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"Presumaly they paired this high a megapixel CMOS with some nice optics, so you're probably right in this case. But it's not always true that higher megapixel indicates better cropping ability."

It's a Digital SLR. You can put anything from Canon's EF lens line on it, including their oustanding professional (L-series) lenses. There's also some good third party lenses available from folks like Sigma.

Some info from 3 reputable sites:
http://www.photo.net/equipment/digital/sensorsize/
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=Pixel_Quality
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/counting1 .shtml

As for lens quality, it ought to be obvious that a better lens will provide better image quality. If it's not, go here, click on a couple lenses, and look at their MTF chart. If you're not familiar with how to read an MTF chart, here's the low-down: a better lens has all the lines closer to the top of the chart (for a more detailed explanation, check out Canon's glossary). Pick a couple lenses of comparable focal length, look at their MTF chart, and then compare the price. For instance, look at the 80-200mm f/4-5.6 compared with the 70-200mm f/4L or f/2.8L. The 80-200mm is currently going for $120. The 70-200mm f/2.8L is currently going for a little over $1100. FYI, lenses with an "L" in the name are their pro series. There's a lot more to a lens than just its ability to resolve detail and show contrast, of course -- look here for more info on why pro lenses are so much more expensive (and better) than consumer-grade lenses. And by "consumer grade" I'm not even getting close to the level of a camera phone lens.

I strongly suspect that the solution will be some sort of hardware image signing, rather than after-the-fact examination. Canon already offers a Data Verification Kit for their superb EOS 1-DS digital SLR. They don't give too many details, but my guess is that they can attach a cryptographically signed hash of the image data into the file header so that it's possible to confirm the integrity of the data later. Since the EOS 1-Ds can only save data in raw and JPEG formats, and since this doesn't make sense for raw data (which has to be processed to be turned into a viewable image) it seems likely that they have this working with JPEGs.

"SLR" stands for Single Lens Reflex. This means that light passes through the lens, off a mirror and/or CCD, and into your eye. It means that there is no parralax error due to you and the camera seeing your subject from different angles. It doesn't necessarily mean you have the ability to change lenses, nor does it mean it's a "professional grade" camera. It doesn't even have to be much more complicated than your average point-and-shoot, though I'm assuming you want to be able to grow as you learn.

In the lower class of Digital SLR bodies with interchangeable lenses, you've got the Nikon D70 and D100, the Canon Digital Rebel, and a few cameras by Sigma and Fuji. These cameras (bodies with interchangeable lenses) will allow you the most flexibility, options, and quality. However, they are also much more expensive, starting at about the $1000 mark. For the moment, I'll assume this is the area you're looking at.

First off, the Canon Digital Rebel is not the only camera in its class. Nikon just released the D70, which seems to kick the Rebel's ass. I spoke to Nikon Digital Support (800-645-6689), and they said the memory buffer was so fast that you could pretty much keep shooting continuously until you ran out of space. Compared to older models that would only do "burst mode" for up to five seconds, that's quite a feat. The D70 is only about 3 frames/second, but the D2H can do 8 frames/second for five seconds before the buffer gets full. Of course, the D2H is about $3K, but I can dream. ;-)

Second, you are not limited to (and may not want) a camera with interchangable lenses. The Nikon Coolpix 5700 and 8700 are pretty decent (the latter being 8 megapixels!), and the Canon PowerShot Pro1, G5, and S1 are also options. One definite advantage the cameras without interchangable lenses have is that they are going to be much smaller and lighter.

As per several recommendations already posted, definitely check out DPReview. Great site, lots of info, full testing, sample shots, menus and interfaces, etc. Think about what your priorities are. How high of a resolution do you need? 6 megapixels is plenty for an 8x10. (4 can actually get you by.) If you aren't printing anything larger than that, you're fine. Do you care if there's a proprietary battery, or do you need the flexibility of "standard"-sized batteries? (AA, AAA, etc.) Do you have a preference for media type? (I prefer CompactFlash, as it tends to give the best cost/size ratio, and the card size options are larger.) Do you need lens interchangeability? Do you want it? Regardless of what you want *right now*, where do you want to take your photography eventually? Make sure your camera choice now will not limit your goals later.

Personally, I'd lean more towards the larger SLR bodies with interchangeable lenses. They're bigger, heavier, and *can be* more expensive... though this is by no means true any more. However, the options you have are incredible. Of course, you may well just be leaving the camera in automatic mode all the time, which makes those options useless, overpriced oversized, etc. However, if you *want* those options later... you may not have to "upgrade" anything other than your lens options. Now that

Maybe looking at Canon's own website under "Compatible Lenses" might help. In case you were unaware, every Canon lens made since 1987's mount switch is an EF lens.

Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm feeding the troll. But I've got time to kill.

make something that is very like the Canon Rebel digital for $699.00 street price can use cheaper nikon or pentax lenses

I don't know where you get the idea that Nikon lenses are cheaper. At B&H Photo, a 50mm f/1.8 Canon lens is $70, while the same by Nikon is $100. (Can't comment on Pentax, as I'm not familiar with their products.)

the canon rebel is awesome, but it will only use high-price lenses making it pretty much out of reach for the common joe-photog wannabe.

Again, I don't know where you get that idea. Granted, the kit lens that comes with the Digital Rebel won't work on their film cameras, but the above Canon lens will work just fine on the Digital Rebel. You can find out for yourself by downloading the Digital Rebel brochure One of the main selling points of that camera is that it can use Canon's entire AF line of lenses.

All I can say is *drool*

Seriously, this is huge! Must suck to be Apple right now though, considering they just released the mini iPods which are based on tech that is already looking rather inferior. Who knows, maybe Apple will release a "mini iPod mini" they could call it the mini-squared (damn no superscript)....
Regardless, my Digital Rebel is about to interface with bliss!

My suggestion is to buy an entry-level SLR of Canon or Nikon that has a full manual mode.

Both Canon and Nikon's SLR lenses can be used on their digital SLR lines and Nikon lenses can also be used on D-SLRs from Fujifilm and Kodak.

Your idea of a manual focus camera might be OK from a creative viewpoint, but when you are taking party pictures or want to take some quick shots without a lot of fuss, I've found autofocus useful and necessary in order to capture the moment. Both Nikon and Canon allow you to defeat AF and switch the lenses to manual focus when you need to.

For Canon SLRs, look at http://www.canoneos.com/index.html
For Nikon, look at http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php?cat=1&grp =6

Another important thing is to buy from a fairly reputed dealer who won't try to bait-and-switch you or saddle you down with low quality 'accessories' as part of your special purchase deal.
I recommend B & H Photo and Video or Adorama

B & H has the Canon EOS Rebel GII with a beginner's lens on sale for $199.95, and the
Nikon N55 with a slightly better lens for $229.95

If you have a little more money to spend, I'd recommend you get one of these SLR bodies with a slightly more decent lens, such as a 28-105 F3.5-4.5. In my experience I've found that my lenses are the bottleneck rather than the capabilities of the body. Invest in a decent lens or lenses up-front and you can be a lot more productive and creative from the start.

Krishna

And though the OP was stating 35mm, the Canon Digital Rebel is an excellent SLR Digital Camera. For under US $1000.00, it delivers a very high end package, with gads of features, 6.3megapixel res and 18mm-55mm zoom lens. I picked mine up 2 months ago, and have yet to be dissapointed. Plus, it takes any Canon EF Lens.

So if the poster went out today and bought a brand new EOS series Camera, he could go out later and get the Digital Rebel and use the same lenses for both cameras, if that doesn't kick ass, I don't know what does.

Canon has definitely made a brilliant move with it's EOS line of cameras.

Rebel is a good camera but not 35mm!

Here's the offical specs on the camera.

Approx. 6.5 megapixels

Davak

Seeing as the poster appears to not understand that this here Interweb can have links, here are a few that I found in about 30 seconds:

Manufacturer's site.
Review on ImagingResource.com.

The second link kind of answers the question, proving - yet again - that asking Google before asking on Slashdot tends to be productive and smell less of a product placement.

Could do with a few more links in there guys!

here's one