Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 Lens (Silver): Customer Reviews & Product Details

Allow me to preface this review by saying that I love my little Rebel and would hate to part from it. It was great when I was just learning how to deal with a dSLR - easy to use, simple controls, intuitive (much more so than the Nikon I use occasionally)...all-around a great little guy.

However, for the really serious photographer, it leaves some things to be desired. The autofocus is slow, and faulty for dark places. The ISO goes only to 1600, and even then the noise is nearly unmanageable. 1600 is not that great either - I am lucky that I have a f/1.8 lens. There have been times where I have shot at f/1.8, 1/30, and still been underexposing by 2/3 of a stop. Thank goodness for the RAW format!

For what it is, the Rebel is great. Just don't expect it to be more.

Oh - and that 18-55 f/3.5-5.6? it is a good thing to skip. Get a 50mm f/1.8 instead, or a Sigma 17-70 f/2.8-4.5, or be like me and get an 85mm f/1.8. All better lenses, and the 50mm is even less expensive.

This item works wonders. It was everything I expected. It is extremely helpful with my photography, I mean, of course, it's a Canon. I was very pleased with my purchase.

I received my Canon Digital Rebel XT in 1/08. Despite some minor complaints with the design of the camera, I enjoyed it for just over 12 months until it seemed the battery was quickly fizzling out and then suddenly stopped powering on all together. I thought it was a poor battery so I ordered 2 more, which had no effect. Canon tech support was compltely useless and bascially told me that the only option was to send it in. There are not local shops to fix these cameras because they are so intricate and specialized. So I went ahead and spent the money to send it in, which isn't cheap when you add the insurance factor. Now I just found out that it will cost $228 to get the thing fixed. That's a lot of money for something I owned for such a short period of time! However, I feel it has to be paid because of the amount of money I already invested in it and how much more it would cost just to buy a new camera. To add to my frustrations they never indicated what was wrong with the camera. All I was told was how much it would cost to fix it. Just like another reviewer asked, is it wrong to think that such an expensive piece of equipment should last longer than 13-14 months? Needless to say I have lost my faith in Canon and don't plan on buying another one of their cameras. Now that I go back and look at these camera reviews again I am seeing that other people had the same problem as me...what a disappointment.

FYI - Should this happen to you and you haven't sent your camera in yet, the written warranty is 12 months, but the Canon repair rep told us they will honor warranty repairs up to 14 months (they don't advertise that).

I know that these are no longer on the open market, so my review is simply to explain why I think these are an excellent value on the used market.

Bottom line is this - unless you are going to blow up your photos to poster sized, the 8MP XT is a great choice. The upgrades to later versions give you a larger display screen, sure, but the basic functionality doesn't change much for at least two generations. While I'd like to be able to preview the picture in the display (which you can't do on this model), the quality of photos as well as the excellent feature set (all laid out in other reviews) make this an excellent choice.

Combined with the incredible array of excellent lenses, the compact size, excellent battery life and great feature set make the Rebel XT a great choice on the used market.

the camera it's very good for the price, the lens it's mediocre but..again, for that price what do you want?
I purchased this camera at Target, it was the last one on the shelf. I got a great price but then I realized why. as I purchased the cf card (in another place since they were out) I noticed the infamous "Err CF" message: the pins were bent. But not only..I decided (shame on me for not returning it) to ship the camera to Canon, I thought it would be fixed for free and then it would be ok. I received the camera back and for a while it's been working fine. Then it started giving that message again, every now and then, to the point that it was hard to take pictures. I shipped the camera back to Canon and they wanted to charge me for the repair. They said the pins were bent. THEY WEREN'T!! There is a problem with the firmware/hardware in the card reading/writing process. Some cameras have it some don't. I wouldn't reccomend this camera.