Canon EOS 1000D (EOS Digital Rebel XS) review

My 1st SLR in digital format, have been using it for 3
months now. Excellent performer in all situations. I've
used it in conjunction with the supplied EF-S 18-55mm
IS kit lens, EF-S 55-250mm IS, EF 75-300mm III USM
and Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di MACRO lenses, and
it performs superbly with all of them, in all situations,
under all types of conditions, shooting all kinds of
targets.

For those who say that this camera's live view is
useless, I can give one great use for it (in my case
anyway) - astrophotography. The ability to focus
manually in live view mode with a magnification of x10
(especially on a laptop screen via USB cable + bundled
software) enables to focus stars to absolute pinpoints,
and that's absolutely fantastic. I also attach the EOS
1000D (via a specialized T adaptor ring) to my Meade
ETX 90mm AT PE UHTC telescope (90mm Maksutov
Cassegrain optics), with breathtaking results. I've also
used the EF 75-300mm USM lens for some fantastic
shots of the moon and some of the constellations e.g.
Orion (the lens manages to record the brightest part
of the nebula in Orion even with relatively fast shutter
speeds e.g. 0.8 & 1.0 seconds at ISO 800 and 1600).

People giving this camera very negative ratings on all
aspects probably have never even seen one for real.

A friend of mine uses Nikon (D60 & D80), excellent
cameras as well, I decided to go with Canon because
of past experience with their film cameras, and so far I
have been impressed.

Problems:

Only one negative so far, very rarely the AF stubbornly
focuses on one of the peripheral AF points at random,
rather than on the central cross type point (which I
would be aiming at the subject of interest). This has
occurred less than 15-20 times in over 7500 shots I've
clocked so far with this camera.

Though not a complaint, a dedicated RAW/JPEG
button would be nice.