Canon's naming conventions for its consumer-grade DSLR cameras in the US are a hot mess, ranking on the indecipherable mystery scale somewhere between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the colored lines on a hockey rink.
They rationalized it a little by using "i" as the suffix for the nicer models, but the simple numeric system they use for the Euro market is more easily sussed out.
The Rebel T1i seen here is the 500D in Europe. It's easy to understand that three digits is the nicer consumer model, and that the 500D succeeded the 450D and was in turn replaced by the 550D. That it was more upscale than the entry-level 1000D was indicated by its fewer digits, and it was in turn more downmarket than the contemporaneous 50D prosumer camera.
Available used for a couple hundred bucks with a kit zoom lens on Amazon, it can be found even cheaper as a body only. Paired with an inexpensive zoom lens, it's a cheap toe in the water of DSLRs.
It's got a 15-megapixel sensor, which is plenty of resolution for most any chore, and it's the first entry-level Canon DSLR to offer video and live view.
I'll shoot a bunch of pics with it this week and see how it holds up these days.
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