. You can get photo quality prints at 20x30, and even then I bet you could push it further.
I really can't elaborate more then what other reviews have said. If you are looking for a step into the digital SLR world, this is the ticket. Or you can even check out the newly reduced original Digital Rebel, but for the extra hundred bucks or so, I would just get the XT. You will not be sorry.
Two upgrades I would make right away: Get a Speedlite flash and the Canon 28-135mm lens.
Also, I don't know why people are submitting bad reviews grading Amazon on shipping for the Rebel XT. When I preordered the XT from Amazon (not from another 3rd party), it said it would be released March 20th. I got my Rebel XT in the mail yesterday (the 22nd) which if you ask me, is pretty darn good. Want something right away? Then walk into a store and buy it instead of ordering from the internet. |
Another stunning winner from the bright minds at Canon
|
| Review Date: March 15, 2005 |
| Reviewer: Gadgester, Mother Earth |
I spent three hours yesterday playing with the brand-new Canon Digital Rebel XT digital SLR camera, and man, was I impressed.
I hadn't been too impressed with the original Digital Rebel, except for its revolutionarily low price (for a d-SLR), because it was slow and felt slimsy. The new DR XT is quite different. Even though it's 3 ounces lighter than the original DR -- mostly due to the use of a smaller battery; see below -- its smaller form factor actually makes it feel more solid and "real". In other word, unlike the original DR, this one feels professional, not toy-like at all.
By now you probably already know Canon makes some of the best digital cameras in the world. Even though I'm a Nikon shooter when it comes to d-SLR (sorry, loyal Canon shooters!), I own a couple Canon compact digital cameras and love them, too. The DR XT's image quality is once again excellent. I took a few indoor shots with the camera, both with and without flash, and then the store clerk let me download them to their PC. The JPEG pictures (I didn't try RAW) looked excellent on the Sony LCD screen, on par with the more expensive EOS 20D d-SLR. Color tones were accurate and the resolution was really good. The improvement picture quality over the original DR ("DR Classic"? BTW it's now $200 cheaper) comes from both the 2 extra megapixels and the better color accuracy. BTW, the DR XT reportedly uses a tecchnically different CMOS sensor than the original DR, although I haven't been able to find out exactly how this one is better in technical terms than the old one (other than the two extra megapixels). No matter, my limited true-world testing showed the image quality is indeed better than the already-excellent image quality of the original DR. And, as in the past, Canon does a wonderful job at keeping noise low -- I considered noise acceptable up until ISO 800.
The kit, which I recommend, comes with the same flimsy 3x EF-S lens (which won't work on regular film SLRs) as the original DR. You should most definitely get a better lens, although the kit lens works well as a "street zoom." I didn't get a chance to test the lens outdoors as the store wouldn't let me take it outside, but I have no doubt that this new model can only be better than the original DR, which was already very good even before you considered its low price.
The DR XT is fast: at last, you can turn it on and start shooting without waiting several seconds like you had to with the original DR. The only downside compared to the original DR is the smaller, lighter battery in the DR XT also means shorter battery life. I highly recommend you get an extra battery or two. You won't be able to go through a full day of shooting on just one battery, even if you don't use flash much. (But all pros and pro-wannabes use fill-in flash, don't we?) I also recommend a good camera bag; I personally like Tamrac for that. In addition to the spare battery (batteries), bag and a better lens or two, also consider getting a tripod (Sunpak ones are cheap but ok quality), an external flash as well as filters -- esp. a high-qual circular polarizing filter.
In summary, the Canon Digital Rebel XT is another stunning winner from Canon. It features faster speeds (start-up and shot-to-shot), excellent image quality, and terrific look-and-feel. Despite my personal preference for Nikon pro-level gear, I can recommend this Canon d-SLR to my friends without reservation.
Feel free to e-mail me at gadgester @t hotmail with your questions and commends. |
$100 tip learned the hard way
|
| Review Date: January 1, 2006 |
| Reviewer: P. Lehmann, Texas |
I can't say enough about this camera. I won't launch into superlatives you can read in all the other reviews other than to agree that it is the best thing this amateur has ever bought.
If the XT is going to someone that will only use it 5-10 times a year, the kit lens is fine.
My advice for those like me that are trying to step up into taking photographs rather than pictures? Buy the camera as a body only, spend 80ish dollars on the 50mm 1.8 prime lens, and another 20ish on the remote. You will still come out cheaper than if you buy the XT with a kit lens AND have an amazing, fast lens that gets raving reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. Check the lens reviews for yourself, especially if you're not familiar with prime vs. zoom lenses. The tiny remote is handy too!
I'm betting you will eventually buy at least one more lens than what you start with to explore the capabilities of the XT. This is true whether you start out with the kit or the 1.8. I use the 28-135 IS and the 1.8. The kit lens is in a box in my garage somewhere, so I could have saved myself $100 if someone had suggested to me what I am to you.
|
Top Notch digital
|
| Review Date: April 22, 2005 |
| Reviewer: Mick Gardina, NJ, USA |
I bought this camera as soon as it was available on Amazon, and have had it for about a month now. The experience has been fantastic. The pictures are nothing less than stunning. Colors are great, resolution is amazing, and the software package is very complete and easy to use.
Probably the best features are the number of modes that are available, and the ease of use. It can be set to a full program mode, and used as a point and click snapshot camera by anyone at all, or put into full manual mode for the more experienced.
I do have a couple of suggestions. Order this body without the Canon lens. I upgraded to a Sigma 28-300 mm Macro Zoom for about the cost of the original lens, and now have one lens for virtually any situation.
Also, get top notch compact flash card. I bought high speed, 1 GB Lexar 80x flash because I really wanted the ability to take high speed repetative pictures. I was not disappointed. You can either take one picture after another about as fast as you can hit the sutter, or put the camera into repeat-shot mode and hold the shutter button down. This is a great feature.
Also order a spare battery or two. It takes a lot of pictures on a single charge, but seems to go from a full battery indication down to dead real fast, so there's not a lot of warning that you need to charge up.
All in all, a very outstanding bit of technology. |
Great dSLR especially for the money
|
| Review Date: May 13, 2005 |
| Reviewer: J. Chen, Cali, USA |
Got this camera after considering between this and the 20D. Was very impressed with the 20D, but the price difference could easily give me a very good lense, and the feature differences are minor, so Rebel XT it is. I am a photography enthuiast who wishes he had the budget for a canon 1D MarkII but instead have the budget of a mortal and have to pay for a personal camera out of his own pocket.
I have been reading some other reviews on this site and other sites regarding digital SLR cameras in general. I had to admit, most of the reviewers really are better served with a point and shoot. This is a SLR camera, it will take great pictures in automatic modes, but if you use your camera in those modes, get something like the Canon Pro1. This camera is to be used in Av, Tv or Manual modes, maybe in Program in a pinch. It requires you to understand WB, depth of fields, exposure metering as well as other wide array of nuances that come with a SLR camera. If you don't want to spend some time to learn some details about photography, you will be better served with a point and shoot. If you decide to use the attached flash for in door portrait shots, you're probably better served with a point and shoot. If you need to frame your shot on the LCD, you're better served with a point and shoot (becasue the whole SLR concept of through the lense view of the scene, DOF checking, focus accuracy is completely lost by that opinion). Yes the sensor on dSLR's will get dirty and require maintenance. Some one mentioned why don't engineer design the sensor to have the opposite charge to rebel dust. Well, dusts don't have one single polarity in their charges, so 50% of the dust will be attracted to the sensor doesn't matter what polarity the sensor is charged with.
Also, this is not a Canon 1Ds either, so it does have its limitations, but then again, people who will feel completely limited by this camera should have gotten a Canon 1D series camera anyway.
The best merit for this camera is foremost image quality. It's extremely low in image noise all the way up to ISO 800. ISO 1600 is completely usable if you stay below 8x10 enlargement and don't mind photoshopping your image a little. Again, if you don't ever want to bother with photoshop adjustment of you pictures, you probably will be better served with a point and shoot. The kit lense is of decent quality again for the price, but you're definitely short changing yourself if that's the only lense you decide for have for this camera. If you want to buy the kit and had no intention to buy another lense, you shoud seriously be considering Canon Pro1, it's got a L glass and a good match between the lense and the body. Buying this camera will be at most 50% of your investment if you truly want to make it worthwhile, the other 50% will be needed for buying good lenses (get the Canon 17-40mm USM L lense, the 70-200 4L zoom, and the 28-135mm as a walk-around, the Tamron 28-74 is an excellent medium range lense as well and is probably a superior substitue for the Canon 28-135 USM).
I would have to say lack of spot metering does give the Nikon D70 an advantage, but this camera does have a center metering mode with exposure lock, so it is not really a show-stopper. Compared to the D70, the Rebel XT has superior noise level performance. This is from my personal experience as well as photos from a wide variety of sites on the net. Low noise level is very important to me, so if this is on your priority list, you really can't go wrong with the Rebel XT at this price point.
What I want to emphasize here is seriously consider your needs before buying this camera, to make this camera truly worth the money you spent, you need to spend a bit more of your money and a lot of more of your time on learning how to properly handle a piece of equipment like this. Otherwise, you guessed it, Canon Pro1 is a very very good candidate. |
|
No video reviews found for this product.
Leave a Reply