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

Partly cloudy, highs near 90° F with scattered thunderstorms. That about sums up the weather in July. When you adjust for humidity it can easily feel like 98° F out there, and that's enough to keep most photographers indoors. It's only in the very early morning or the late evening that the temperatures are bearable for outdoor activities, and that's true for the wild animals as well.



So today, my friend Chuck and I went scouting for some new locations to shoot. One of the places we stopped at was Secret Woods Nature Center, in Broward County. It's a well hidden park that looks promising for macro photography. There are lots of land and fiddler crabs, as well as a variety of insects. I didn't take any pictures as I left my camera in the car, because it was just a scouting trip. I did leave with a rather nasty spider bite that happened when my left arm brushed against the boardwalk railing and I felt this painful burning feeling on my arm. I'm not sure what kind of spider it was as I never saw it, and I'm actually just guessing that it is a spider bite from researching the symptoms on the Internet. I like taking pictures of insects and spiders, but I hate being bitten by them.

The July gallery is now open. Like the June gallery, it's going to be a mixture of the standard birds as well as some insect macro photography.

On our way back home we stopped by the southern entrance to Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. From there you could clearly see the afternoon thunderstorms gathering over the Everglades.

Some of you have been asking about out little girl Arwen. Since I took down the old web site AmyandJay.net, I guess there have been no updates about her to the general public. Well, I didn't know so many readers of Beauty of the Wild were so interested in our little girl's progress. To find out all about Arwen's monthly adventures you'll need to subscribe to Multiply.com. That's where we've moved all of our family related information. There are three main multiply sites where you can find us. They are: Jay Paredes, Amy Paredes, and Jake Paredes.

Labels: HDR, Loxahatchee, Spider