Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (Black) brings staggering technological innovation to the masses. It features Canon’s EOS Integrated Cleaning System, Live View Function, a powerful DIGIC III Image Processor, plus a new 12.2-megapixel CMOS sensor and is available in a kit with the new EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens with Optical Image Stabilizer. The EOS Rebel XSi’s refined, ergonomic design includes a new 3.0-inch LCD monitor, compatibility with SD and SDHC memory cards and new accessories that enhance every aspect of the photographic experience.
Canon’s CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensor captures images with exceptional clarity and tonal range, and offers the most pixels in its class. It offers many of the same new technologies to maximize each pixel’s light gathering efficiency that were first seen with the professional EOS-1D Mark III model. It’s an APS-C size sensor (22.2 x 14.8mm), and there’s an effective 1.6x increase in the lens’s marked focal length when attached. Canon’s DIGIC III Image Processor dramatically enhances image quality and speeds up all camera operations for intuitive operation. It works in concert with the EOS Rebel XSi’s sensor to achieve unprecedented levels of performance in all lighting situations.
With the EOS Rebel XSi, analog to digital signal conversion is executed by a 14-bit processor, which generates digital data with incredibly smooth tones. Formerly a feature only present in top-of-the-line pro digital SLR cameras, the 14-bit conversion gives incredibly smooth transitions from light to dark colors, with far less risk of “banding.” A sky at sunset is a perfect example. With this rich 14-bit gradation the EOS Rebel XSi offers RAW images of the highest quality that can be processed with Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software. Even JPEG files, which are always finished at 8-bits per channel, use the full 14-bit conversion initially to generate the best possible color and tonal detail. Another huge benefit of the 14-bit conversion is the Highlight Tone Priority option, which allows critical shooters to increase the level of detail in bright areas of a scene up to one stop, without affecting overall exposure.
The EOS Rebel XSi’s Auto Optimization is yet another image-quality tool that comes to the rescue in tricky lighting conditions. It can actually lighten dark areas of a scene while ensuring that bright areas maintain tonal detail. It’s now available in all shooting modes, including P, Tv, Av, and Manual.
Helpful consumer’s review
This camera is impossible to beat at this price. I won’t write a lengthy review, but, you can set this camera in fully automatic mode and hand it to a “point and shoot” person, and they will obtain fantastic results. For the amateur photographer, this has all of the bells and whistles, what I love is I can reset the camera rapidly for multiple shots of the same scene on very different settings. Married with a decent photo program on your computer, it is possible to achieve professional results.
Many reviews say, get this with the stabilization lens…. I wholeheartedly agree… the extra $100 is a bargain price for this lens… It is almost (and I do say almost) like having a tripod. I set the camera for 1/10th second exposures with no support, and obtained steady pictures with it, slower than this, and the stabilization did not fully correct for any unsteadiness.
We’d buy it again in a heartbeat, and I wish I could get one for everyone I know!! Best photos that I have ever taken and a joy to use! Connecting it to the computer and downloading photos takes a matter of seconds.
Get the largest SD card you can afford with it… We have a 2GB card with it, and it fills fairly rapidly. 1GB is far too small for this camera (primarily because you will take numerous shots with it, not because the pics take up a great deal of memory), I’m guessing 4GB would be near perfect (or a couple of 2GB cards, but one 4GB is safer, the cards are too easy to misplace).
