Canon EOS Rebel XTi Black SLR Digital Camera Kit (10.1MP, 3888x2592, CompactFlash Slot)

Canon Digital Rebel XTi

EOS Rebel XTi Black SLR Digital Camera Kit (10.1MP, 3888x2592, CompactFlash Slot) Review, by Ben Long November 17, 2006

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• Latest User Reviews 8 reviews
• Reviewed by: JoeC215

  Duration of ownership: 3 Months

  Strengths: Can be used fully automatic to completely manual and you can change lenses, too!

  Weaknesses: It is not a "pocket" camera, so it not for the casual photographer. Cannot use the large LED to set up pictures.

  Overall: This is a professional style camera. That is not to say that it is not for the casual photographer, but is not the thin little pocket camrea that seems to be so popular today. It can be used fully automatic so there are not settings to worry about and it even has auto focus that is fast and crisp. It can be set in various modes from portrait, for pictures of people, to scenery for those great vacation shots, to high speed for the kids sports activities and be used used as fully automatic - no settings. At the other extreme, it can be used fully manual, where the user sets all of the settings, great for the experienced photographer. The viewfinder is a wealth of information, it is like having a photo meter built into the camera so the budding photographer has help learning the ins and outs of f-stops, focal lengths and shutter speeds. The ability to change lenses makes the camera one of the most versatile on the market. With the exception of the person who wants to carry their camera in their pocket, This is a great camera choice for everyone from the person who wants those great shots of their vacation and the kid's birthday party to the serious photographer - or "learning to be serious" photographer. The camera grows with you.

• Reviewed by: roly

  Duration of ownership: 1 Year

  Strengths: Excellent results and the Image Stabalization has really enabled me to get sharp pictures.

  Weaknesses: none

  Overall: For the price I feel this is a camera that cannot be beat. My first digital SLR and I couldn't be more pleased

• Reviewed by: 29maunaleo

  Duration of ownership: 4 Months

  Strengths: Superior picture quality Fast burst shooting even in raw mode Intuitive controls Excelent manual camera control Automatic sensor cleaning

  Weaknesses: I purchased the 2 lens kit and the "stock" zoom lens depreciates the camera as the camera is only as good as the lens.

  Overall: I have owned and heavily used each of the Digital EOS models. The original Rebel was a genuine milestone in dSLRs in price performance. The second iteration, the XT was a bit of an improvement and well worth the price yet it was no "giant leap" forward. The XTi, however" is a real "keeper and a giant leap forward. The XTi is by far the best of the series. The common negative I keep reading about in the reviews is the lack of a dedicated status window. What is not mentioned by-and-large is the fact that the status information is readily available in the view finder - which is where you should be looking in the first place with an SLR, not LCD ! Use the LCD for zoomable review and very accurate Histograms In summary I am astounded at the clarity , sharpness, and color reproduction of the the images, the consistancey of color and WB is almost too dependable. If you, like I, shoot in RAW mode and sometimes get caught up in the action , the software provided, Digital Photo Professional in particular, provides a outstanding ability for correction of having shot with the wrong White Balance setting. With the addition of the 70-200 f/4l IS USM lens the XTi really shines. As part of my work we use a combination of 10Ds, 40Ds and other branded DSLRs mainly for outdoor wildlife action shooting. The XTi not only holds its own, but the output product is indestinguishable from many "professional" much higer priced rigs. I would reccomend this camera in a heartbeat to anyone, ameture to professional. It does an excellent job in the full auto mode for Point and Shoot fans and it can be taken to professional quality levels in manual mode. Forget the high price Point and Shoots go the little extra and invest in the XTi and don't fall for the higher priced cameras because the are marketed as "professional" the XTi is truly a remarkable price performance camera.

• Reviewed by: riskyrob

  Duration of ownership: 5 Months

  Strengths: Quality pictures and many useful pre-determined settings.

  Weaknesses: Standard lens is a little too "standard"

  Overall: This is a great camera if you want to take a step up from the point and shoots. The quality of the pictures is great, the speed between shots is excellent (depends on memory as well). I would recommend getting a better lens, something with a little higher zoom. The auto focus works great. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is the lens.

• Reviewed by: randyco

  Duration of ownership: 3 Months

  Strengths: Takes great pictures, the controls are easy to see. All around great camera

  Weaknesses: Takes a while to figure out, but thats the case with most cameras.

  Overall: I really like this camera, I was thinking of getting the Sony Alpha because I've had 4 other Sonys. I bought this camera because of the Canon reputation and I haven't been disappointed.

• Reviewed by: midnitenurse

  Duration of ownership: 1 Year

  Strengths: Ease of use is superior

  Weaknesses: None I can find

  Overall: I knew nothing about photography then I bought this camera. It's so easy to use, and I also bought a book on this specific camera through Amazon.com. How I'm a pro. I bought a couple of new lenes and off to the yard, learning marco photography, all thanks to this great camera. The quality of pictures is wonderful also.

• Reviewed by: NiteCap2k

  Duration of ownership: 8 Months

  Strengths: Excellent Image Quality, Fast Lightweight

  Weaknesses: none

  Overall: Ive owned my xti since Canon released them. This is another excellent product in canon's lineup. Its fast, lightweight and has some of the best image quality in its class. I'm able to shoot with this all day without my hands tiring. its 2.5 lcd is perfect for gettin a good view of your shots without having to zoom. the 10.2 megapixels is perfect for those larger shots i occasionally need. and the price was just right. Ive owned cameras from sony and olympus, but none compare (although the olympus was close, and the lense costs were its only drawback) Theres only one other camera in my lineup that i use as much as my Xti and its my XT..(you can see my review on it also). This camera suits both Novices and professionals who need a quick fast camera. It continues to serve me and my studio well.. Bravo Canon!!

• Reviewed by: FIJIBOWL

  Duration of ownership: 1 Month

  Strengths: 10.1 MP RESOLUTION, 2.5 LCD SCREEN, 0.2 STARTUP TIME, THUMBPAD REST ON REAR PANEL, 9 POINT AF, ANTI-DUST SYSTEM, FAST PERFORMANCE, LOW NOISE FROM 100-1600 ISO, SMALLER SIZED DIGITAL SLR ABLE TO FIT IN ANY SLR BAG.

  Weaknesses: SHUTTER SPEED SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCREASED TO SAME SPEED AS THE 20D, 30D, 5D WHICH IS 1/8000 FOR THOSE SLRS. SHOULD HAVE HAD A STATUS DISPLAY AS WELL.

  Overall: LIKE THE EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT BEFORE IT, IS STILL THE BEST DIGITAL SLR ON THE MARKET FOR ANYONE WHOM CAN USE, IN THE UNDER $900 PRICE RANGE. GREAT VALUE FOR THE BEST GEAR BY THE BEST DIGITAL CAMERA/PRINTER/IMAGING COMPANY IN THE WORLD. ALL DONE IN HOUSE UNLIKE OTHER CAMERA COMPANIES, IE. NIKON, OLYMPUS, PENTAX,ETC, ETC.

• Reviewed by: stereogram

  Strengths: cheap

  Weaknesses: none

  Overall: i really love this camera. it's a great semi-pro dslr for beginners. easy to use, great picture quality.highly recommended for the price. and canon lenses are readily available and affordable.awesome!

• Reviewed by: ralph00375

  Strengths: Excellent quality. Fast shooting. Overall is great. And I love the manual with some help in how to get into the entry level of professional cameras.

  Weaknesses: No complaints so far.

  Overall: This is my first SLR camera. It is worth to have this camera. The photos now are great and I can enjoy taking photos whether is dark or shinny, indoor or outdoor. Great body. Light camera. Great lens included. Easy menu. Great opportunities of upgrading. I'll recommend this to everyone looking for one good entry level DSLR.

• Reviewed by:

  Strengths: light weight ( Iuse a flash bar with the 430ex and off camera cord) and the light weight assures me less fatigue.quick start-ups and focusing ( I use the 17-85 IS lens)I've taken 7,400 photos

  Weaknesses: none for me yetexcept the 1.6 CMOS

  Overall: my first DSLR and after handling most DSLRs on the market I did not go wrong with the XTI Price wise and Accessories..... I've purchased the 50mm 1.4 and love it as well.......B

• Reviewed by: sgtdisturbed47

  Strengths: Image quality, battery life, accurate smart autofocus, nice bright LCD.

  Weaknesses: Ergonomics are terrible. Camera is too lightweight. I'm afraid to use it regularly in fear of breaking it. I don't like the info LCD on the back (above the main LCD). Kit lens is sub-standard

  Overall: Coming from a Nikon D50, I had high expectations. I was severely disappointed. I heard great things about low-end Canon DSLR cameras, and hoped that this camera would have a more professional feel to it. Awkward grip makes the camera uncomfortable for "man hands" to get a grip on. The light weight is also another factor that makes me think that this camera is not worth the price. I expected a heavier, more robust design.Although it is a kit lens, they should really have invested some more resources in better kit lenses. I can see how they are increasing their profit margin by lacking in stronger, thicker plastics and rubber on the cameras and kit lenses. They could learn a thing or two from Nikon.

• Reviewed by: touristguy87

  Strengths: does what it does well, pretty fast, good image quality, low noise

  Weaknesses: it's still expensive as hell relative to a decent p&s

  Overall: after about 50 comments (of my own) I'm scratching this entire review and hitting a very important point. The reason I got this camera was to shoot handheld after daylight because as much as I like my mini-tripod, I find it to be very restrictive. So handheld shooting from my Canon A610 is one thing, shooting from a mini-tripod is another. I was just not quite happy with it even though it was the fastest p&s that I could find (based on image-resource tests, I looked at their "Daves' box" shots and figured out which camera had the fastest shutter speed at ISO400)...the problem is the A610 is still limited by not having IS. I tried the A710 which is really nice due to its IS in terms of low-light shooting but not a great camera otherwise. I looked at the F31fd but it is basically an A610 with an interpolated image, the ISO400-3200 performance of that camera is really quite weak, very noisy, oversharpened...even if it is 4x as fast as the A610 (which it isn't) I wouldn't want to shoot with it. So ok I tried a Rebel XTi. And it is nice...to shoot with no real noise through IS0800, but what was really killing me is that my S2 was still hanging with it, shooting ISO200 on IS even though it was much slower of course, but still I could get the same shots, for all intents and purposes. Then I was looking through some of my old A610 shots in Moscow where I shot at -1.3, -1.7, even -1.0EV and it was coming out better than my A710 in the same conditions (that camera is a POS) and almost as good as my S2, though clearly I could shoot the S2 handheld in less light than the A610 because of the IS. So I'm thinking, "something is really, freaking, wrong, here". I had a few clues, it's well known that the S2 is ISO-rated about 2x that of the S3, and I knew the A610 was fast...but still not a whole picture. Plus I was trying to figure out what the effect of buying a Canon 17-85mm F4-F5.6 IS USM (at $450) vs a 17-55mm F2.8 IS USM (at $900) would be, in terms of shutter speed. And I'm reading the reviews at slrgear.com and the guys are gushing over the F2.8 and saying the F4 is slow so I said "ok time for some data". And I set up my tripod in a corner of my kitchen under the one light there, and I shot the same scene with my 6 different cameras at various ISOs and I corrected for the F# to get from F3.6 to F2.8 and F4, I came up with this plot. And I think this says something that you need to know if you are following in my footsteps. Beyond that, the Rebel XTi is nice, works well, the controls are laid out well and while it could be a little wider, it is generally a nice DSLR. But, still. Take a look at this plot and see if you can figure it out, and what it means. All the other cameras except the Rebel were shot wide open, F2.8, they all were shot -1EV. Get a load of this speed data. Now having said all this, it is true that there is some "inaccuracy" in the ISO ratings of the other P&Ss and that the Rebels ISO1600 looks low by comparison. But the Rebel is much cleaner than the other cameras, and shooting RAW allows for good highly-detailed low-noise shots right through ISO1600. But you are paying so much more for this and really you will need to be prepared to pony up some serious cash if you go this route. On the other hand I have gotten to the point where I don't even want to shoot my S2 at ISO100, much less ISO200 or 400. It's like a different camera at ISO50 than it is at ISO100. The one negative that I see about this, aside from the price, is that the Rebel still seems to have the occasional focus error. Since it does not have true AiAF it is only able to focus on the scene points that you put under the focus points. Sometimes that does not result in a great focus. The other thing is that when shooting RAW you have to worry about matching the colors that you would get if you were shooting JPEG. I guess the thing to do is to shoot raw plus jpeg when there is any question of having to shoot at high ISO but still needing good fine detail. If you like the jpegs, throw away the raw shots. The RAW files will be full of noise (although low-level noise, still much more than the jpegs) and they are going to get big and stay big until you scrub some of the noise out of the image. You're talking 10, 12MB per shot plus a 4MB Lfine jpeg. It is not cheap or convenient to play this game. I would say that really the only time that I *need* to shoot RAW is when underexposing landscape shots at ISO1600. It's a little disconcerting because at 100% you are dealing with so much image detail. Anyway, get one, play with that option, see what you like...at the very least, the camera is clean enough to let you shoot ISO1600 RAW at -1.3EV and get decent results. With an IS lens you would not need to do that so much. But now you are talking about spending more for the lens than for the camera. The F2.8 17-55 IS USM Canon lens is $200 more than the camera alone but you can see from this chart where that would put you in terms of shooting speed.