Well I’ve been a little on the fence for the past few weeks regarding selling my Digital Rebel (300D) and picking up a 350D before going away to Morocco. Well, after tallying up what I would get for my Drebel, and the other lenses I had laying around (28mm f2.8, 35-105mm f4.5-5.6 and 35-70mm f3.5-4.5) I decided that if I played my cards right, I could sell them all and break even on a purchase of a new DRebel XT. It helpes that I have a $100 gift card at FutureShop as well as the fact that there is a $100 MIR on this camera going on right now.
So I sold my DRebel the other day along with the 28mm f2.8 lens for $660. The guy didn’t want the 18-55mm kit lens, so I kept that.
The next day, I paid FS a visit, and bought an XT.

I’ve only had 2 days (or very intermitten time) to play with it, and all I can say is WOW!
This thing is (ar at least feels) WAY faster the original DRebel. Amazing what 18 months can do for the development cycle of electronics…
Anyway, this thing writes RAW images like my old DRebel wrote jpeg… actually it does it faster.
Transfer rates to the CF card are about 6 times faster for RAW then the old DRebel.
And I love the smaller body. It doesn’t feel bulky, or large. Maybe on the small side, but I’m not complaining. I have to hold the camera by the lens (with the left hand) to get the best use.
I also tried hooking the XT up to the FotoChute 20gig storage device, and images are transfered almost twice as fast (from the camera to drive) then from the CF card reader I have to the drive.
I guess the CF reader is staying home when I go away from now on.
Oh and I also bought online a 2 gig Lexar (80X) CF card, at 1/2 price at $150, but will be returning that next week. I can pick up a 2 gig Sandisk Ultra II from Tiger Direct for $115. Not only cheaper, but faster (from Rob Galbrait’s CF test)

The 17-85IS lens I bought a few days ago is also sweet. Substancially larger then 18-55mm kit lens, it however will likely become the walk around lens I’ll be using for 80% of the time, and it is nice that I now won’t have any dead spots in terms of reach (17-85mm and 75-300mm)