Giant leap for the Canon D - Rebel 350D

I bought the original Canon Digital Rebel (300D) almost the same month it came out. I was extremely happy with it and I made many wonderful photos with the camera. Alas, one night my home was burglarized and I found myself without a camera.

After talking to the insurance company I immediately decided to buy another camera at B+H in New York, one of the sellers I trust not to give me the run around. B+H is far from being the best shop in the world, but they have done right by me so far.

Since my old 300D was no longer available and the new 350D is even less expensive it was a no brainer for me to purchase another one. For a minute or two I wondered if I should upgrade to a 20D, the more professional version, but the reviews I read convinced me to stick with the Rebel. One of the reasons was that Canon has been listening to their customers and packed the new 350D with many of the professional features that tits predecessor lacked (some were available by installing the famous Russian firmware but I was never brave enough to try it.

Instead of spending extra money on the camera I opted for purchasing the Rebel with the optional Canon 17-85mm EF-S IS Lens, making my camera cost a cool $1,159.95. I chose this lens because of it's image stabilization technology and the reviews I read about it. I also bought a Tamron Zoom Telephoto AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 macro lens for $189.00 and a Canon 430EX Speedlite E-TTL II Shoe-Mount Flash. I completed the order with a 2 GB ultra III Sandisk card.

When I received my package and I started unpacking I was amazed at how much smaller and lighter the new Rebel is. So small that at first it was almost hard to handle properly. I am 5'11" with fairly large hands and I guess it would be perfect for someone a bit smaller, but for me it gave me the impression of being just a tad too small.
The biggest initial disappointment was that the quality of the casing seemed a lot flimsier than my older Rebel. It was maybe due to the size difference as well, but the plastic felt a little thinner. Undeniably the camera is a lot lighter and easier to carry with a smaller lens (the 17-85 adds quite a bit of bulk.
However, after using the camera for the past 3 days I can say that the first impression is gone and I am very comfortable with it.
I wish Canon would make a sturdier version of the Rebel. One with a bit of metal somewhere. They could charge a bit more, but if they kept it below the price of a 20D many users would rather go for a titanium body.

How it works: This is where this camera shines! I am much happier with the quality of the pictures this camera takes than my older Rebel. Where they really did a number was the onboard flash. This was one of the first pictures I took with the camera and the reason I decided to shell the dough for the 430Ex. At first I took a few flash pictures with the 430EX and I was immediately taken by the natural colors and the nice lighting I got. My old rebel, with the onboard flash or with an old 220 canon I had made terrible flash pictures. Most subjects looked like a deer in headlights, with an uneven background and an ugly fringe or halo around them.
My cat Scruffy especially looked bad. He his a Sylvester the cat clone with a black body and white nose and paws, and I don't have a decent flash picture of him. He was always too bright in the whites and too dark in the blacks. He positively looked alien at times.

With the new rebel and the 430EX instead I got very nice exposures that I hardly had to retouch in Photoshop. I wished I had such a good flash with my old Rebel, so for comparison I decided to shoot with the onboard flash. To my amazement, the quality was almost identical, with even, pleasant gradations and effortless exposures (the old rebel needed stop adjustments to produce anything decent at close and far distances).

Happy with the flash exposures, I decided to investigate the new features of the camera.
The old Rebel, a fantastic camera by any standard, was basically a dialed down version of Canon's more professional cameras. As such, some of the more professional features were not available. My two pet peeves were rear curtain flash sync and mirror lock. I felt that Canon would have done a nice thing to activate those for the Rebel to make it more useful to advanced amateurs.
They obviously were listening to my prayers as both features have been implemented in the camera and then some.

Mirror lock allows to open up the mirror prior to shooting a picture to avoid vibrations, a feature that comes in real handy when shooting long exposures with a telephoto lens on a tripod. Rear curtain sync allows to time the flash burst as the curtain closes as opposed to when it opens. What this does is create a very nice and natural effect in stop motion flash photography. A runner, for instance, will look like has a ghost running ahead of her when a regular flash shot is taken, while when the rear curtain is activated it will look like she has the trail behind her. A more realistic effect and a very creative one.

Another nice touch that I didn't even know I needed is the way the camera goes to sleep and restarts. The old Rebel would go to sleep at a predetermined time and very often I found myself waiting for the perfect moment only to realize the camera was asleep and I had to flick the power switch off and on again in order to wake the camera up. The new Rebel, if let go to sleep on its own, will wake up itself at a halfway press of the shutter. I truly love it.

I have not explored the other features of the camera yet, as I am working on making some product shots, but I wanted to post this preliminary review to help others that may be on the fence with their purchase.
This camera is a winner and it's all the camera you'll need if you are an intermediate to advanced amateur. I'll bet you that even in professional use this camera would hold it's own if it wasn't for its flimsy body.

Its small size can actually be an asset for candid photography, as the camera (with a 50mm lens, not my monstrous 17-85mm or worse the Tamron Macro) looks much less intimidating than the old one.

I highly recommend this camera. If you can afford it purchase the 17-85mm Zoom with it as it will be money well spent.