Don't just acquire a camera, be sure that you posses a gadget that is capable of stilling images the way you want it to be.
Overall, the photo and video quality of the T4i still rates as excellent, though at high ISO sensitivities it's slightly surpassed by the T3i; it looks like either the blue channel in the new sensor just isn't as sensitive as the previous one or Canon's processing the heck out of it. JPEGs are fine up through ISO 400 if you're not a pixel peeper; if you are, you'll find even slightly out-of-focus areas start to show some artifacts as low as ISO 200. At high ISO sensitivities the noise reduction is relatively intelligent, with suppression artifacts only in the dark areas and on some high-contrast edges. I suggest you don't use the default Auto Picture Style when shooting JPEG in low light, because it boosts the contrast and you really lose a lot of shadow detail. If you shoot raw, you've got latitude up to about ISO 1600, but you'll end up applying a lot of luminance NR to get rid of the hot pixels.
The advantage: The Canon EOS Rebel T4i delivers extremely good photo and video quality plus improved performance in Live View shooting over the T3i -- as long as you buy the more expensive 18-135mm STM kit. Plus, the camera has a more streamlined shooting design than its predecessor.
The unfavorable: The feature set remains rather blah, and its photos aren't as good as the T3i's at high ISO sensitivities.
The offer: A fine camera, the Canon EOS Rebel T4i's more expensive 18-135mm STM kit (or body with another STM lens) is the only version that merits an unqualified recommendation. You can probably find better alternatives if you just want a sub-$1,000 dSLR for still photography.
