Canon today announced the new Digital Rebel T1i (aka EOS 500D) compact DSLR camera. The most important feature added to the new Rebel camera is Full HD 1080p video recording at 20fps or 720p at 30fps. The camera features a 15.1-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor that offers high ISO sensitivity up to 3200, which is expandable to 12800 for shooting in near dark conditions. The DIGIC 4 image processor on Rebel T1i gives it continuous shooting speeds of up to 3.4 fps in bursts of up to 170 JPEG images.

Other features on the camera include 3-inch 920,000 pixel screen, 9-point wide area autofocus, EOS Integrated Cleaning System, Live View mode, 13 shooting modes including manual, shutter speed range of 30 sec to 1/4000 sec, auto pop-up flash, orientation sensor and 13 custom functions with 39 settings. The Rebel T1i also has Picture Style pre-sets that are comparable to different film types – each one offering a different color response. In each pre-set photographers have control over sharpness, contrast, color tone and saturation. There are total six pre-sets including, standard, portrait, landscape, neutral, faithful and monochrome.

By adding 1080p video recording to Rebel T1i Canon has one-upped Nikon D90 and it also offer higher megapixel CMOS sensor. The Canon Rebel EOS T1i will ship in May 2009 for $799.99 (body only) or $899.99 with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.4-5.6 IS lens. You can register on Amazon to get notification when the camera becomes available.