At the PMA (Photo Marketing Association Annual Show), going on now at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Canon recently announced the new Digital Rebel XSi. You can get the full specifications and press release over at dpreview.com.

I know that there are many of you that have purchased previous versions of the Canon Digital Rebel series, and continue to purchase updated models in the Rebel series as features are added. The Rebel series has some excellent cameras in the lineup, often coming very close in feature sets found in Canon’s prosumer line of cameras, the xxD series (i.e. 20D, 30D, 40D).

So if you’ve been sticking to Canon’s Digital Rebel line of digital cameras, upgrading year after year, Canon has a message for you in the new XSi. Stop, and upgrade to the xxD series. Two feature changes in the XSi signal this message to me. The first is that Canon has once again, changed the battery type; and second they have changed the media type from compact flash (CF) to secure digital (SD). This will be a frustrating upgrade for current Digital Rebel users, since it would involve buying new spare batteries, a new battery grip, and new memory cards. All of that adds up quickly. Compare this to the more stable xxD line where the battery grip has changed little through three models (20D, 30D, and 40D) and the batteries and compact flash cards have remained the same since at least the 10D. So current Digital Rebel users this is probably not the camera upgrade for you.

Many people have always thought of the Digital Rebel line as the lite version of the xxD line. But the XSi’s new features put it more along the lines of a step up for those who have point and shoot digital cameras that want to upgrade to a digital SLR. Now the XSi will accept the same memory cards that your point and shoot digital camera uses. This was a smart move that will probably continue to drive more point and shoot users over to a digital SLR.

The disappointment regarding the XSi was that current Digital Rebel owners really wanted a lower priced 40D in the form of the XSi. The XSi did inherit some features from the 40D, but none that would really threaten 40D sales. Instead, it’s clear that Canon has targeted the Digital Rebel series as a step up from a digital point and shoot.

Here are my thoughts on some of the XSi’s features:

12.2 Megapixel CMOS sensor - Canon is playing the megapixel catch-up race here. They have not increased the sensor size, just added more pixels. The result is going to be more noise in the image.

3.5 frames per second - Good enough if you’re upgrading form a point and shoot, but misses the mark if you’ve been using a digital SLR for a while now. Canon has all of that 20D and 30D technology sitting around that they should be able to recycle at a lower cost. This camera should have had at least 4.5 to 5 frames per second.

9-point wide-area AF system with f/2.8 cross-type centre point - This is the AF system that was on the 20D, 5D, and 30D, It is not the one from the 40D.

DIGIC III image processor - The DIGIC III, has been found in nearly every camera model Canon has made over the past year, including point-and-shoots. The Digital Rebel seems to be the last model to get this feature. The Xti should have had it years ago. You do get 14-bit which is good for recovering shadows and HDR. The other stuff like highlight-tone-priority are really JPEG only features that can be replicated with any good RAW processing software.

Fully compatible with all Canon EF and EF-S lenses and EX-series Speedlites - Oddly, Nikon can't claim the same thing about their system. The low end D40 isn't compatible with all Nikon lenses.

There are two features that Canon should have added to the Rebel that would have made it a real competitor to the other entry level DSLRs. The first should have been a high resolution LCD. The larger LCDs that Canon uses have the same pixel counts as the old smaller LCDs. The larger LCDs only make the images look fuzzier and doesn't help you see if you've taken a blurred shot or not. The second should have been an HDMI port so that you can view your images on a High-Definition TV.

Where to purchase:

Canon Rebel XSi 12MP Digital SLR Camera
Canon EOS 40D 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera

Labels: 20D, 300D, 40D, Cameras, HDR, Rebel, XSi

I just finished archiving all the photos I have taken since I’ve owned a digital SLR camera. It filled an entire 500 GB hard disk for all the files from November 2003 to December 2007. Three separate digital SLRs were used to create those files, the Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D), Canon EOS 20D, and the Canon EOS 40D. What a long way we’ve come in just a short amount of time.

I have all of my images stored on two Western Digital 500 GB My Book drives. Each drive contains the identical information as the other, and I will be moving one drive to an off-site location. I think that’s a pretty good backup strategy. Before archiving the files were stored in two locations as well. Older files are stored on a 250 GB Buffalo LinkStation, and newer files are stored on an internal 250 GB hard disk. The files stored on both of these drives are backed up to an external Western Digital 500 GB My Book drive. This helps keep the files safe from a single point of failure and also provides extra security from accidental deletions or overwrites when I am editing them. The downside to all of this is all the extra storage I need to keep the duplicate copies of each file. Still, I’m looking forward to filling up the next 500 GB, which I’m sure I’ll reach sooner than 4 years.

My dad just purchased the Dot Line DL-DRF14/C Macro Ringlight Flash for Canon E-TTL II. It has a guide number of 46 feet / 14 meters at 50mm, which is similar to the Sigma EM-140 DG Macro Ringlight that I use. In practice the unit is less powerful than the Sigma, has no manual controls, no high-speed sync, and no master/slave capabilities. However at 1/3rd the cost it’s not a bad alternative and for most macro shots you wouldn’t miss those features. The flash has a ring diameter of 52mm, and it comes with step down rings for lenses up to 67mm. You could probably get a step down ring for larger lenses, say 72mm and 77mm, but you’ll start to notice some viginetting. The build quality is also not as good as the Sigma, but did I mention it was less than 1/3rd the cost? He’s been using it very effectively with his Tamron 90mm Macro lens.

The next few days I’ll be at the 11th Annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville, Florida. If you’re attending I hope to see you there…

Labels: 20D, 300D, 40D, Archive, Backup, Birds, Macro