Editor's Choice 2007: Digital Compacts

EDITOR'S CHOICE Entry-Level D-SLRs

Canon Digital Rebel XTi

The tiny, featherweight Canon Digital Rebel XTi is a dead ringer for its predecessor, the Digital Rebel XT, but ups resolution from eight to 10.1 megapixels and increases the size of its color LCD to 2.5 inches. The LCD doubles as an oversize alphanumeric status panel, showing key shooting data such as shutter speed, f-stop, ISO, and the number of shots remaining. This highly readable white-on-black display stays on except for when you're looking through the viewfinder, turning off if an eypiece sensor detects your face -- then back on again when you lower the camera. Another new XTi feature (one it shares with the newEOS-1D Mark III) is its Self Cleaning Sensor Unit, which uses an ultrasonic micromotor to shake image-marring dust off the low-pass filter that protects the sensor. The XTi's most outstanding feature, in our view, is its autofocus system. Inherited from its bigger brother, the Canon EOS 30D, this nine-point, wide-area AF array tracks focus tenaciously, making the XTi the best choice in its class for shooting sports, or anything else that's moving fast.

Read more on the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi. Next product: Nikon D40.