Digital SLR Review Canon EOS 450D

Although the Canon EOS 450D, also known as the Canon Digital Rebel XSi, is on the lower end of digital SLR'S, don't let that fool you. It's an excellent digital camera for the casual user. It's even a very capable digital camera for the professional. With it's 12.2 megapixel resolution you'll be amazed by the quality of the photos it takes. Which provide enough detail for poster-sized images with the quality of photos.

The light weight of the camera is wonderful for your long photograph sessions during events such as trips and family reunions. The LCD screen is three inches on this model and the image previews are easily previewed and look great on the screen due to the high resolution of the photos and the two-hundred thirty thousand pixel display of the LCD screen. The status screen of the Canon EOS 450D is separate from the main screen which aids in the ease of viewing settings such as ISO.

In past models the Digital Rebels lacked features such as spot metering and flash exposure compensation. These features are now included in the Digital Rebel XSi which make the photography experience with this DSLR that much better. Mixed with the custom timer mode you can set the timer and then how many shots you want to take in succession. A feature that wasn't available in past models.

The Canon EOS 450D comes with five ISO settings of 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600. With the increase in ISO, the increase in light sensitivity in low-light situations, has the side-effect of increasing noise in the image. The feature of setting the ISO to a higher value is great for use in situations when flash photography isn't useful dependent on the natural light effect you're looking for. Such as at concerts or when photographing at night outdoors. Another ISO setting is Auto ISO which automatically sets the ISO speed to somewhere between 100 and 800 or, using custom settings, 200 to 1600. The automatically chosen ISO setting is dependent on the lighting conditions. These automatic settings also work great for action shots as sports events. Another side-effect of ISO is that at higher settings the size of the photos increases. And, of course, RAW images take up more space than JPEGS.

The Canon EOS 450D's Live View feature is useful for seeing a preview of the picture and how it'll be centered and focused before you take the photo. To make use of the Live View feature you'll have to have a tripod for the camera due to focus modes are too slow to hand-held photography. Trying will most likely lead to blurry photographs.

You can take over one-thousand photographs and still have full battery charge. As with any battery brand and the usage of the camera the length of your battery life between charges varies. But you'll, no doubt, be completely satisfied with how long batteries last in the Canon EOS 450D. The only downside is the size of the buffer. At ISO 1600 and in RAW+JPG mode the buffer can only hold four images. When the buffer is full you can only take two more pictures once a second or so and then wait for the buffer to empty to take more in this mode.

All in all the Canon EOS 450D is a great camera for those looking to be introduced to the DSLR world. It's also a great camera for the professional with a bit of patience. Given the features, comfort of use and photo quality this Digital SLR is definitely worth purchasing.