T1i cannon

[Christi V]

ok its xmas time.. i would also like to upgrade to the T1i cannon..I have the Xti right now.. I am assuming i will only need to purchase the body, as I have lens... but will the battery transfer to the T1i.?
someone mentioned that it had "to much noise' in low light' what does that mean?

[inkista]

Yes, all your lenses will be compatible, so you only need the body.

They changed the battery, so no, your batteries won't transfer.

"too much noise in low light" means someone had unreasonable expectations of the 500D's high iso noise performance, or they underexposed. The 500D has additional iso levels: 3200, 6400, and 12800. For some reason, people expect those iso levels to be completely noise free, even though the latter two are done by digital push-processing (which always increases noise), and 3200 is still higher than 1600.

If you compare the 1600 iso noise to the 1600 iso noise in your current camera, the performance will be better, but probably not by the dramatic amount you hope it will. It may also look worse, because of the increased pixel count, since most folks can't actually seem to interpret what 100% crop actually means.

Personally, if you're upgrading just to upgrade, I say hold onto your money and wait until you have an actual substantial reason that your current body is getting in your way, photographically. Flipping bodies is probably where you lose the most money in buying SLR gear, given how quickly bodies depreciate. You're likely to hold onto value longer by buying lenses instead.

And, if you're a feature-creature, then you may want to acquaint yourself with the Canon product cycles. 2010 is likely to see a new XXD in March, and a new XXXD in September/October. Buying at the beginning of the cycle tends to appeal to feature-creature/early adopters more, because they'll have the latest greatest (e.g., the 7D). But they do sometimes feel cheated when the lower-tiered model "suddenly" comes along six months later with a lot of the same features they paid a premium for, with a smaller pricetag. Buying at the end of the cycle means you get the best price, but then, you get upset because it's "suddenly" been superseded by a better model. Knowing how the release cycles run gives you the opportunity to decide what the right balance of hot-new-latest-greatest vs. price you're willing to take on.