Trading in XSi for T1i?

[A Khun]

I've read in some reviews, and in blog posts that some people were going to trade in their XSi and pay a little bit to get the T1i, I don't see anything online about stores offering a trade in. Where can you possibly trade in your camera for another one? I live in MA by the way, Boston area. Thanks for your help!

[photophorous]

Those people were probably talking about selling their XSi to raise money for the T1i. Any camera shop that sells used gear will also buy used gear. If you really want to do this, you'll probably make more money selling your XSi on Ebay than "trading in" at a local camera shop at the same time as you buy the T1i. However, unless you really need the video feature, I see no point in it. The XSi is a great camera.

Paul

[A Khun]

Those people were probably talking about selling their XSi to raise money for the T1i. Any camera shop that sells used gear will also buy used gear. If you really want to do this, you'll probably make more money selling your XSi on Ebay than "trading in" at a local camera shop at the same time as you buy the T1i. However, unless you really need the video feature, I see no point in it. The XSi is a great camera.

Paul

Thanks for your opinion, well yeah i think the video part is the main difference, but i'm willing to make an upgrade .. i carry around my sony digital camera to take videos with my canon lol, kind of corny.

[Photo-John]

Take a careful look at what you're getting for your money before trading your XSi for the T1i / 500D. The T1i can capture video, but the jury is still out on the quality. More importantly, the T1i - as well as the 5D Mk II, D90, and D5000 - have no auto focus when you're shooting video. They're manual focus only. The reality is that these cameras aren't very consumer-friendly yet, when it comes to video. And the T1i doesn't really offer much more than your XSi as far as still image quality goes. If video is really important to you and you want more than manual focus, consider a dedicated video camera to go along with your XSi. You'll get better performance and features.

[flyinion]

As someone who just went through whether to buy a T1i or XSi because I had no DSLR at all, I'd say stick with the XSi you already have. The video was not rated very well if you plan on full HD due to the limited framerate (20FPS) that it captures at. Really the only thing it had "going for it" is the 15 megapixels for the most part. The digic 4 processor was reported to take just as long saving pictures as the XSi's digic 3, possibly due to the larger file sizes. About the only other things I see are the higher resolution screen, ISO 3200, and a few more RAW files in burst mode. If I had money to spare when I bought my camera I might have ended up with the T1i, but to have to sell/trade off an XSi and take a good hit compared to what you paid for it for those few extra features doesn't seem worth it.

[photophorous]

As someone who just went through whether to buy a T1i or XSi because I had no DSLR at all, I'd say stick with the XSi you already have. The video was not rated very well if you plan on full HD due to the limited framerate (20FPS) that it captures at. Really the only thing it had "going for it" is the 15 megapixels for the most part. The digic 4 processor was reported to take just as long saving pictures as the XSi's digic 3, possibly due to the larger file sizes. About the only other things I see are the higher resolution screen, ISO 3200, and a few more RAW files in burst mode. If I had money to spare when I bought my camera I might have ended up with the T1i, but to have to sell/trade off an XSi and take a good hit compared to what you paid for it for those few extra features doesn't seem worth it.

It's funny that you mention the 15MP as the only advantage, because if you look at the new review on DPreview.com, they show that JPG files only have a tiny bit more resolution, and if you shoot RAW, you gain nothing. Resolution is exactly equal. They also say the XSi has less noise at higher ISOs, although the T1i does allow for higher ISO settings. I've shot at 1600 with exposure comp set to -1, then adjusted the RAW file up in post processing to get acceptable results from my XSi...effectively 3200 ISO.

Paul

[flyinion]

Hrrm I thought the 15MP allowed for a slightly larger image size regardless of file format? I personally figured I didn't need that little bit of extra size, but that's just me. I think I missed the noise thing but I read an article recently about diminishing returns basically as MP go higher and getting more noise at a given ISO, so that does make sense. By the way, thanks for the tip on faking 3200, will have to remember that if I ever have a need to shoot something with it