I shoot a lot of weddings and a back-up is a MUST for me. The bride will not re-schedule if my equipment fails. That said, I have an XT and an XTi as back-ups to my 1D mkII. My daughter shoots a lot of reception candids with the back-up equipment and we have no problems with image quality. It's amazing what $2,000 worth of glass will do on a $500 camera body.


You can find XT's and XTi's on e-bay for $200-$300 and Adorama has refurbished XTi's for $299.