Are you looking for the camera of your dreams? Don't wait for it to find you! Read what others have said about the Canon Rebel Digital SLR camera....

Read what Hyun Yu has to say about his dream come true:

"My journey with DSLRs began back in 2003 with the original Digital Rebel. DSLRs changed my photography for the better like nothing else. Five years and some 25,000 shots later, it's still going strong. Along the way I upgraded to the Canon 30D, which is a fantastic camera as well. When the 40D was announced, I decided to wait until the 50D sometime in 2009, but wanted a newer backup/second body for my photography needs. So when the XSi/450D was announced, it sounded like a perfect fit for my needs.

The build feels very good. The camera feels wonderfully light yet well built. I'm 6ft tall with average size hands, and the camera feels good in my hand. The battery grip, to me, defeats the purpose of having a small, light DSLR, so I opted for a Hakuba/Opteka grip (it's a plate that screws into the tripod socket that enables you to use the excellent Canon E1 hand strap with it) and I couldn't be happier. I'm not a fan of neck straps, so this works well for me (see the uploaded photo for the configuration).

Most of the menu buttons on the back feel different from the ones on the original Digital Rebel and the 30D; the XSi buttons feel more tactile and have a definite "click" to them when you press them. The exception are the Exposure Lock (*) and AF selector buttons, which have retained the deeper, softer feel of the older cameras. Just different, not better or worse, for me.

The LCD is now 3" with 230K pixels. The playback images look great, and probably because of the higher resolution of the sensor, there's a very slight delay when you zoom in to 10x while the image loads and displays properly. People coming from other cameras or brands might not even notice it--I only did so because of the difference between it and my two other Canon DSLRs (which have lower resolution sensors). The viewing angle of the LCD screen (how clearly you can see the screen from side and up and down) is excellent; you can still see the screen holding the camera almost straight up for an overhead shot (more on this later). I'd estimate the viewing angle is about 160-170 degrees both horizontally and vertically.

The Digital Rebel has a separate status screen above the main LCD screen, and the 30D had one on top of the camera, so I wasn't sure if I was going to like the big LCD acting as the status screen and no top screen. I'm happy to say that this arrangement works well, at least for me. The back screen makes it really easy to take all the settings at a glance. The viewfinder is much larger and brighter than that in the Digital Rebel. A humongously welcome feature for me is the always displayed ISO value in the viewfinder.

The camera is only 1/2 of the image quality equation, the other being the lenses being used. Coupled with my favorite lens, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L telephoto lens, the XSi turns out fantastic images. The supplied kit lens is very light and compact for being an image stabilized lens, and turns out good performance. The IS is certainly very useful.

Two features that used to be missing from the Digital Rebels and found in the more expensive DSLRs are now featured in the XSi: spot-metering and flash exposure compensation (these may have been available in the previous Digital Rebel model, the XTi, as well). The inclusion of those two features make the camera a much more complete and compelling photographic tool. The timer function now has a custom mode, where it'll count down from 10 seconds then take a number of shots (specified by you) in succession. No more running back and forth to reset the timer after each shot! There's also the traditional 2-second timer.

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.

I'm using Transcend 8GB Class 6 SDHC card with it. At ISO 100, the camera reports it can fit 396 RAW+JPG (highest quality) on it, but in reality it can probably fit about 420-450 (the camera's always conservative when estimating). With RAW only, it can fit 507. With highest quality JPG, it can fit 1,822. Note that as ISO increases, so do the file sizes and thus you can store less images per card. For example, on ISO 1600, the same card can only hold 323 images, compared to 396 at ISO 100.

My only gripe, and this is more about me than the camera, is the RAW+JPG buffer. I always shoot RAW+JPG, and the buffer will only hold four images at that speed (this is a limitation that's built into the camera's memory buffer system, and thus using a fast memory card doesn't help--see p.64 of the manual). When the buffer's full, you can take two additional images at about a frame a second, then have to wait until the buffer empties (finishes writing to the memory card). When shooting RAW only, it's 6 images. When shooting JPG only, then it's no problem at more than 50 frames. I've found myself switching the mode dial to Sports mode when I'm shooting a fast-moving subject and the buffer simply can't keep up with it. Well, that's why Canon produces different grades and ranges of DSLRs.

All in all, it's a fantastic camera. Pretty amazing to see how far the entry-level DSLRs have come in just a few years in terms of features, interface, ergonomics, and quality. I'm very pleased with my purchase and intend to have lots of fun shooting pictures with it."

Read what J. Lane has to say about the Canon Rebel:

"I have had the XSi for about 3 months now and I am thouroughly impressed with it. This is my first DSLR and I was a little wary about going with a brand-new and untested camera, but I have always like Canon (I used an ELAN II in High School and I bought a SD600 about 2 years ago to take snapshots of my son). Overall, I have not been disappointed with the quality of the photos that the XSi produces. The IS lens works great and I have taken some pretty amazing photos (for me at least). I do have just a couple of issues, both good and bad, that I think those who are looking at buying this may want to know.

Battery life -- Great battery life. I should say, AMAZING battery life. I have taken over 5000 photos and I have only had to charge the battery twice.

Image Quality -- I have had some great success shooting in a studio setting as well as some great outdoor shots. In the studio, I used tungsten "hot" lights with the subjuect against a white background. The photos turned out great. Skin tones are perfect and there is very little, if any, chromatic abberation at the edges. It shoots great outdoor shots as well. We just got into beekeeping and I was able to get some AMAZING shots of our bees up-close outdoors. The bees looked dirty and not very interesting from a distance, but the macro photos I got up close are beautiful and full of wonderfully crisp details. The lens is a little short, the image quality you get from it is pretty good considering it only costs $100. I do plan on buying a longer lens in the near future.

Overall, the camera is solid and feels nice in the hand. It isn't too heavy, yet still feels sturdy. If you can afford the higher price, I don't think you will be disappointed. If you can't, the XTi is still a great camera. And if you can afford to wait a few months for the price to drop a little (LIKE IT ALREADY HAS!!) I would. I was able to work a few extra weekends so I could afford to get this, and I can tell you, I don't mind it a bit, because the quality of photos I am getting has been totally worth it."

Are you ready to start snapping your own photographs with a Canon Rebel? Go on. Press the red button. You know you want to.