For anyone considering the acquisition of a 450D following is likely to be of only academic interest, but still...

>People place too much emphasis on the camera body when it comes to results.

>Budget for lenses first, then decide what body you can afford.

Certainly true for film cameras, where one is in a position to choose his own film -- a mature technology and thoroughly researched field.

The body of a film camera must leave the film unscratched and its shutter mechanism must be operating to specifications. Any other properties the body might provide have no influence on the 'data captured'.

Digital cameras (of any form) come with a built-in sensor and manufacturer-provided algorithms for interpreting the data captured and turning it into the final image. I'm not talking as much about the amount of pixels on the sensor, as about the pattern the cells for sensing different wavelengths (red, green and blue) are arranged into. And of course the overall quality of engineering and production.

One can apply his own algorithms (or Photoshop plug-ins) to raw data, but your results would still be dependent on the physical properties of the sensor used to capture the data.