For an uncompromising mix of ease of use, affordability and outstanding features, look no further than the Canon Digital Rebel XT. Featuring an 8.0 Megapixel CMOS sensor, Canon’s DIGIC II Image Processor, and compatibility with over 50 EF Lenses, this digital SLR offers outstanding performance for both the serious photographer and the weekend photographer who just wants to take great pictures.

All controls and displays are right where you need them.

For starters, the Rebel XT delivers 3,456 x 2,304-pixel images for images of 13×19 inches and larger. The camera features variable ISO — 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,600 settings — and supports all Canon EOS series lenses. An optical viewfinder provides detailed information such as diopter adjustment and depth-of-field preview, while the 1.8-inch TFT LCD view finder offers a wealth of additional information as well as several playback features, including thumbnail view and zooming to 10x magnification. Backlit with five level settings for brightness, the viewfinder is easy to read in dark environments.

While the Rebel XT is compatible with all Canon lenses in the EF lineup — ranging from ultra-wide-angle to super-telephoto lenses –, the camera includes the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. This 18-55mm is a standard zoom designed exclusively for the Digital Rebel and features optimized coating to minimize ghost images and flare.

If action photography is your specialty, the Rebel XT offers a continuous shooting mode that captures as many as 14 images as fast as three frames per second (with shutter speeds of 1/250 second or faster.) The camera offers a shutter speed range from 1/4,000 to 30 seconds, and a bulb x-sync at 1/200 seconds. Best of all, it features an ultra-fast 0.2 seconds startup time, a shutter release lag of 100 milliseconds, and viewfinder blackout time of 175 milliseconds — all of which means that you’ll always be on top of the action.

Despite its wealth of advanced features, the Rebel XT is also one of the easiest, and most user-friendly digital SLRs you’ll find anywhere. Its compact design — 4.98 x 3.71 x 2.63 inches (W x H x D) — and weight (less than two pounds) means that the camera body will fit snugly in your hands. The EOS Digital Rebel XT has a newly developed high-precision seven-point autofocus (AF) system for speedy and accurate focusing in any situation. You can easily choose your own point of focus or direct the camera to choose it automatically. You can even use predictive AF to ensure that moving subjects stay focused while you compose your shot. With a built-in dioptric adjustment mechanism and a new precision matte screen, achieving sharp focus is fast and easy with the Rebel XT, no matter where or when you’re taking pictures.

A number of additional automatic setting and shooting modes — including Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, Night Portrait, and Flash Off — allows you to concentrate on your subject and leave the camera to sort out the details. A redeye reduction via a built-in illuminator keeps your face shots on track, and USB 2.0 connectivity for both PC and Macintosh lets you upload your images with ease and without the need for additional software. The camera also supports direct printing with PictBridge compatible printers. In short, the Rebel XT is the ideal digital SLR choice for both the serious photographer who demands the ultimate in high-quality features, as well as the weekend picture taker who demands the ultimate in affordability and convenience.

Scott Kelby, the man who changed the “digital darkroom” forever with his groundbreaking, #1 bestselling, award-winning book The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers, now tackles the most important side of digital photography–how to take pro-quality shots using the same tricks today’s top digital pros use (and it’s easier than you’d think).

This entire book is written with a brilliant premise, and here’s how Scott describes it: “If you and I were out on a shoot, and you asked me, ‘Hey, how do I get this flower to be in focus, but I want the background out of focus?’ I wouldn’t stand there and give you a lecture about aperture, exposure, and depth of field. In real life, I’d just say, ‘Get out your telephoto lens, set your f/stop to f/2.8, focus on the flower, and fire away.’ You d say, ‘OK,’ and you’d get the shot. That’s what this book is all about. A book of you and I shooting, and I answer the questions, give you advice, and share the secrets I’ve learned just like I would with a friend, without all the technical explanations and without all the techno-photo-speak.”

This isn’t a book of theory-it isn’t full of confusing jargon and detailed concepts: this is a book of which button to push, which setting to use, when to use them, and nearly two hundred of the most closely guarded photographic “tricks of the trade” to get you shooting dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos with your digital camera every time you press the shutter button.

Here’s another thing that makes this book different: each page covers just one trick, just one single concept that makes your photography better. Every time you turn the page, you’ll learn another pro setting, another pro tool, another pro trick to transform your work from snapshots into gallery prints. There’s never been a book like it, and if you’re tired of taking shots that look “OK,” and if you’re tired of looking in photography magazines and thinking, “Why don’t my shots look like that?” then this is the book for you.

Digital photography was quickly embraced in several professional fields of endeavor where the cost of $12,000-$30,000 cameras was easily outweighed by the convenience of having digital images instantly. Here’s a quick summary:

• Photojournalism. Newspapers, news magazines, and news Web sites need visuals quickly, and can’t wait for their photographers to fly images back from Afghanistan. Digital images, which could be transmitted by phone lines in the early 1990s, can be zapped across the Internet today, sent by satellite phones, and be ready for publication immediately. Think like a photojournalist and go digital.
• Portrait photography. Digital technology has been important to professional portrait photographers because it gives them the opportunity to sell prints and enlargements immediately after the sitting, when the customers’ interest is highest. Digital portraits are easier to retouch, too. If you decide to produce portraits of your own family and friends, or need a passport photo quickly, you’ll appreciate digital technology, too.
• Photoillustration. Commercial, corporate, and industrial photographers all have taken to digital photography in a big way. For catalog work, digital photography has become the way to go because repetitive setups can be shot one after another quickly, and the finished images are immediately ready for placement in a catalog layout.
• Everything else. Although the preceding three fields were the first to adopt digital technology, today every other kind of picture taking is rapidly turning digital. Travel and vacation photography benefit from the ability to reshoot immediately if a picture is not to your liking (rather than schedule a repeat trip back to the Taj Mahal). Family and pet photography thrive on the instant feedback digital photography provides. What better way to encourage your kids to cooperate for that shooting session than to show them each group of pictures on your camera’s LCD?