The good: The Canon Digital Rebel XT's image quality leads its class; competitive price; ultrafast start-up time; very responsive.
The bad: The Canon Rebel XT's lightweight plastic body isn't ergonomically satisfying; no spot meter; limited continuous-shooting mode, unimpressive kit lens; 1.6X lens-conversion factor.
The bottom line: The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT is an exceptionally small and lightweight camera designed for amateur digital SLR photographers, but it delivers the responsiveness and image quality you'd expect from a semipro model.
The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT (known as the EOS 350D outside the United States) represents a leap forward from its predecessor, the original Digital Rebel, offering more than one might expect from the addition of a couple consonants to the nameThe XT is a zippy performerIt offers more creative control than its predecessor and boasts an 8-megapixel CMOS sensor and Canon's Digic II processing engineCanon touts its smaller, lighter body as well; it's nearly as small as you can get in a digital SLRBut while that might appeal to the small handed and nimble, the XT's compressed, lightweight, and slightly chintzy-feeling frame will be a hindrance to others who prefer a solid grip and a balanced camera body--particularly if they're using a lens any heavier than the mediocre 18mm-to-55mm f/3.5-to-f/5.6 unit included in the kitIn terms of image quality, the Rebel XT is a bargain, delivering wonderfully detailed and colorful images for a competitive priceWhile the Rebel XT lacks some features found on the more solid and slightly pricier Nikon D70, the XT is the clear winner when it comes to resolution and dynamic range