My question is this. Does the canon digital rebel XT have the options for black & white, sepia, negative and polarize that i currently have with my Sony DSC F828. I have grown quite accostumed to switching in manual mode from color to sepia during a photo session but my sony does not have the black and white like my old sony did. I am seriously considering the canon but no one seems to have an answer. i am aware that you can manually convert images to b&w in photoshop, but i found that my color images converted never look as good as the images originally shot in b&w. please help.

It definately has the option for black and white. You just have to push menu then change parameters to black and white mode. Pretty sure it doesn't have sepia, negative or polarize though. Although I've never even tried looking for them. You might be able to get a sepia like mode by manually changing the parameters for less saturation etc.

The Rebel XT has both a B&W mode and a sepia option. Sepia is a toning option and it is burried under one of the menus.

There isn't a negative option as far as I know.