And what about the Canon Rebel XT?

Postscript: Some notes on the Canon Rebel XT. For those who have been asking me how I liked the Rebel XT (which my brother lent me during my trip): Very much indeed, I fell in love with it after 10 minutes of usage! Ehehe. Kidding aside, I found it easy to handle, as the contours of the body fit snugly in my hands. Start-up was amazingly fast (my G2 has an abominably slow start-up in comparison) – I could have easily captured any moment as I spotted it, if only my fingers worked as fast as my brain did. Naturally it was a tad heavy, considering how accustomed I have become to carrying a compact *slouch*, but the extra weight is nothing when you consider the added versatility and creative potential. (Except at extremely cold weathers, a coat and layers of clothing, plus a bag, a camera, and a tripod do bring strangulation to mind.) Moreover, the batteries seem to last forever, ah yesssss. *contented sigh* Can't say much for the image stabilizer except that it's nifty, I didn't have much camera shake (duh). Wasn't able to conduct any intelligent tests to check out exactly how useful it was to me. Too bad I didn’t have the camera long enough to test its many other features. *hint maybe? ehehe*

However, there was this slight annoyance: the XT sometimes had a hard time focusing on scenes with harsh lighting, say landscape shots. I have had to switch to manual focusing at such times. Is it the camera body or is it the lens? (You’re not looking at a technically savvy shooter here, see.) Last month Jim told me about a certain Canon 17-85mm IS lens review, the same one I used with the XT (silly me I didn’t even get to test my Vivitar wide angle with it *slaps self for forgetting*). It seems the same flaws reported in the article can be seen in my pictures. *sigh*

First off, there seems to be a slight vignetting in the Caesar’s palace lion pic, most visible at the upper righthand corner. Aperture was f5.6. It is more noticeable at f4 and a focal length of 17mm, as reported in the review and as seen in this Caesar’s Palace pic. I’m not sure whether the distortion in the same pic (check out the line of the roof and the building to the left) is normal given the angle at which I was holding the camera? I also noticed a bit of flaring with some night shots such as in this one.

So (whether I illustrated that correctly or not) it isn't perfect apparently (at least the Rebel XT and 17-85mm IS lens combo), but I'm happy with how fast it focuses under normal lighting, and the noise level which seems acceptable even at higher ISOs, such as in this pic taken at ISO 400. Noise and grain seem passable even at ISO 800 (which doesn't necessarily mean that they are passable to you guys. Maybe I have low standards.). And of course I am tickled pink at being able to go as small as f16, f22.

Not to disparage my beloved G2, though. I am very happy also with its Vegas performance, such as in this and this shot. I only wish the same could be said of its performance in interiors. Yeah yeah right, it's time I got an external flash unit.