January 24th, 2008
The best of five new digital cameras from Canon: The Canon Rebel XSi
No big surprises here. Canon’s pre-PMA (mini) blitz serves up only five new models, all of which are incremental upgrades to existing Canon cameras. That’s not to say they’re not exciting new cameras–just not unexpected. The Canon Rebel XSi (an upgrade to the Canon Rebel XTi) has been spinning about the rumor mill for a while now, especially after the date of Canon’s spring announcements (today) was outed on Swedish site Kamera and Bild, which got the info from Robert Westin, VP for Canon Sweden. But even without the hint from Westin, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it’s been about a year and a half since the XTi was announced (which was a year and a half after the Rebel XT, which was a year and a half after the original Digital Rebel–you get the picture).
The Canon Rebel XSi (aka EOS 450D) ups resolution to 12.2 megapixels, increases the LCD size to 3 inches, and adds a LiveView mode so you can frame shots using the nice, big LCD. Another significant change from the XTi and earlier Rebels is that it uses SD memory cards rather than CompactFlash, which Canon hopes will make it a more appealing transition for upgrading point-and-shooters. Other key features include a higher-capacity battery, an improved nine-point autofocus sensor, the newer Digic III processor, 3.5 frames-per-second continuous shooting, and an optically image stabilized EF-S kit lens (EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS). Canon expects the new Rebel–which will come in silver and black finishes–to ship in April (body-only configuration for $800 or with the kit lens for $900). DPReview has posted a good hands-on look and CNET’s Crave has a detailed writeup here.
Janice Chen has been covering technology for almost two decades. She got her hands on a Nikon Coolpix 900 back in 1998 and has been a digital camera enthusiast ever since. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
Subscribe to Digital Cameras via Email alerts or RSS.
