XT is only 8 MP. he asked for a 10 MP camera

 

unless you are going to sit there and count the dots the image quality of the XT will be nicer. there will be fewer pixels lost to noise and other dense sensor problems--

and with a better lens a 8MP shot will most likely look better than a 10MP shot anyway
look at it this way:
unless someone is looking for more graphical data just out of the need for very large prints or for extensive cropping the early batch of consumer 10MP DSLR's just might be not the best choice.


too many people think more=better -- just making sure that whoever is asking for this information knows that.

 

First to address the original question. This sounds like it's not a terribly photo-geeky purchase and rather the 10 mp number is sort of arbitrarily being thrown out there as what the purchaser wants to have because that's what they want to have. That's all well and good but if this person is going to have to print at sizes greater than 8x10 to notice any difference between even a decent 6 mp SLR and a 10 mp SLR.

Second, I personally cannot stand any Canon Rebel camera, never have liked em. To me they're overly small plasticky toys with bad pentamirror viewfinders and no spot metering. But what displeases a photo geek like me probably is exactly what is good for a female (smaller hands) non-enthusiast person like your friend. In that case a Rebel is fine. Might as well snag an XT while they're still on shelves because it's a better deal and the 16% improvement in same-lens resolution you get from the XTi needs larger format prints to be seen.

Now to sherwood: you are correct that if you compared two theoretical sensors that were completely identical save for the number of pixels, the pixels on the sensor with less pixels would be more sensitive and thus that sensor would have a higher signal-to-noise ratio.

BUT.

All sensors are not created alike, and photosite size alone does not determine the light sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio of the sensor. A lot of ground can be made up with the materials of the sensor itself, design changes to other bits of hardware, different microlenses over the photosites, etc. Point being, in tests the XTi has functionally identical noise performance to the XT.

From dpreview (400D = XTi and 350D = XT for anyone who can't follow along):





So yeah, with the XTi you get no increase in noise, no increase in useful features that a casual snapshooter who just wants an SLR because it makes prettier-looking pictures than a compact, and 16% more resolution out of the same lens were it mounted on the XT.

If this were a more "serious" inquiry then I would lean much more heavily towards the Nikon D80 (which, yellowbastard, is not Nikon's Rebel...that's the D40 and D50), Pentax K10D, or Canon 30D (even though it's only 8 mp, it's closer than 16% away from the K10D and D80).

 

bump for this thread. I am looking at getting the XTi but am not sure if it's the best deal or if I should get the XT. This will be a camera that I'll keep for a long time so to me it would make more sense to get the newer model but this would be my first step about a 4 MP point and shoot, so I don't really know. I'm really a fan of the Canon cameras over the Nikons for the money. I found that you can get the XTi w/ lens for $764 through Dell, which would only be about $65 more than the XT. Unless someone knows of a place to get the XT w/ lens for cheaper. :shrug:

Edit: Is there a catch for the $764 price? I don't really need another line of credit is why I'm asking.

 

i went with the 30D :wtc:

 

I have Pentax, only because I started out with a Pentax a long long long time ago...

I didn't want to buy lenses...

 

What's wrong with yours? We use those. The LCD on the back is nice and big.

Most people who went from film to digital stuck with the make they had because of the investment in the lenses that carried over onto the DSLR. I know more Canon people than Nikon people, so for me, I kept it Canon.

 

you're confusing the d80 with d40

 

nothing... i like it. too bad im a n00b with it h:

 

What an amazingly ignorant statement