Canon's Consumer Line Leaps Forward
Canon Digital Rebel XSi by Canon
By Jonathan Barket
29 August 2008
I like to think that I use Canon products out of spite as much as quality.
As long as anyone can remember, my best friend Will has always been the great photographer of our little art collective. I remember the day he finally went digital vividly--his Nikon D70 was a technological leap into the future. It was ergonomic, powerful and actually allowed you to review photos on the spot. Immediately it was both an object of great envy and hatred.
Years later when I went digital myself, I wanted something that would rub salt in the wounds of that aged, battle scarred camera. It's younger sibling--the Nikon D40--might have been enough for some, but I really wanted it to hurt. I bought a silver dagger to stab into the heart of that black and red beast: a Canon Digital Rebel XT.
That silver beauty never left my side in its BlackRapid R-Strap; it was my six shooter, and I was ready to gun down anything or anyone beautiful enough to get in my way. That is, until this month. I passed her on to a student taking a photography class, and after fifteen minutes worth of mourning and counting my new found cash, I drowned my sorrows in the unboxing of a Digital Rebel XSi.
The XSi is deceptively small--roughly the same width and height of the XT/XTi, but with a slight reduction in depth and weight. Like the rest of Canon's consumer line up, it lacks the heft that comes with a weather proof, accident proof prosumer body, but it doesn't feel like a toy. The optional vertical grip--redesigned to take the new 1080mAh lithium-ion batteries--gives it enough additional weight and finger space to really feel sturdy. Even though it means shelling out first party cash at this point, I consider the grip a must have.
Technologically, it's another modest bump. The XSi packs 12.2 megapixels of power through a new 14-bit A/D converter. Autofocus has been improved, but I wouldn't think about trading down from your prosumer Canon yet--shooting wider than f/2 is still an exercise in futility at times. It has High ISO noise reduction, but it doesn't work with continuous shooting. For me, "doesn't work with continuous shooting" is equivalent to "feature does not exist," but those of you who like precision rather than rough composition and happy accidents, it should be a welcome feature. The XSi has also ditched Compact Flash in favor of SDHC; considering file size of RAW images these days, anything that brings down the price of storage media is a welcome addition.
It also has an Auto ISO setting that I have a love/hate relationship with. It allows the camera to decide where the shot falls between ISO 100-400 based on your manual settings. While it seems to work appropriately with lenses that don't drop much below f/4, it tends to underestimate the "nifty fifty" and other, below f/2 lenses in some lighting conditions. I've found it to be useful in areas with large variations in light when there isn't time to constantly go back and forth between three different ISO settings.
Externally, it's a breath of fresh air. The 3.0" LCD is massive, and it easily displays all settings at a glance. While it's generally bright enough, it's as useless as any other Canon LCD in direct light. The addition of ISO in the viewfinder is a great way to prevent yourself from forgetting that you spent all night shooting at ISO 1600 when you're outside and the sun is beaming down like a UV death ray.
The bottom line is simple: a body will not affect your shots the same way that a new lens would. That disclaimer aside, for less than the cost of the cheapest Canon L-series lens, you can upgrade to an amazing improvement in user experience. The new interface and screen alone are worth the hassle of liquidating your existing consumer body; everything else is just butter.
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