Review - Is Canon EOS Rebel XSi the best buy

Is Canon EOD Rebel the best buy ?

This is my first venture into buying a DSLR. I have a $800 budget so I made sure I was spending my money on the best camera possible. The first step to buy a digital SLR is to choose the brand. Canon and Nikon are the most popular brands among photographers for the rich selections of cameras, lenses, accessories, and availability of supports.I had been reviewing DSLRs for months before finally deciding on the XSi.
I am attracted to good number of positive customer feedback reviews at amazon.com as well as favourable forum comments like dbreview. I purchased the Canon EOS Rebel XSi 4 months ago and I could not be happier with my decision! From the moment I took it out of the box I have been taking better pictures than I ever thought I could.
The camera is exceptionally easy to use and the quality of the photos are exceptional for a camera in this price range. I have yet to find anything that I'm dissatisfied with.
I have some photography experience but definitely far from a Pro. I am still quite green when it comes to the finer points of photography. It didn't at all matter with this camera. Right out of the box it didnt take me long to figure out the controls and which buttons did what. I love that there was a dedicated ISO button, white balance button, metering options button, AND shooting mode button.
The lens that came with this thing is also much better than I expected in a kit lens. The image quality looks amazing while doing both very close up shots and landscape. I am not an expert on lenses,I was quite impressed.

The menu system is great too, it comes with a very useful feature called "My Menu" where you can actually pick any 6 functions you feel you will use the most and put them into this one menu and you can arrange it any way you want. Then you can make it the default menu so instead of it going to the last menu you were looking at when you hit the menu button, it goes straight to this customized menu of yours. It's a great feature and makes accessing special functions like mirror lock up, AEB, flash exposure compensation,etc. very fast and easy.

The great new is the very attractive offer now at $619.99, a $30 off from the standard price.For

If you want a light, easy to use and learn (for first time users), long lasting battery (about 500 images), nice clear LCD and fairly cheap price to performance ratio this camera blows out all nikons, pentax, and sony's out there for the beginner/transitioning to intermediate shooters. I chose this camera over the 40d because its more suitable for me and most importantly I can use the price difference between the XSi and the 40d to get my 70-200 4L for free basically.

If you are looking for good money for value Camera with the price range below $650, I hope this was helpful for you as all the other reviews were helpful to me.To have more Product Information and Reviews.

Review - Pros and Cons about Canon Digital Rebel XSi

Pros:
- An easy to use, quick camera.
- Intuitive menus.
- 12 mega pixels.
- Great pictures, sharp, good tones.
- Small and light weight for a DSLR.
- Live view mode to almost mimic point and shoot feel-it's slow though.
- 3.5 shots per second-could be more.
- Sharp kit lens for the price.

Cons:.
- ISO limited to 1600.
- Relatively low fps.
- Exposure compensation range limited.
- Does not have video.

Summary :
Very highly recommended for anyone looking for an awesome camera at a non-outrageous price

* The competition *
The closest competitor is certainly the Canon 40D, which is a bigger, more professional camera. It has more options, higher iso, remote flash, higher shots per second rate, fewer pixels but a definitely tougher feel.
I went for the rebel Xsi because I found the 40D too hefty.
Still, if you really want a professional camera you should look at the Canon 40D.
If you have a bigger budget, you should also look at Nikon, I really recommend the Nikon D300, it's a really impressive camera.


Customer Feedbacks :

Pros :

It's easy to use, the LCD screen is big and clear, it's quite light, and the packaged kit lens (18-55 IS) is good. It's not a top lens, but it delivers sharp photos across the zoom range. - portion of Customer Comments from Amazon


“The EOS 450D..has a feature set that offers an excellent balance between beginner-friendly ease of use and the manual control / customization demanded by those wanting something a little more serious. - portion of user review by Dpreview



The camera is indeed very light weight and compact compared to the more professional dSLR's so it's a great camera to bring with you on vacations or long hikes or whatever. - portion of consumer opinion from Azamon

For under $700, this is the best DSLR you can find.- portion of customer comment from Dpreview.

I am thrilled with this camera. After doing some research for a couple of months between this camera, the nikon d80 and the prestigious canon 40d, I decided on the XSi for my needs. Best overall price to my performance needs.

The image quality is surprisingly close to that the the EOS 40D and EOS 50D, but the cost is significantly lower. - portion of User Comments

The battery life seems very good. I've shot about 500+ shots on a single charge and the status monitor is still showing charge at full. - portion of User Review.

Cons

The major one, which has been referenced to in various forums such as dpreview and a few online review sites is poor AutoFocus.
Not all cameras are affected, but mine was. If you shoot at an object from w/in 10 ft, it has trouble over 50% of the time picking up the autofocus point and often selects the wrong point - portion of User Comments on Amazon.

Recent discussions in the Canon Digital Rebel XSi Forum

Recent discussions in the Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (Black) forum


Customer Discussions > Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (Black) forum
Canon Rebel XSI auto focus problems

new mom says:
I was all set to order the xsi until I read the reviews about the auto focus problems. The whole reason I want a new camera is because I'm sick of the blurry pictures. I will be taking most of my pictures on auto focus. What should I do?
Reply to this post

Technology Guy says:
new mom-

The number of highly positive reviews vastly outnumber the negative reviews mentioning "auto-focus problems" here at Amazon. And you don't see this "problem" ever mentioned in professional reviews of the camera.

I strongly suspect the "auto-focus problems" you're referring to are actually caused by a very common beginner's mistake. The Xsi has 9 independent auto-focus points available. The full auto mode which beginners are likely to start out with will use all 9 points at the same time. What this means is that the camera will end up picking the auto-focus point or points which present the camera with the best contrast for determining correct focus. The focus points the camera selects, however, aren't necessarily the best ones for the photographer because the camera doesn't really know what part of the scene is the subject and what parts are the background.

The proper technique is to not use FULL auto mode but one of the other modes - P, Av, Tv or M - and to manually (pre)select ONE auto-focus point. Generally, you'll pick either the center point or the one focus point closest to your actual subject in the frame. Many photographers will use a "focus and recompose" method where they auto-focus on the subject using just the center focus point and, while still half pressing the shutter release button, reframe the scene as desired. This works very well in most cases.

I believe with the proper techniques, you'll find the Xsi can focus VERY accurately and give you quite professional looking results.

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Product Overview

Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (Black)

The EOS Rebel XSi brings staggering technological innovation to the masses. It features Canon's EOS Integrated Cleaning System, Live View Function, a powerful DIGIC III Image Processor, plus a new 12.2-megapixel CMOS Sensor and is available in a kit with the new EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens with Optical Image Stabilizer. The EOS Rebel XSi's refined, ergonomic design includes a new 3.0-inch LCD monitor, compatibility with SD and SDHC Memory cards and new accessories that enhance every aspect of the photographic experience.

* Lenses *
Canon has LOTS of lenses.
If you're tight on budget, you should get the 50mm 1.8, a great lens for portrait. It's a very sharp lens. You'll enjoy the 1.8 wide aperture that allows blurred backgrounds and sharp , all of this for under $100.
It's also a good start to get used to shoot with primes (lenses with a fixed focal length).
The 18-55mm kit lens is often paired with the Canon 55-250mm IS lens to give you an almost 14x zoom (13.9), this Canon 55-250 is a very good telephoto lens if your budget is under $300.
If you don't want to change lenses, Canon just released the 18-200 IS and it comes highly recommended so far.
The Sigma 18-200 OS is good too. It's cheaper and it's been in the field for longer.