Canon Digital Rebel XT July 11th, 2005 | by David J Elrich

Features And Design

The mostly plastic Rebel XT—available in silver or black finish—has the traditional film SLR shape, geared to two-handed shooting; your right holds the grip, with the shutter button positioned conveniently as a jog wheel to help you browse through the camera settings.  Your left hand steadies the camera and adjusts the zoom lens.  Controls on the back are very logically placed, with large type identifying the specific use such as Menu, Info, Delete and so on.  Adjustments can be made using the Set button, which is surrounded by four arrow keys that let you drill down to change ISO, white balance, and auto focus settings.

The viewfinder has a rubber-coated cup for comfort and a diopter to make adjustments for your eyesight.  There's also a narrow LCD screen that shows the camera's current settings.  Beneath that is a 1.8-inch LCD screen for reviewing your images.  Unlike typical digicams, D-SLR LCD screens are only used for playback, not framing your shots.  And there is no Movie mode; these babies are for taking high-quality stills.  A "hot shoe" is available to connect optional Canon flashes.  The memory card and battery slot doors snap closed with reassuring clicks.

The menus on the Rebel XT are very straightforward.  It's simple to set the clock for step one, then move deeper into the basic camera setup.  The default resolution is 3456 x 2304 pixels in Large Fine JPEG mode and you can easily adjust it to a more compressed Normal mode, as well as Medium (2496 x 1664) or Small (1728 x 1152).  By adjusting image size, you can cram more photos onto your card.  Like all good D-SLRs, the Rebel XT has a RAW mode with no compression at all.  RAW files are great to work with, particularly if you plan to make large prints and do a lot of editing with such programs as Adobe PhotoShop CS. 

Moving beyond resolution, there's Red Eye On and Off, an optional beep reminder, LCD brightness and so on.  The more "photographic" adjustments surround the Set key and are just as simple to change.  You simply scroll through the options and press the Set key at the desired position.  This is a basic, no-frills design, but it works well. 

Image Courtesy of Canon