I'm a little "put off" by the smaller size myself.. I LIKE a good, big, heavy
(withing reason) box, it aids in stability.

Well keep in mind that I'm not Pro but where I want to use selectable AF is
for shooting action shots.  For example, I was out taking pics of the kids
sleigh riding and the Rebel was slow to automatically switch AF modes.  I
would have rather had the ability to set the AF mode to Predictive and leave
it there.   The current hack allows you to select modes but to get
predictive mode to actually let the shutter release you have to flick it
into manual mode when you ready to take the shot.  Not all that practical.

As I understand it the current rebel automatically switches from One Shot
mode to Predictive depending on the subjects movement in the lens.  Well
I've found that this happens slowly.  Could be because I'm doing something
wrong but I haven't look into it.

The firmware hack provides for selectable focusing modes but when set to
predictive the shutter doesn't work because the electronics won't signal the
camera that its actual focused.  The work around is to set the camera into
Predictive, let it focus as the subject and then just as your ready to take
the shot flick the lens into MF mode.  Maybe you can get good at this with a
bit of practice but its not all that practical.

Since you're shooting show horses predictive AF may not be that important or
the time it takes the Rebel to switch may not cause a problem.  However, I
had problems trying to take pics of the kids sleigh riding.  The camera
wouldn't switch fast enough as the kids were whizzing by.  Again, there
maybe some trick to getting the Rebel to switch modes faster but I haven't
found it.

As to manual focusing, I too come from the full manual type of camera (al be
it very casual use) and I can tell you that being accustom to a split focus
system on my manual camera, its not all that easy to focus the EOS lenses.
Now I'm sure lots of people will say "sure it is, I do it all the time" but
it sure isn't as easy as focusing my old manuals.

The Canon AF system does allow for user selectable focus points.  I tend to
set my Rebel to the center point but if I understand the metering correctly
the active AF points is heavily weighted when determining correct exposure
setting.   Again (assuming I'm correct) if you're going to use manual mode
this really doesn't matter much.

Flash compensation does work with the Hack, and I tend to use it a lot,
along with setting the flash sync rate to 1/200.

All in all I've been very happy with my 300D, but IMO the hack is a
necessity.  In a few months I'll be in the marked for a second body and
unless there is a 20D replacement due I think I just may go with the 350D.
If the 350D wasn't released I'd be going with the 20D.

 With the Digital Rebel I used, I simply set the AF zone to the center
zone, and it worked just fine.  I don't recall if automatic mode would
override it, but I do remember that it remembered that I wanted the center
AF zone.

steve

It is.  Or are you just poking a stick?

If people would read the charters (link in the link below), and emulate the most
common practise of others...

Cheers,
Alan