Canon EOS Rebel T1i

Viewfinder

The viewfinder, with 95% coverage, is adequate but not terrific, especially if you wear glasses; we had trouble seeing the entire scene before us at a glance. There's a diopter adjustment dial to the left of the viewfinder and a sensor below, which turns the LCD off when you hold the camera to your eye.

The viewfinder is nicely cushioned but tough on eyeglass wearers.

LCD

The Canon T1i LCD is a welcome improvement from the XSi on the LCD front, with a step up to the 3-inch, 920,000-dot display that's become the hallmark of an upscale SLR today. We found the screen bright and sharp, even when shooting outdoors (brightness can be adjusted in seven steps via the camera menu). Viewing angles were very good, an important feature in a camera that offers Live View shooting.

As with most inexpensive SLRs, there's no secondary monochrome LCD display to let you read and adjust camera settings from above.

The high-res 3-inch LCD is a visual treat.

As for Live View, the display kept up nicely as we moved the camera quickly to compose a shot, unlike some screens that stutter and struggle when dealing with fast action. The Live View display toggles between a clean screen, a display showing basic shooting information in white on a black strip at the bottom of the screen, a status display showing focus mode, Picture Style, white balance, drive mode and image size controls, and the same control screen with an overlaid histogram. Two optional grid overlays, one with nine squares, the other with 24, are also available.

Live View display options include a luminance histogram.

Flash

The built-in flash sits at a nice high position, far from the center of the lens, so red-eye shouldn't be an issue when shooting faces in darkened rooms. Canon gives the flash range a guide number of 13 at ISO 100. The flash sync speed is 1/200 second.

We like the substantial elevation of the built-in flash.

Lens Mount

Not surprisingly, the T1i sticks with the standard EF lens mount, maintaining compatibility with the diverse and high-quality family of Canon lenses. The kit lens is not new: it's the familiar 18-55mm lens (29-88mm equivalent) image-stabilized lens offered with the Rebel XSi and XS, with a maximum aperture of f/3.5 at the widest setting and f/5.6 at full zoom. This is not our favorite Canon lens ever. In addition to being fairly slow (requiring slower shutter speeds), we've found in our previous testing that it's subject to significant distortion. It's acceptable for basic shooting, though. And if you're more persnickety about your image quality, you can always buy the camera body without the kit lens and pair it up with a more impressive piece of glass.

As always, if you want image stabilization with a Canon camera, you're going to have to buy image stabilized lenses, unlike Sony and Olympus,which build this feature right into the camera body.

Access to the wide assortment of Canon lenses is a big plus for the Rebel T1i.

Jacks, Ports & Plugs

The Canon T1i provides a mini HDMI port for connecting directly to a high-def television, a welcome addition not only for video output, but to show off your photos in their full high-res glory. There's a standard mini USB port, that now does double duty for both data connection to your computer and standard-definition video output (the XSi has a dedicated video out jack, absent here). Finally, the circular connector at the top is used for connecting a wired remote control.

The HDMI port will let both video and stills shine in full high-def glory on an HDTV.

Battery

The 7.4V, 1080mAh lithium ion rechargeable battery should get 500 shots per charge, or 400 when using the flash 50% of the time.

The notched edges make it impossible to insert the battery wrong-way around.

Memory

The Canon T1i supports high-capacity, readily available SD and SDHC memory cards. If you're planning to shoot a lot of video, it's worth investing in some high-capacity, high-speed SDHC cards. According to Canon, you should get 12 minutes of video per 4-gigabyte card when shooting in 1080p mode, and 18 minutes at 720p.

Video shooting will fill SD cards quickly.