I really love photography but can't afford per say, canon eos 5d mark ll, I have a crappy camera right now and I heard that the rebel is a really good camera, Is that true?
Yeah, any of the lower end cameras are good to begin. People don't always know what they will like shooting the most so it can be better to buy a cheaper camera and look to upgrade when you know what you need out of your camera that a xx0D series camera won't provide.
The more important investments will be lenses. The kit lens is perfectly good to start out with until you know what you need. Some cheap additions to consider are the 55-200 as a cheap telephoto and the 50 f/1.8 as a cheap intro to fast primes.
I believe that's a fairly old lens...
With the 500D/550D/600D etc there is a 1.6x crop factor to consider. That lens would be a 44.8-144mm equivalent. In other words, it wouldn't give you much of a wide angle for use in tight spaces / for landscape photography. I don't know how it rates for image quality. The 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS is pretty good for a cheap kit lens. with the trade off being these lenses (the 18-55. 55-200, 50 f/1.8) have cheaper construction such as plastic mounts.
Depending on how tight your budget is you might want to consider the 1100D as well. Most people will agree that your lenses will be more important in determining image quality than the body, and would rather spend more on their lenses than the body. You do loose some features though, and it can result in you wanting to upgrade you body earlier. At the same time you won't have invested as much to figure out what you want from your camera.
If you are comfortable buying used you could look at a x0D series camera, like a 20D, 30D, or 40D. I can't tell you a huge amount on these, but they are in the series above the xx0D series and have a bit sturdier construction and larger size which you might find more comfortable to hold.
