The Canon EOS Digital Rebel T1i - A Fifteen Megapixel Screamer

After some time for me to explore the camera I now have a review of the new Canon EOS Digital Rebel T1i (500D). This camera is the latest in the Digital Rebel series (what I call value priced pro consumer models). It falls in the $600 to $800 range, depending on accessories and lenses.

For me, the T1i was a giant leap up in megapixels. My first digital camera was the trend setting original 6.3 Megapixel 300D Digital Rebel that I have used for thousands of pictures over the last several years. It worked great for me and I skipped many an upgrade until the market reached the 15+ megapixel range. Then, my wonderful wife gave me a great birthday gift of this new camera.

I ordered it from Amazon, got it in several days and started to shoot right away. The first thing I had to remember is that the camera kit with the 18-55 EF-S lens did not include a flash media device (it used SDHC cards). Now what was Canon thinking? If I had not remembered to read the fine print, I would have been waiting to pick one up before I could take my first picture. This is like buying a car, but they did not include the tires.

Well, with that out of the way, the camera is great. It has a 3" LCD screen in the back that displays not only your pictures in review, but the settings you have. On most counts, the T1i offers some pretty nice specifications, highlighted by the 15-megapixel APS-C size CMOS sensor (for Canon's traditional 1.6x focal-length multiplier) and same nine-point user-selectable autofocus system as the predecessor XSi. The APS-C size sensor means that it is a "cropped" sensor that captures a slightly smaller view than traditional 35mm cameras or the Canon big professional cameras costing in the over $2500 range. I drool thinking about the possibilities.

The camera has received very good reviews regarding its image quality and I can say that the human photographer is the only weak point in getting a good shot. It has the full range of image sizes from small.jpg to RAW. I shoot almost entirely in RAW mode (this saves a very big file, but has all the information available for use in Photoshop).

One really great feature is that it shoots video too. Though not quite as robust as on the EOS 5D Mark II, which supports 30fps for its 1080p capture, the T1i's video still surpasses that of the Nikon D5000 that is limited to 24fps 720p. The movie quality is solid, but I stick with the 30fps 720p and avoid the High Definition mode of 1,920x1,080 because it is only 20fps, and the motion looks a bit jerky. You can manually invoke AF while you are shooting, which is useful, but remember that it's slow and creaky. Initiating focus creates some jerkiness, but at least you do not have to stop, focus, and restart; I definitely prefer having the option. Like many of the low-end implementations, it uses mono audio (there is no mic input).

I had the opportunity to shoot a major men's tennis tournament in October and got some great shots of tennis legends Todd Martin, Andre Agassi and Jimmy Arias (among others). The camera was great in less than perfect lighting for the night matches. I used the Auto ISO setting and it stretched the settings of the camera to be fast enough to catch the action with some very artistic blur of the ball and racquets. The daylight matches allowed me to set the camera at very fast shutter speeds and freeze those yellow tennis balls in mid flight and the players in mid stroke with feet off the ground.

Those Auto ISO setting got me in trouble several weeks later when I was in the mountains trying to get shots of the fall colors with Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB). I have used AEB before and it works great and allow some great opportunity for HDR merging of shots later. However, it is only logical if you are shooting in Auto-bracketing you have to turn Auto ISO Off lest all the auto configurations conflict and create an image that averages out everything to its most dull form. Now I know better.

All in all the Canon T1i is great camera for more advanced amateurs and the cost challenged professionals. I will stick with this one until I can figure out how to get one of the Canon big boys. I look forward to many years of shooting and learning about how to capture nature's beauty in a digital image.