The Rebel XT - A Great Beginner DSLR

Author's Rating:

Pros: Lightweight for an SLR
Easy to Use
Very Good Picture Quality

Cons: Lots of Buttons--Could Confuse a Casual User

The Bottom Line: 
This camera is easy enough to use for a beginner but has the capabilities that are desirable for the more serious photographer. 

Author's Review
I have had my Canon Rebel XT for three years, and I have found it to be easy to use, and the photo quality is very good.  I've used it indoors and outdoors, with overall great results.  Any poor quality photos I got were due to user error.  We bought this camera because we were tired of missing smiles on our newborn's face, which happened frequently with the lag time on our point and shoot digital camera.

When we bought this camera, it had been years since I'd held an SLR camera, and I had forgotten all about aperatures and F-Stops, and such, so I needed something I could use as easily as a point and shoot.  The automatic settings on this camera allowed me to use it almost like a point and shoot, and now I'm beginning to get around to learn how to use all of the custom settings that will benefit serious photographers.  

I love this particular SLR because unlike some of the newer SLRs, this one does not allow you to use the LCD screen to frame our picture.  The newer ones I’ve looked at in the camera stores have the LCD screen on all the time while you’re looking through the viewfinder, and I find it very distracting.  If you’re outside, an LCD is useless as the sun washes out anything you’re looking at. 
I have experience using one other digital SLR, and I like this one better because it is lighter in weight and has more settings so you can really take the best picture possible.  These settings include macro, portrait, landscape, action, and night portrait settings as well as manual and semi-automatic settings.
Overall, I find this an enjoyable and easy to use SLR.