Not to be outdone my Nikon's recent
announcement of the D80, Canon
has fired back with its own new D-SLR offering. Canon looks to have a
winner on their hands with this significant upgrade to the popular Canon Rebel
XT.
Canon's new Digital Rebel XTi features a 10.1MP CMOS sensor
(up from 8MP on the Digital Rebel XT) with a 1.6x conversion ratio, 9-point
autofocus, a 230k pixel 2.5" LCD monitor (up from 1.8") and the
exclusive EOS Integrated Cleaning System (ICS). With the ICS, the CMOS sensor
is attached to ultrasonic vibrating device that shakes dust particles off onto
a sticky surface. Once attached, the particles are prevented from once again
becoming airborne.
The Digital Rebel XTi has a startup time of just 0.2 seconds
and features a continuous shooting speed of 3 FPS. At max burst, it can capture
27 JPEG images, 10 RAW images or 8 RAW+JPEG images. And for those of you that
are wondering, Canon has stuck with CompactFlash cards for the XTi. Rival Nikon
made the switch to Secure Digital with its D80.
According to Canon, the Digital Rebel XTi will be available
in September and priced at $799 for the body only and $899 for the body and
18-55mm kit lens. For a more in-depth look at the Digital Rebel XTi, you can
take a look at Imaging Resource’s preview.