The Rebel accepts the full range of the Canon EF lenses which have been around since what, 1985? It also accepts the new EF-S lenses. I absolutely love my Rebel. It blows away any of the many point and shoot digital cameras I have owned in the past. I love the speed of operation. I love to take pictures of people and at parties, etc. It's so nice not to have to compose the person or group of people and not have to say, "wait, hold that pose" while you wait for the camera to focus and then say "hang on a second" while you wait for the camera to recycle so you can take a second shot. Meanwhile the people stand there trying to hold their forced pose in which any spontanity in the picture is now shot. I just take the shot, then another and another, etc. It focuses in an instant, particularly if you do a quick prefocus first so the lens doesn't have to move very far to refocus. It also will focus in low light tremendously better then the point and shoots (at least the ones I've had). The battery lasts forever and ever between charges. I thought I would miss the live pre-view but I quickly got used to using the viewfinder again. My biggest problem is that I want more and more expensive lenses and mark my words, the higher quality ones are expensive. Lens buying is an expensive, addictive habit but I'm currently in a situation where I will have to do with my three current lenses for a long time.
If I had to do it now and not having a Canon lens collection, I would seriously have to consider the Nikon D70. I didn't realize the price for the body alone was down to $1000. Canon choose to dumb down the Rebel a bit and left out some desireable features such as flash exposure compensation (which can be overridden but using an external flash that has this feature). The D70 has these left out features and has a much bigger shot buffer. There are times when I find the Rebel's four shot buffer to be restrictive although it is at least smart enough so that when the buffer is full as soon as a shot is flushed out, you can take another one so you don't have to wait for all four to get flushed out. Better still I would try my best to save up and get the Canon 20D for $1500 as it is fast enough and has enough features so I really think I could happily keep this camera for a decade regardless of what comes out.
Back to the Rebel, I recommend it. Size is an issue for some and I have a Canon Elph that I generally keep in the car for unexpected shots (the best camera is the one you have with you) but if I go anywhere at all where I even think I might take a picture I bring the Rebel. If you are going to buy a digital SLR, keep in mine you're buying into a system. Because I now own Canon lens, if I ever upgrade in the future I will most likely stick with Canon. This is not a bad thing but keep this in mind when choosing the camera.
