Regarding the Canon 550D T2i, the successor to the T1i, I have to say, the quality of the video is sweet as was expected from the samples and reviews online, but what really surprised me was the out-of-the-box quality of the photography. I mean using the Canon kit lens that comes with the T2i. Head-to-head with lenses in the $1,000 and up class, The difference was very slight. Nothing beats the clarity and depth of field possible with a 1.8 aperture lens using thousand dollar glass but once you stop looking side by side, the results of the camera are stunning and certainly better than my predecessor (now my backup) camera, the canon 40D. 

Why is this camera so spectacular? The secret lies in the new Canon DIGIC 4 processor which packs in a whopping 18 MP of data. This does make for huge photo files but the results are well worth it. At 18MP you can crop a photograph to a third of the original and still have a great looking photo. As seen below, the camera well deserves its nickname, "Lord of Darkness." The image is compressed from the original. Most blogs will not accept a file the size native to this camera.

Pennycafe: Orange County photographers