Check out a review at dpreview.com.

DPreview dislikes the kit lens & suggests buying the body by itself; however, it might be nice to have a backup lens (the kit lens) sitting around, or a lens (again, the kit lens) that you don't care if it gets gunked when you take it down to the water line to shoot the surf.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos400d/

Well said Ralph. It's good to see some decent posts around here. It's true, it's a shame that Canon would make such a fine camera and sell it with a lens that is subpar. Check out bhphotovideo.com for a good price on the body and a separate lens. This isn't the best price we've seen..even for the kit.

burp you butt munch.

thanks for the info #1 and 2

Canon is like Intel of 2005, not much value for money. Olympus is the AMD in camera market (along with Pentax). Watch out for E-410 & E-510 models coming out shortly. They deliver better over all image quality (from the samples) and much better feature set, especially for first time DSLR owners unless you already own Canon/Nikon glass.

#3 You too.

#5, you forget to mention Olympus new DSLR support live view on the LCD back. Other DSLR will only show picture already captured at the back of the camera.

Even if you don't already own Canon or Nikon lenses, you should not overlook the fact that there is a much larger choice of lenses and accessories for Canon (and, to a slightly lesser extent, Nikon) than there is for any other mount. Just do a quick search on ebay, and you'll see what I mean.
Not to knock Olympus or Pentax, but there's a reason the pros stick with Canon.

thankyou #7, buy this camera without the lens, and its only a 100$ cheaper, there for, its only a $100 lens. you get what you pay for...go out n get a 1000$ lens, then you all will be satisfied..

3rd party companies also make lenses that fit on EF mounts, although canon does not support it.

btw canon's next dslr, eos 1d mark III, has live preview on a 3 inch lcd, but you will be selling your car to buy that camera

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelFeaturesAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=14999&pageno=5

I wish the XTi had the DIGIC III

personally, i would recommend buying the body only with the extra hundred dollars you save purchase 17-85IS ($500) or the 17-55IS ($1000). if you have extra money get the 70-200 f4 ($700). that i think is the best two lens combo. for portrait lens get the 50f1.8 ($70). of course do your research.

-bs

What does it matter? At the end of the day you're left with a bunch of photos that nobody wants to look at.

I love photography...but well put #11

if you get the kit, at least you'll be able to start playing with the camera straight out of the box (assuming you don't already own lenses).

I have this camera, it's a very good camera. If you don't like the size, buy a battery grip and it puts the feel on par with a larger/sturdier cam. The kit lens is okay, if you learn to take decent pictures on that, you'll appreciate an expensive set of glass later. It's more about the skill than the equipment, I've seen great pictures from a cam phone and bad pictures from a $1500 DSLR.

#7 - you replied like a typical canonite "pros uses canons"
Sports photography or studio photography is hardly "real" or creative. It is hard work yes, but it is not art.
btw:
1. how many lenses do you own?
2. Do you think that Nikon/3rd do not have any comparable lenses in that range, that are cheaper or even better in quality?
3. Do you think that the pros you mentioned own any of the lenses that you have and nikon does not have?
Pros do not use a miniature XTi and neither do they use any of the lenses you have, so if you are a pro, then you might as well not stick with canon because their non-pro bodies lack basic features that other manufacturers provide. From simple grid lines to spot metering in all AF points - which even 5D does not have. (center based spot is lame)
Next time try to avoid "pros use canons" as you are definitely not a pro.

Lighten up. #7 is just saying that Canon has more lenses in the market and that's true. If he thinks that's why "pro's stick with canon" that's his opinion, and it could be true, although of course there are other reasons. But who cares what the pro use. ANY dSLR on the market is MORE camera than most people will ever need. Now if you're thinking about going pro, that's a different story, but then you wouldn't be getting your camera info/review from a bargain site.

I'm thinking of going pro. Would this be a good camera to start with?

#15 what I know is if you want to get a quality lens for your camera without breaking the bank you can find a very large choice of brand new or second hand Canon and Canon-compatible lenses on ebay. There's nowhere near that kind of a choice for other mounts, except Nikon. Doesn't mean the other cameras suck, or that their lenses aren't as good; it's just a question of critical mass.
That, and your statement that "sports photography or studio photography is hardly real or creative" doesn't exactly speak well on your behalf.

Uhm.... We're pros and we use Rebels exclusively. Metadata info on our images confirms it (and we're making a tidy living off of them).

www.scottphotography.org