okay, so there's the original rebel, then the upgrade the xt, then it's upgrade the xti, then another upgrade the xsi.

the xs seems to be more of a slighly updated xti, but not as much as the xsi... so it's an even more entry level entry level canon? what's the point? why have two entry levels that are so similar?

<a href="http://www.dpreview.com/previews/Canon_1000D/">click</a>

Rebel XS = Rebel K2
Rebel/XT/XTi/XSi (300D, 350D, 400D, 450D) = Rebel T2
10D/20D/30D/40D = Elan
xD = 1v

Hacked firmware brings it up to the 450D level? For a basic shooter, it's really not missing much compared to the 450D, so it should be pretty capable. Seems kinda silly to me, but I guess Canon sees a market for it.

I've been following the hacking forums, all they have been able to do with the firmware that is for the Digic II/III cameras is simply decode it. The firmware for the old Canon cameras (that didn't have the instant power-on) ran on a NEC processor that handled x86 instructions, yep, they used the x86 instructions!

Unfortunately, the ones with the instant power-on and current Canon cameras, they switched over to VXware which uses a RISC-style instruction set. They're able to recognize a few things going on but not enough to the point they can start making changes.