When Canon released the first "Digital Rebel" I was skeptical until I had played with one for about a month. I was working for a large camera retailer in addition to my photography business at the time. At first, they were hard to get and we were selling them as fast as we could get them in hand. Soon, Canon released a black-bodied version that in my opinion looked a whole lot more professional for the serious shooter.

Canon announced that they were releasing a 6.3 mega-pixel digital SLR bearing the "Digital Rebel" moniker and it would sell for $999 USD. We figured it would be full of compromises to save cost and reach that thousand-dollar-barrier. In short, we were wrong.

The Digital Rebel was slow to auto-focus, but, it was accurate. It metered the scene well enough to get good exposures. ISO settings ranged from 100 to 1600 (film speed equivalent). The camera supported compact flash cards, the cheapest on the market at the time. The camera did not fully support electronic TTL flash units, but, you could use Canon flashes and third-party flashes if you needed them. The camera's burst mode was more of a swift walk, but, you could still take a lot of great shots with this camera and not break the bank.

With the battery grip, you could shot 800 to 1200 shots and without it, you could shoot 400 to 600 before swapping batteries. Extra batteries were available for about $50 USD from Canon retailers.

Enter Rebel XT...

The Rebel XT hit the ground running. Canon assembled this 8 mega-pixel camera to compete in the sub-one-thousand-dollar category (on the right in the pictures below).

The new Rebel XT had faster start-up time and much faster auto-focus. It supported E-TTL flash units, and it had an OEM battery grip available, something its primary competition, the Nikon D70 did not have. The one problem was that exposure seemed to be off and the camera would produce darker images than the previous Digital Rebel. So, while you had an 8.2 mega-pixel DSLR, rather than 6.3 mega-pixels, image quality was not as bright and clear.

It did not take long for Canon to fix the problem with a flash update that corrected the under-exposure. New XTs are much better and early adopters could download the patch (flash update) from Canon for free.

One cool thing that the Rebel digitals do is automatically flip verticle shots in the camera so that you can view them without having to turn the camera sideways. The camera is EXIF 2.2 compatible and you can direct-connect it to Canon's printers and others that adhere to PictBridge standards. While some "event shooters" ask about this, I strongly recommend using a computer rather than direct connection. Computer printer drivers result in much better speed and color-matching technology often gives you better results.

Canon has over sixty compatible lenses in its stables and every after-market supplier of lenses manufactures Canon compatible products. You can find them from camera specialty stores to office supply stores to department stores. Buying Canon has its advantages. In the case of the Rebel XT, now that the bugs are all worked out, it is a good solid performer.

In image quality, Canon shots are warmer than those Nikon and Pentax DSLRs produce. Some people prefer Canon for that reason. Since color balance likes and dislikes are highly subjective, I'd suggest spending time at the camera counter and see if your retailer will allow you to do some test shots and prints. Most have no problem with that, but, remember that instant kiosks can make an images color appear off if the printer is not properly adjusted. At least you'll have some idea which camera appeals to you.