by Chris Campbell
While there may be plenty of good reasons to buy a Canon Digital Rebel XTi, not every camera is good for every photographer. So, depending on what’s important to you, and how you take pictures, you should probably be aware of the short comings of this camera. There’s plenty of information out there about how great this camera is, but for just a minute or two, lets be brutally and critically honest.
The digital SLR’s are designed in such a way that you can use a lot of different lenses, with different focal lengths. This versatility is the reason why digital SLR cameras are so popular among professionals. When you’re using a camera that is not a SLR, you need to match the angle of the viewing lens with the angle of view. If you’re doing short-range zoom or you have a fixed lens, then it’s OK, but at different focal lengths it can be much more difficult. The SLR is better because the viewing and taking lens are the same.
The XTi has a rather annoying habit of locking up when quickly taking a consecutive number of pictures in a row. The shutter just locks up and issues a busy signal. According to Canon, this is normal and the camera is performing as designed. At first glance, this may seem like just a case of not enough battery power for the strength of the flash. But, no, it’s actually the way the camera is designed to work.
Another big concern with point and shoot digital cameras, is image quality. It’s one thing to be able to capture a great photo under ideal conditions. Outdoors in good sunlight would be one such environment. But, if you plan on taking lots of pictures inside, be sure your camera is up to the challenge. Factors that go into this would be a good lens, an adequate sized image sensor, and a flash strong enough to provide sufficient light for darker rooms. Noise free images are quite possible with a good quality point and shoot.
On these digital SLR’s, the versatility is limited by the fact that you can’t change the default lens. The mirror that bounces the light towards the viewfinder is nonmoving and semi-transparent in most of these models.
I’ve seen some photos, where it’s virtually impossible to tell the difference between $200 point and shoot pictures vs $2000 digital SLR images. It really comes down to the person pressing the shutter button.
