My buddy has a T1i and he would tell you to skip it and get the T2i instead. Well worth the extra money in his opinion.

^ What I said. Also, refurbed.. ugh.

The T2i with a lens bundle is a better deal. You can find the T2i with both an 18-55 IS lens and a 55-250 IS lens for $999. Wallyworld's dot-com has/had them in stock.

T2i Review:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos550d/

T1i Review:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos500d/

The T2i is supposed to be $800 for body alone and $899 with kit lens. Because of the shortage, the price on some site go up to $999... if $100 is worth something to you, I suggest waiting until they come back in stock like Adorama or B&H.

the 18-55IS kit lens is really not very good at all. the best analogy I can think of is that 16mb sd card you get with a new camera. dang near useless, but at least you can pop off a few shots until you get something better.

I don't have Canon system but the similar kit lens that comes w/ my Nikon D5000 is also cheap looking, all plastics and have very narrow focusing ring movement. But it does take fantastic picures. Just because the kit lens is cheap doesn't mean it's bad optics.

These samples were taken with the kit lens:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39280169@N04/4390778829/sizes/l/in/set-72157623525415850/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39280169@N04/4391546254/sizes/l/in/set-72157623525415850/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39280169@N04/4390778689/sizes/l/in/set-72157623525415850/

Oh, and mine is also refurb, but again it's a Nikon. I would think Canon have similar refurb quality control as Nikon, however.

Peanut_Man, very nice pictures (even though I'm not a Rutgers fan). Did you do any editing on the pictures here? Just curious.

#4 why would anybody pay $899 with a single lens when Walmart has the T2i with two lenses for $999?

#5 Get real. The standard 18-55 IS may not be the best lens in the world but it's plenty usable for most people and takes some good pictures.

@papayamoo. I'm a Rutgers grad. But I'm not into sport, I just like to take various pics. The above pics got some cropping and I think some contrast adjustment (took a few months ago don't remember now) but other than that it's as is from the camera. Other pics in my collections on Flickr do get fair bit of Photoshop work however, depending on how I feel I want the picture to look.

#8, agree with your 2nd point. It's not the lens that take the pic. It's the people who takes the pics. I've seen some stunning pics from iPhone, if that says anything.