Hello, and welcome! If you're serious about photography, I can highly recommend the 20D. I've attached one of my shots with mine.....

Im seriously considering buying the 20D also. Need to save somemore money, but the digital rebel is a great camera, which the 20D was modeled after and everything i have for it will work with the 20D. so that is a bonus. In my opinion canon is the top of the line in the camera business. Look at the professional 90% shot with canon products. and now the prices are where a non professional can afford.

If 90% of the professionala shoot a particular brand, it is because 90% of them get the equipment gratis!
Not to say the camera is bad, but as arthur felig once said, "I endorse 'em, but don't recommend 'em".

I'm not sure if the 20D was modeled from the D-Rebel, but if you can afford one, buying the 20D is a "no brainer." Great camera!

The 20D is quite good. The Digital Rebel XT has the same imaging chip as the 20D, but the 20D is a bit faster and has a couple more features. In image quality, I doubt there is that much of a difference between the two, if that is all you are going for. I am 12 years old and I have a Kodak DCS 520 that I just purchased which is my first DSLR and it blows my Dad's Canon Powershot G2 out of the water. I love the 20D features and I like the camera, but 1500 bucks was a bit more than I had been hoping to spend, so I didn't get it. Now, one thing I have heard is the 20D has a couple of focusing problems. It is sometimes a little slow to focus and Canon is correcting the problem as i type this. So, be warned that a few batches of them had focusing problems and I would maybe wait about two weeks for them to get the next batch out.

Just make sure your shot is focused before you hit the button. As far as image quality...the 20d is an 8.2 MPx and the XT is a 6 MPx. There's a difference.

I keep hearing various things about the three 8 MP Canon cameras. Mostly that they all use the same imaging chip. Eventually my curiousity got the better of me and I visited the Canon web site. I found that the Digital Rebel XT has an 8.0 MP chip measuring 22.2x14.8 mm with a 1.6 multiplier factor, density of 24,348 p/mm2. The Canon 20D has an 8.2 MP chip measuring 22.5x15.0 mm also with a 1.6 multiplier faction, density of 24,296 p/mm2. Then the 1D Mk II with an 8.2 MP chip measuring 28.7x19.1 mm with a 1.3 multiplier factor, density of 14,958 p/mm2. OK. Each of these cameras has it's own chip, not the shared with the others. As would be expected, the higher quality chips have a lower pixel density. OK, the XT and the 20D are real close, perhaps even too close to make a noticable difference. (The density calculations are mine using the calculator supplied with Windows and the numbers were rounded. The calculations were repeated three times each to make sure that my dislexic fingers were behaving themselves, but I am human and may have made a mistake somewhere.)