I did quite some extensive research before commiting to the Digital Rebel. I wanted a digital SLR mostly for family photos but also for Astrophotography. I signed in a lot of forums were this camera was the most recommended in digital astrophotography (non-CCD) as well as the best cost-benefit as all purpose camera.

I have intentions to modify this camera to take best advantage in astrophography. This means that I will carefully remove the included IR-filter in order to get better astrophotos. This means I won't be able to take terrestrial (all purpose) pictures as the photos will result redish looking without the IR-filter. As a consequence, I will probably get the Digital Rebel XT for family pictures.

This really is a great camera and to really appreciate it you have to understand its target audience. It seems clear that Canon has aimed this camera primarily at novices. Its point and shoot are as simple as you will find on any consumer compact digicam. Its creative setting should offer enough control and flexibility to keep most intermediate and advance photographers happy. First though lets go over some of the complaints people are writing about the camera.

1). I can't set up my photo through the LCD-----No you surely can't. SLR's are designed specifically to direct the light and image from the lens to the view finder. To the best of my knowledge, there is not a true digital SLR which allows you to do this. And there shouldn't be. You can keep the camera a lot more steady and get a much better view of what your image will look like through the view finder then you ever could looking at an LCD six to eight inches from your body.
2). Complaint number two is just as silly. Canon does not include a CF card with the camera. I've yet to see a digital SLR manufacturer that includes any media with the camera. Also when you consider that about the only card they could include without affecting the price much is a 128mb card with is next to useless in a camera like this.

Now to some more reasonable complaints

1). This camera is slow to start up (compared to many current DSLR's by Canon and Nikon). There really was not much that Canon could have done about that. It uses the same first generation DIGIC processing chip and same 6.3mp CMOS as the Canon D10. The D10 has similar short comings. If you can't live with this (about 3 seconds from power up till you can take a photo) you might want to consider the new Rebel XT or D20. You'll also have to decide if the extra responsiveness is worth an extra 200-300.00 bucks.
2). For continuous shooting you only get 2.5PFS and 4 frame bursts. Much of this is also do to the DIGIC. The D10 isn't much faster (though it does have a larger buffer (the images are stored in the buffer before they can be written to your media) which does allow it to continue shooting while the dRebel is catching its breath. I was very much aware of this "Shortcoming" before I bought the camera and understand it as a cost cutting method (larger buffers cost more money) and decided to accept this short coming rather then pay an extra 200-300. bucks.
3). Canon has crippled the camera by removing many manual control features(through software-The camera is physically able to carry out many of these functions but Canon removed the ability by programing the DIGIC chip (the firmware) to disallow these features. Clearly a business decision and one that make some sense. You really would not want to release a low cost camera with all the same features as your higher end camera. On the other hand, I really wished they would have kept some of the features they removed (like the ability for the user to adust the flash settings).
4). I can't shoot RAW images in the automatic settings. I can understand this. Most of the people using the fully automatic settings are probably novices. RAW images cannot be printed from the camera directly to a printer. RAW images require quite a bit of post shooting work before they're usable. If some one that really does not know much about photography were to shoot a couple of hundred RAW images they would be pretty upset when they found out they could not print their images and didn't know how to change that.
5). The Nikon D70 supports higher ISO's then the Canon. The ISO adjusts the camera's sensitivity to light (on film cameras it's the film speed). My answer to that is that the D70 does not support an ISO of 100 and the dRebel does. Personally, I would much rather have an ISO range of 100-1600 like the dRebel then an ISO range of 200-3200. The higher the ISO setting the more digital noise you're likely to get and an ISO of 3200 would seem to affect you're quality considerably. On the other hand, Canon's 100 ISO is perfect for bright sunny days.

I'm sure I missed some other complaints though I'm not sure what they are. To sum it up, this is a very easy camera to use even for a novice. The controls to adjust your camera settings and image quality are very easy to use and very intuitive. If you do understand photo editing are really want to shoot RAW images but don't want to have to manually set all the camera settings (aperture, shutter speed etc.), the P-AE mode only requires that you set the ISO which is very simple (keep it as low as light conditions allow while retaining a high shutter speed). My main complaint is lack of documentation for include software (particularly the File viewer App which is required for converting RAW images). Granted downloading the PDF's from Canon's web site is not a problem but it should not be necessary.

Overall, an excellent camera for its intended consumer. The camera has all the image quality that the pros have come to expect from Canon's digital SLR's. The auto focus is very fast and accurate (especially compare to compact point and shoot cameras). The shutter lag is virtually non existent so when you press the shutter release it pretty much instantly shoots so you won't miss the shot (again unlike the vast majority of compact P&S which seem to take forever from the time you depress the shutter from the time it actually goes. One quick piece of advise whether you get this camera or the Rebel XT. Get the 18-55mm lens. For the money this is an excellent wide a angle lens, and it is only available with the camera.

Edit to review. I wanted to add that I was incorrect concerning lack of documentation for the software suite included with the camera. The camera does indeed come with full and complete documentation. In addition, for those interested in shooting RAW, Canon's File Viewer which is included with the camera is less then stellar. If, like me, you can't afford or justify the cost for Photoshop CS or the any number of RAW converters out there (most that cost over 100.00) you can head over to Canon's website and download Canon's new Digital Photo Professional. This is the RAW converter included with Canon's high-end cameras (and the dRebel XT). It is a free download and is vastly superior to File Viewer. It is much more intuitive, has a far better interface, is much faster and most importantly (at least to me) it allows you to perform corrections in real time so you can make changes on the fly. It has much better white balance control, and allows you to easily adjust hue and saturation, and lightness and contrast all while the file is in a RAW format. The only down side is that you cannot download the images to Digital Photo Professional directly from the camera as you can with File Viewer. You must either download from a card reader, or download using another application (such as Image Browser (included with the camera.

The Canon Digital Rebel SLR is no doubt, still the best digital SLR on the market for those who want both the combination of quality at an affordable cost. Since my purchase of the camera nearly a year ago I have found it to be quite a splendid camera, the 6.3 Mega pixel image sensor delivers great resolution with vivid, accurate colours. The lens which comes with most of the rebel packages (Canon EF 18-55mm lens) also delivers surprisingly good captures (don't be fooled just because of the cheap price of the lens sold separately) The Interface of the Rebel is very simple to use and has features for both the new photographers and semi-professionals. Highly recommended.

P.S. I believe that it is advantageous to purchase the Rebel along with the EF 18-55mm lens as well as the 75-300mm zoom lens, both made by Canon.

I've had this camera for about 2 months now, but from the day I got it, I was off and taking some stunning pictures! Even with all the features, I find this camera to be easier to use than most DC's I've played with and have owned (see below for list). The size and price might be a bit much for some, but I really don't mind either. I have HP R507 as my "pocket camera", but I always find excuses to take the canon with me every where I go!

Picture quality: EXCELLENT. I'm a novice photographer, but with the benefit of this being digital, it's helping me learn a lot about photography that I didn't have the patience to wait for developing the film. With the digital rebel, I don't have to wait to see how my "experimental" shots come out. I've taken some cool over exposure shots of traffic at night, and it was VERY easy to do! Other pictures I've taken come out as good as (if not better than) my Canon 35mm Rebel 2000. I don't foresee needing/wanting to enlarge my pictures more than 8x10, and with the canon 80-200mm zoom (which becomes 128-320mm on the digital rebel wich 1.6x factor), I should be able to accomplish pretty much any shots I'd ever want.

Features: EXCELLENT (still camera only). I don't believe in Video feature in DC's to be something useful, at least not until MPEG4 or other higher compression becomes more widely used. Right now, you can only cram 20 minutes of 320x240 video into 256MB card (less if you go 640x480), so to me, that's not useful. If you want to take videos, you really should get a video camera. I especially like that digital rebel goes to ISO 1600 which makes taking night shots much easier!

Battery life: EXCELLENT. As a test, I took enough pictures to fill a 512MB CF card, about 150 pictures, mostly with flash, some without. Battery was still barely 1/2 down. Included fast charger is a nice touch, it has an LED indicator to let you known that the battery is 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and fully charged. So in a pinch you could charge just till 1/2 charged (15-30 minutes charge time) and then keep shooting. But I don't think I'll be taking more than 150 pictures in a day, so I'm opting to not get the backup battery.

Cost: EXCELLENT (for me). "It's soooo choice! If you have the means, I'd highly recommend you get one of those" - Ferris Bueller. For some, the price maybe a bit of a shock. Personally, I don't believe in paying more than $200 for digital point and shoot cameras not when you can buy a nice 35mm SLR for $250. But for a digital SLR, $799 I paid after MIR was worth it!

Film cameras I've owned: Couple of 110's, late 70's Ricoh 35mm - which I've forgotten how to use, Canon 35mm Powershot Waterproof, Canon point and shoot 35mm, Kodak APS point and shoot, Canon Rebel 2000 35mm.

Digital cameras I own: HP 318, HP R507 - good backup for Digital Rebel!

Digital cameras I have experiences with: Kodak 3.1MP, HP 635

I've had my Digital Rebel EOS for over a year now and I couldn't be happier with its performance. I've added a battery grip, which provides heft and vertical picture taking functions, and the camera feels like a pro. I've also added a Canon 100-400mm USM lense that provides great close ups.

I've used the camera on everything from weddings to wildlife to portraiture to product photos and am extremely happy with the results. Wonderfully clear pictures.

To get optimum color, brightness and contrast for prints, however, you will need to use photo-enhancing software to take the place of corrections normally done by development labs for film photos.

If I were to make a digital purchase today, however, I would probably opt for the Rebel Digital XT model which increases the resolution to 8MB and provides some updated light metering technology.

Highly recommended!