
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi 10.1
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.
The Canon Digital Rebel XTi (EOS-400D) is a very impressive entry-level digital SLR. It offers great photo quality and performance, plenty of features (most notably, a dust reduction system), a large LCD, and plenty of accessories. The Rebel XTi earns my recommendation.
The Rebel XTi has all the features you'd expect from a D-SLR, plus a few more. The XTi's resolution has been bumped up to 10 Megapixels, which is actually more than the "superior" EOS-30D -- I imagine a 40D can't be too far away. A more interested addition to the XTi is a dust reduction system, which attacks this annoyance from many angles (described earlier). In terms of shooting modes, you've got several scene modes, plus full manual exposure controls. While it won't let you set the color temperature, the XTi will let you do custom white balance, WB bracketing, and WB shift. Canon bundles a fairly complete software package with the camera, including a capable RAW editor and a remote capture program, both of which are options on the Nikon D80.
Camera performance was excellent in most respects. While the camera doesn't start up as quickly as some, it's due to the dust reduction system, and you can elect to skip this if you need to take a quick shot. The XTi focuses quickly, shutter lag isn't noticeable, and shot-to-shot speeds were snappy. The XTi can take 11 RAW or 33 Fine quality JPEGs in a row at just under 3 frames/second. About the only weak spot performance-wise is battery life, which is a bit below average.
Photo quality was excellent, especially with a decent lens on the camera (and the kit lens isn't one of those). The XTi took well-exposed, colorful images with very low noise levels, even at ISO 800. Like on all of Canon's D-SLRs, images are on the soft side straight out of the camera, and if you agree you can turn up the in-camera sharpening using the Picture Styles feature. Purple fringing levels varied depending on what lens I was using, but generally it wasn't a problem. Same goes for redeye -- there wasn't any to speak of.
There are just a few negatives that didn't fit in elsewhere. Like the other Rebel D-SLRs, there's no spot metering feature on the XTi. There isn't a custom or 2 second self-timer either, which is strange, since Canon's PowerShot cameras all have it. You can, however, use the mirror lockup option in the custom setting menu to accomplish this -- it's just a lot of work to do so.
And that's about it! Despite not being a big fan of its small size, I do like and actually love how the Rebel XTi performs, and it gets my highest recommendation.
Review ID: 10000000008076115

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