Canon EOS Rebel T1i (Body Only)

Pros: Good photos with the 18-55 kit lens, and 50 mm f/1.8. 920,000 dot LCD has 4x more pixels then similar cameras, allows you to tell if you got a good picture or not.

Cons: Can't set the aperture, iso or shutter speed in video, so you can't effectively set the depth of field: on a sunny day almost everything will appear in focus because the lens will be stopped down.

Summary: I bought this camera few weeks ago for a trip to Hawaii because my wife's profound disappointment in the quality of our facebook pictures, particularly in comparison to her friends'. In short, we needed to step up our facebook game. I ordered it a week before the trip and B&H had it on my doorstep with a few days to spare. I got it with the standard 18-55 and the 50 mm f/1.8 nifty-fifty. We got great night shots with the 50 mm lens that no one with a point and shoot could get, and tack sharp day shots with the aperture stopped down. These shots look sooo much better than a point and shoot because of the background blur, and the ability to push up or reduce the color saturation. We posted the shots on facebook to critical acclaim, and my wife was happy.

However, the reason I bought this camera over cheaper canon DSLRs was the video. This was a huge disappointment:

First, because each image row is sampled sequentially, quick camera movement causes image tearing (also know as the jello effect).

Second, the autofocus in video mode uses phase contrast which is really slow. I can live with this by focusing manually.

Third, you can't set the aperture, iso speed or shutter speed in video. To me this really reduces the appeal of doing video with this camera because you can't effectively set the depth of field: on a bright sunny day almost everything will appear in focus because the lens will be stopped down; at night only your subject will be in focus because the lens is wide open. Canon could have fixed this with their firmware, and they still can, but instead they appear to be forcing people into the 7D or 5DmkII.

My recommendations:
a) buy a cheaper canon and a video camera.
b) buy the nikon d5000, I hear it's much better.
c) buy the 7d or 5dmkII and go on a cheaper vacation.