Canon EOS 400D / Rebel XTi Digital Camera with 18-55mm Lens

Good Beginner SLR

Not a bad camera at all. This is my first D-SLR but as a Photojournalism major currently in college I have the opportunity to work with SLRs of all kinds. If you are trying to decide between this and a high-end "prosumer" non-SLR camera it's no competition- SLRs are the way to go. Shot to shot time, especially for RAW images is pretty impressive, I would guess way less than a second. Noise control is fairly impressive as well for being an entry level camera. It's usable across the board, which reaches up to ISO 1600 although at ISO 800 and above the noise is noticeable if you look close enough. It would be nice to see an ISO 3200 option that is being included on many new cameras.

Image quality is good, as expected, but not amazing. The new Nikons, the D80 and especially D300 are much much faster and in my opinion produce nicer images. Although I'm a fan of Canon's user interface over Nikon's, it'd be nice to see a few more external controls. Overall good but not great. For the money I'd recommend either a used 30D or shell out a few more $$$ for a D80.