Canon Digital Rebel XT

[spaceacewannabe]

Is there something newer coming out soon? I'm seeing some good prices and wondering why...just Thanksgiving, or are they clearing out for newer and better things?

 

[Master Mason]

Is there something newer coming out soon? I'm seeing some good prices and wondering why...just Thanksgiving, or are they clearing out for newer and better things?

The Rebel XTi was just released recently.

 

[Hitched2BellesCastle]

Is there something newer coming out soon? I'm seeing some good prices and wondering why...just Thanksgiving, or are they clearing out for newer and better things?

I am very happy with my XT (which I bought in July) but the one thing I wish I had was a bigger, and higher resolution screen. The XTi addresses these issues. If you are short on money the XT is a great Camera....but if I could do it over again I would have waited for the XTi for those reasons alone.

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

I love my rebel XT. IMO you can't see the pictures good enough (even on the XTi) to do them justice, so I don't think there would be an advantage to me.

Rule #1 with digital is never delete until you can see the whole picture with detail..... you never know what might be going on in the background!!!

 

[JR6ooo4]

I most wish for........ spot metering.


Mikeeee

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I most wish for........ spot metering.

I really doubt that they'll do that. They used to only provide spot metering on their 1D series. With the last round (30D and 5D) they've included a slightly wider (3.5% vs 2.4%) spot meter on their mid-range cameras. I doubt that they'll ever put it on the Rebel series. It's one of those things they use as a differentiating factor to entice people to buy further up the product line. You do still get partial metering (like spot metering with a large spot).

As far as the differences between the XT and the XTi, here is a quick list:

1) Higher resolution sensor
2) Automated sensor cleaning system
3) Better autofocus (uses the 30D 9-point system)
4) Can take more shots before it slows down to write to memory card (RAW went from 4 to 10, JPG went from 14 to 27).
5) Larger, brighter monitor LCD that combines the functions of the monitor LCD and the status LCD. The status LCD is gone.
6) LCD turns off when you look through the viewfinder
7) Selectable parameter groupings called "picture styles"
8) An updated menu interface
9) Histogram can be displayed as RGB instead of just brightness
10) Up to 9,999 images in a folder instead of just 100
11) You no longer have to press "set" after making changes
12) Some new direct print features

Of those, I (my personal opinion) think that the important ones are #3, #4, #9, and #2. Most people will dwell on #1, but you're only going from 3,456x2,304 to 3,888x2,592.

I think the improvements in the AF will be of enormous help to people shooting kids. The old Rebel's AF was one of it's biggest sources of complaints.

The bigger buffer will rarely be used by most people, but when you need it, it's critical. I typically need the extra buffer when my subject is doing a brief routine of some type (skating competition, gymnastics competition, Tae Kwon Do bout, etc.). In those cases I find myself taking a huge number of pictures in a very short period of time.

The RGB historgram comes in handy when you are shooting very saturated colors. With my 60D, I would sometimes carefully check my histogram while shooting flowers and then get really frustrated to find out later that while my B&W histogram looked good, I had been blowing out my red channel.

Time will tell how useful the dust shaker is. I'm certainly hoping that it helps a lot and becomes standard on all new models.

 

[Groucho]

10) Up to 9,999 images in a folder instead of just 100

I must have overlooked that mention before. The older one can do put 100 images in a folder? So if you shoot, say, 350 images on a memory card, it puts them in four different folders?

Bizarre.

 

[allyn]

I must have overlooked that mention before. The older one can do put 100 images in a folder? So if you shoot, say, 350 images on a memory card, it puts them in four different folders?

Bizarre.

yes, that's correct. all canon digital cameras worked this way until this year's models when they finally changed. on the old cameras there would be 100CANON, 101CANON, 102CANON, etc. 100CANON only held pictures 1-100, 101CANON held 101-200, etc. it has been very annoying over the many years i've owned canon cameras.

i used to say that canon made all of their file system decisions completely opposite of the way i would make them.

another feature of the super-high-end canons that would be just as useful at the low end is a user setting to change the IMG_ part of the filenames to something unique for each camera. so there would be less possibility of collisions with other cameras. i'd actually prefer the olympus strategy that names images with a P and then encodes the date the photo was taken in the next three characters. P120 is jan 20, PB31 is dec 31. actually makes those characters meaningful.

 

[mabas9395]

I have the Rebel XT and will probably shoot with it until I break it or loose it rather than upgrade. But when that time finally does come, one of the features I will be looking for is the ISO in the viewfinder. I can chalk up a lot of poor results to not chaning my ISO when I change lighting conditions (going from inside to outside). There aren't many camera features that will make me a better photographer (its mostly up to me) but that one would really help.

And ISO in 1/2 or 1/3 stops would be a nice to have to.

I think the 30D has the 1/3 ISO stops, but it says the ISO is only available in the viewfinder when you change it. That only helps me when I actually remember to change it! I need to see it to remind myself that I need to change it.

 

[Groucho]

yes, that's correct. all canon digital cameras worked this way until this year's models when they finally changed. on the old cameras there would be 100CANON, 101CANON, 102CANON, etc. 100CANON only held pictures 1-100, 101CANON held 101-200, etc. it has been very annoying over the many years i've owned canon cameras.

Good grief, I can see how that would make you bonkers!

My Dad uses a Canon PnS but I guess I never paid enough attention to see that before. Glad to see that they're fixing it, I'm surprised it took them this long.

And I used to get annoyed that my old Fuji would reset the count every time I switched memory cards...

another feature of the super-high-end canons that would be just as useful at the low end is a user setting to change the IMG_ part of the filenames to something unique for each camera. so there would be less possibility of collisions with other cameras. i'd actually prefer the olympus strategy that names images with a P and then encodes the date the photo was taken in the next three characters. P120 is jan 20, PB31 is dec 31. actually makes those characters meaningful.

Changing the prefix might be handy but I don't know if I'd like the date encoded at the beginning, unless the first letter corresponds to the year. I guess it might judging by the otherwise-meaningless "P" in your example - I'd just want to make sure that they stayed in chronological order, and not get January 2005 pics mixed up with Jan 06 pics.

 

[allyn]

Changing the prefix might be handy but I don't know if I'd like the date encoded at the beginning, unless the first letter corresponds to the year. I guess it might judging by the otherwise-meaningless "P" in your example - I'd just want to make sure that they stayed in chronological order, and not get January 2005 pics mixed up with Jan 06 pics.

the P in olympus photos is fixed. "P"icture, maybe? anyway, i just sort all my photos by date, because i often have the photos from multiple cameras in the same directory.

btw, i agree with MarkBarbieri that the new focus system in the XTi is probably the most important new feature. the 10MP sensor is really a "don't care", even compared with my original 6MP digital rebel.

 

[Groucho]

the P in olympus photos is fixed. "P"icture, maybe? anyway, i just sort all my photos by date, because i often have the photos from multiple cameras in the same directory.

Hmm... so you just have to make different folders for year to keep them from mingling? That's not SO bad, I usually do that anyway as otherwise there are just too many pictures.

btw, i agree with MarkBarbieri that the new focus system in the XTi is probably the most important new feature. the 10MP sensor is really a "don't care", even compared with my original 6MP digital rebel.

I agree on the mp. I plan on upgrading to a Pentax K10D (10mp) from my DL (6mp) but the extra mp aren't part of the reason. The extra mp are really my only concern, I'm afraid of more noise (though apparently that isn't so much of an issue, but certainly can be when going to more mp.)