Canon EOS Rebel T1i

Overview

The Canon EOS Rebel T1i is a lightweight, compact SLR, along the same lines as the Rebel XSi and Rebel XS. It is scheduled to ship in May priced at $799.99 for the body alone, or $899.99 with an 18-55mm image-stabilized lens.

The looks are familiar, but there are new tricks under the hood.

Front

The only substantial change here from the existing Canon XSi is the small microphone located behind the four-dot cluster to the right of the lens. There's an infrared receiver on the grip, below the shutter, and an autofocus illuminator lamp between the grip and the lens mount. To the right of the lens mount is the lens release button. As for the black tape strips on the right side, we had to cover over the camera logo before taking it outdoors, since it hadn't been announced at the time of our test drive.

The microphone is located above and to the right of the lens.

Back

Again, we haven't wandered far from the XSi design, except for the small speaker located just below the playback zoom buttons on the top right. The 3-inch LCD represents a nice upgrade; same 3-inch size as before, but with a new 920,000-dot resolution. Video recording is triggered by the button marked with a red dot to the right of the LCD (during playback, the same button controls direct printing via PictBridge). Above this button is the AV/exposure compensation control, below it the playback mode button. The four-way controller includes direct access to (from the top, clockwise) white balance, atuofocus, Picture Styles and drive mode settings, with the famililar Set button set in the center. There's a well-positioned, nicely textured thumb rest at the upper right.

The LCD is a significant upgrade from the Rebel XSi.

Sides

On the right side, the button festooned with a lightning-bolt icon unleashes the pop-up flash. From this angle, we can also see the depth of field preveiw button located below the lens release button. The rubber door toward the back closes securely, protecting the familiar AV/USB jack and the spiffy new HDMI port, the better to output both your video and photos on a high-def TV.

The left side is home to the slide-back, pop-out SD card slot.

Tucked away behind the left-side door is a mini HDMI port.

Top

Our aerial view reveals the location of the pop-up flash and hot shoe. In addition to turning from XSi black to T1i silver, the mode dial has acquired some new functions. Holdovers include full auto (the green rectangle), shutter-priority (Tv), aperture-priority (Av), manual exposure and auto depth of field (A-DEP), which lets you specify the closest and most distant point you need to have in focus. Added to this array is Creative Auto, a feature Canon introduced with the 50D, that lets users control the shutter speed/aperture balance by deciding whether their photo should be sharper or blurrier, brighter or darker. There is a smattering of scene modes (portrait, landscape, macro, sports night portrait and no-flash), and a new movie-camera icon for video mode.

The shutter is nicely placed on a beveled platform in the front, with the single control dial behind it. The direct access button for ISO settings is on the top as well, along with the ON/OFF switch which slides forward and back next to the mode dial. The additional icons on top (the asterisk and the focus grid design) are poorly positioned labels for the shooting-mode functions of the playback zoom control buttons located on the back of the camera.

Movie shooting is accessible via the mode dial.

Bottom

The latched battery compartment is positioned on the left, the sturdy metal tripod socket is centered under the lens.

The metal tripod socket is properly centered.