I am ready to upgrade. May I get some input about my selection?

First, a comment about your last statement..."I don't mind upgrading lenses, but not the camera itself." I would say it's the other way around. Pick a good lens in the first place, and it will last you for many, many years. A camera body (and technology) changes, so you can't expect a body to last as long as a lens. But, the body should last a while and it's certainly ok to buy additional lenses to add to your collection of good lenses.

I've had the 450D (XSi) for a few months now, and am pleased with it's performance.

Shutter lag? None that I can see. It's a dSLR, so shutter lag is not really a problem.

Battery life is excellent.

RAW, I shoot RAW+Jpeg. That way I have the instant usability of a Jpeg image. File sizes are obviously large (14-16mb, RAW and 4-6mb, Jpeg), so make sure you get a fast, high capacity SDHC card (Sandisk Extreme III in 4-8GB).

It's lenses can of course accept filters (UV, CP, etc). It's a good idea to leave a UV filter always attached, to prevent the front of the lens from being scratched/damaged. The filter size is determined by which particular lens you have attached.

You can buy accessories such as remote controller, remote switch for cable release, battery grip etc. For remote flash, look at Canon's Speedlites (the 580 EX II has a built in transmitter and receiver for wireless flash).

My only advice is...buy a good quality lens and don't be tempted to save a few dollars by skimping on the lens. If you buy a budget zoom lens (like the kit lens and others), you more than likely, won't be entirely happy with it's image quality and performance...and you may wish you had bought a better and faster lens (with a wider constant aperture of f/2.8 or wider). A slow lens is no good for handheld indoor, low-light shooting. A prime lens is ALWAYS a good choice for low light, as well as for image quality (sharpness) and speed. The Canon EF50mm f/1.8 is a dirt cheap lens (US$90) with very sharp image quality. It's good for general photography, portraits and low light work. The EF85mm f/1.8 USM (which I have) is a better overall lens, and accordingly, costs more.

A top telephoto lens choice is the EF70-200mm available in either the f/2.8 with or without IS, and an f/4 version with or without IS. The faster the lens the dearer it is and IS adds to the cost.

My only wish is for higher ISO (3200 or more). Though, the XSi does a very good job with handling noise with it's maximum ISO of 1600.

Anyway, check out the links below. The last one is where you can download the XSi's Instruction Manual...so you can read all about it before (or if) you intend to buy it.

good luck...

I would say go for it, but try the camera out if you can. I'm no expert, but one of the things I've noticed is I need to feel the camera in my hand. I have small hands, and previous versions of the Rebel were uncomfortable for me. And the cameras my husband uses (currently a 40D) are also too big. So for more than a year I was using a Canon S3IS, one of the so-called "super zoom" cameras, kind of the crossover between a point and shoot and a true DSLR.

I now have the XSi and I really like it. It's smaller than previus Rebels, feels comfortable in my hands/ Yes, it has all the manual controls, it has a hot shoe for attaching a flash unit. I haven't checked for the shutter cable. Sometimes there's some lag, but not much. Batteries seem to have a decent life. It uses SD and SDHD cards.

One of the things I really like in switching from the S3IS to the XSi is that many of the important controls are right there on the body. I don't have to bring up the menus and search for things like setting white balance or selecting ISO. This is a great advantage.

The XSi uses many of the Canon lenses, including image stabilized lenses (anything that says IS is image stabilized). And Canon has finally greatly improved their kit lenses—earlier version of the Digital Rebel kit lenses were considered pretty poor quality. You can get the XSi in various kit combinations, I got mine with the single lens, an 18-55 IS lens, used it on my trip to Japan in September and found it very workable. I am thinking about getting a 70-300mm lens as my next lens; I do miss the 12X zoom I had on the S3IS.

Since it can use standard lenses (and you are not limited to Canon only, several other companies make lenses for Canon DSLRs. And I can also use the lenses my husband uses on his 40D; in some ways the 40D is sort of the XSi's big brother). So the lenses take standard filters. My husband recommends that you always have a UV filter on your lens. It can actually help to protect the lens as well as aid in shooting quality.

One small item to invest in, whatever camera you get, is a lens cap leash. It attaches (it has a sticky tab) to the lens cap, and then you put the loop around the lens itself. That way you don't lose lens caps.

I got decent shots of wildlife (well, yes, it was shooting at a zoo) with my S3IS, and that was a 6 MP camera. I have yet to do much wildlife shooting with the XSi, but it will happen.

Anyway, go to a camera store, ask to see the camera so you can at least get a feel for it. The worst thing would be to buy a camera that isn't comfortable to use.

Good luck.