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Did you get a Digital Rebel?

From the lens Compare Digital Rebel XSi and T1i.

  • eos500dreview Jan 25, 2012 @ 3:37 pm | delete
    A great lens!....good content and very informative.
  • camerasuggestions Dec 27, 2010 @ 7:42 am | delete
    I do agree with you but my thoughts on this Canon EOS Rebel T1i Camera because One of the best camera for entry level photographers and nicely described.
  • lapetitefrog Oct 6, 2010 @ 6:34 pm | delete
    great lens! i'm debating between the xsi and the xti, but i do want video features. might just get myself a xti :)
  • supervpropo Mar 27, 2010 @ 2:38 pm | delete
    Nice digital camera. Good and useful lens about digital camera and camera lens. I must right back on your lens.
    Thanks for sharing such like a helpful post.
  • canonlover! Dec 28, 2009 @ 1:34 pm | delete
    hey! thanks for the guide[:
    i think i'll buy the xsi and now here's my new problem x:
    i figure the 18-55 mm kit lens won't be enough for me, so i was thinking of buying just a body and then either a sigma or tamron lens. but which lens do i buy ? the sigma or tamron one ?
    or should i buy an xsi with the 18-55 mm lens & then the canon 55-250mm.
    i'll also probably buy filters, a teleconverter lens, and macro if needed.
    what should i do ?
    &thankkks[:
  • thewayeyeseeit Dec 28, 2009 @ 4:30 pm | delete
    Hey canonlover - good choice.
    Here's my take on your lens question. I have the Sigma 18-250 on my Canon body and I love it. When I purchased my first Rebel, I did not get the kit lens because it was not a very good lens. The optics have improved and they have added IS, so it is much better now. However, the build quality is still not great. Both the 18-55 and the 55-200 are made of plastic. This will not be a problem is handled gently. I dropped a plastic lens once and the plastic shattered - not the glass, just the casing. The Tamron lens has some pretty good reviews, too, so you will not go wrong if you get that lens.
    As far as macro lens, depending on your budget, you can get the Canon 100mm or save a few bucks and get the Sigma 105mm macro. I have the Sigma and it takes decent macro images in spite of being a bit slow on the focus.
    Hope this helps, and enjoy your Rebel XSi!
  • Ashengrad Dec 28, 2009 @ 8:02 pm | delete
    I would recommend a Sigma over a Tamron every day. I asked my instructor at our college once that question and she showed me 6 lenses. Each had been there at least three years now with different people constantly using them, half Sigma and half Tamron. The Tamron ones were all broke because of different reasons (the gears grinded off, casing broke) but the Sigma ones were in all pretty decent condition. She recommended Sigma's, and personally after seeing that I do too. The question you asked can be answered, but it's too broad of a category to even help out. Are you planning on doing a lot of nature photos? Sports photos? What? To properly answer it, you need to provide a bit more. Hope this helped.
  • canonlover! Dec 29, 2009 @ 12:57 pm | delete
    Well I'm planning on doing some sports shots [ like highschool football & basketball ], some ballet pictures, quite a bit of macro, some landscape, and basic shots of my every day life.
    another question! uhh I have a canon powershot sx200 is that i bought in the summer and I was comparing it to the xsi and is it worth it to purchase an xsi ? i'm pretty fond of my powershot, and it's a powerful little point&shoot. I noticed that its running on a digic 4 processor, but the xsi is running on a digic III. should i still be upgrading to an xsi ? or should i wait a little bit for maybe a new dslr in the rebel series to come out.
  • thewayeyeseeit Dec 29, 2009 @ 8:13 pm | delete
    Well, my friend, you have to make up your mind on this one. If your sx200 is giving you what you want, you might want to wait. However, there is a major difference when you upgrade to a DSLR - it is in the size of the image sensor. DSLR image sensors are much larger than point and shoot image sensors. This, and the fact that you have interchangable lenses, is the reason to upgrade to a DSLR. The larger sensor gives much better image quality. It has nothing to do with the number of megapixels, rather the actual size of the sensor and the pixels themselves.
    Bottom line - if you are serious about improving your situation, then go with the DSLR and a variety of lenses to cover your needs. And, finally, yes, the DIGIC IV is a significant improvement over the DIGIC III, but if you are not a camera geek, it may not be as significant to you. The Rebel XSi still takes great photos.
  • Ashengrad Dec 23, 2009 @ 12:15 pm | delete
    @mike8178

    Hey this is Ash again. I wanted to comment and give my two cents, now that I've owned the T1i for a while. I can't speak about the XSi because, of course, I don't own it. But, from what I've used the video on the T1i is very good (720p at 30 fps or 1080p at 20 fps). The problem? There is no external mic. The internal mic isn't that great, but it does the job. The internal mic is clean and you can hear it clearly, just don't expect movie quality or external mic magnificent. The good side for me is that the videos I use, are used for in traveling and small clips like that don't need that great of sound. The auto-focus feature in video though, since the mic is physically close, can be heard when you use video. These noises is a big major screwup on Canon's part in my opinion: but besides that, decent video.

    Now, the 12 vs. 15 megapixel, unless your doing major cropping you can't really notice from what I'm aware. Read up on the Megapixel War articles sometime, and it'll make sense as they go into further detail about the difference between the two (which is a small difference.)

    The part that shined through for me was the DIGIC IV processor, and it's EXPANDED (not regular) capabilities with 50 to 12800 ISO (regular is 100 to 3200 ISO ratings). Anything past 3200 though doesn't look great at all: too much noise due to so much compressed information on the sensor thanks to the higher megapixel rating and it heats up and blah blah blah. Overall though, at regular ISO speeds, you won't notice a difference in noise between the two (that I'm aware of).

    If your going to buy either one, I would recommend doing comparison shopping online. Amazon and Adorama are both two good websites that do some leg work to secure your online shopping experience (Adorama with Paypal: Amazon with not giving away your personal credit card information by being the man in the middle, and only giving your street or p.o. box information). Even if you don't buy from either, still sites I recommend for comparison shopping.

    Here's the big thing though. You use a Nikon. Which means that buying either, will mean your lenses won't be compatible (most likely) with the Canon cameras. If your really wanting video, and don't care too much about the auto-focus making sounds while it focuses (as you have to push a button, it can't focus itself without you telling it to) and don't care about sound too much, the T1i is an excellent buy. Even without video it's still an excellent DSLR. I bought it because the noise in video didn't bother me at all (as I don't plan on using the sound from the videos, more travel videos with music playing instead).

    But here's the kicker. If you don't really see yourself using the video, I'd recommend the XSi. But, check the prices: if the difference is less then $60, I'd still recommend the T1i. Because you can't find (from what I know) Hi-Def Video Cameras for that price. But if not, save your money, and save up for a lens (with the XSi instead).

    Why? Because as far as cameras go, they can do quite a bit, but you can always upgrade the camera body, and keep the lenses (as long as it's within the same company). There's a pretty good cheap option on Amazon for a 50 mm 1.8 f/stop lens for roughly $96. The need for close shots to have high ISOs wouldn't be necessary. By giving you a bigger aperture and thus giving your camera the ability to get pretty low indoor lighting photos at a fast shutter speed. But from what I've heard about that lens isn't the greatest build, but will last a few years.

    Now, my final word on both these cameras. They are still good solid cameras no matter what direction you go in. I know someone who recently bought a XS and it itself can still do good photos for non-professional use. If they are each within a hundred dollars of each other (which seems more and more common) there's no way to go wrong. The only decision really is, which features are most attractive to you, and which do you really feel comfortable long term on using.

    Hope this helps, and hope you enjoy either camera that you decide to own!

    P.S. My knowledge on the subject isn't professional, it's my own research in the subject as a few months ago I was looking for a DSLR myself. I love my T1i, and am happy with my purchase, but there's no reason you or anyone else has to go down that road. The final word on anything that I said or anything anyone else might say is, don't do it because someone else told you to. Your camera is your camera, only you have to live with that decision of spending the money. So go with what your most comfortable with, and buy what you can see yourself happier with buying.

    Update us if you can! I'd love to hear. If you have any questions on anything I stated, as I'm sure it's a lot to digest, then write and I'll be happy to write back and help out in any way I can!
  • thewayeyeseeit Dec 23, 2009 @ 1:39 pm | delete
    Hey, Ash,
    Thanks for your awesome input. You have pretty much agreed with my review, so I REALLY appreciate it. In an attempt to make this a review for folks who did not want to get bogged down in geek-speak, I didn't put in the part about the DIGIC IV processor, but that is definitely part of the equation.
    Thanks again.
  • Ashengrad Dec 24, 2009 @ 6:18 pm | delete
    Yeah no problem, hope my post wasn't tl;dr-ish. It was a great post and personally think it's an interesting subject. I mean, for me it was my first DSLR. It's something your pouring hard earned money into. So other people's opinions did help me make my choice, and I'm glad I had found some pretty good sources when I needed to know what I wanted to do.
  • mike8178 Dec 22, 2009 @ 6:32 am | delete
    Have a Nikon Dx40 which I love but am thinking of one of those two cameras. Just can't make my mind up on which one.
  • Ashengrad Nov 29, 2009 @ 6:19 pm | delete
    I'd like to get your opinion on this topic now that the price difference has once again been changed. I already purchased my camera (a few days ago on Amazon) the T1i for $689. The XSi is still selling for a price of $560-650 depending on where you buy it. Any thoughts or updates on the difference of $120 for either?
  • thewayeyeseeit Nov 29, 2009 @ 8:46 pm | delete
    You are correct Ashengrad, the prices are still falling, especially with the entrance of the newest Nikon D3000. And it really depends on which day you check, kinda like mortgage rates :-). I still think you can't go wrong with either camera, and if you don't care about video, why not save $120? Hope you enjoy your new DSLR. Actually, I know you will. Happy Shooting!!!
  • Ashengrad Nov 30, 2009 @ 6:47 am | delete
    Thanks for the update! I was unsure about the video until I had some time to think about it. And that was still only an after thought. I just needed a camera already because I was working with a Canon Powershot 6 mp (can't remember the camera off the top of my head) for the longest time now, and I'm one of my college's photographers for our media staffs, and it I'm just glad to finally start updating to something better.

    But the thing I think (maybe not that relevant) that won me over was the DIGIC IV. Not a big deal for most but I read somewhere it was also being used by some of their Mark line cameras. Plus, the question for my camera became "do I want to buy the XSi (regardless if it is the case I know) today and then have to buy a new body in three years instead of getting the T1i and holding off for a bit longer?" Still, I suppose that's nothing more than psychology on myself, lol. Thanks again!
  • thewayeyeseeit Nov 30, 2009 @ 3:43 pm | delete
    You made two very good points here.
    First, the DIGIC IV is a big deal if you want to shoot video. My premise was that if video was not important to you (and to many photographers, it is not), then the image processor in the XSi is excellent for taking still photos with award winning quality.
    Second, if you are one of those who likes to update often to keep up with the technological advances, then the T1i is definitely the choice you should make.
    Thanks so much for your input, once again.
  • Red Devil Sep 9, 2009 @ 11:31 pm | delete


    thank you so. for reviews
  • thewayeyeseeit Aug 21, 2009 @ 4:57 am | in reply to Tonya | delete
    You are truly welcome. It was my goal to break it down to the basics so that someone coming into the market for the first time could understand the major differences.
    Wayne
  • Lauren Aug 21, 2009 @ 1:57 am | delete
    hey, thanks for really spelling out the differences in detail to where anyone could understand easily without having all the pro camera jargon. i've been looking to getting my first dslr for a while now, asked a few photographers about which brand (canon vs. nikon) and settled with canon. then i had to decide which rebel would best fit my taste & my budget. now, after reading your review, i'm pretty sure the xsi is the one for me. esp. if the video is new to dslrs, then its totally not worth it yet. plus, i wanted a camera to take a picture, not really interested in video. so yeah, thanks! btw. my security word was sniffgoof.. HAHAHAHA
  • matt Jul 31, 2009 @ 11:16 pm | delete
    great overview! really helped me out in this sticky situation :D
  • Tonya Jul 27, 2009 @ 1:53 pm | delete
    Thank you!!! First review that really broke it all down and made sense! I'm really looking forward to purchasing the XSI and additional lense.
  • FunGifts4All May 17, 2009 @ 8:44 pm | delete
    Very nice lens. Good info.
  • Kate-Phizackerley May 17, 2009 @ 7:20 pm | delete
    Great lens

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thewayeyeseeit

Photography is one of my passions.

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