OTMH the 'Rebel' is the US brand-naming of the old entry level EOS film cameras, and they are worth peanuts 2nd hand these days, and I would have a question mark hanging over the price/availability of the often dedicted non rechargeable batteries they needed to work.
If functional, and battery compatibility issue not a peculiar problem... you can buy a HECK of a lot of film, for the price of even a 'cheap' Digital SLR.......
As a starting point, I would in no way write the thing off......
Principles of photography are largely unaffected by whether the capture medium is a bit of photosensitive chemicals on film, or an electric 'sensor', and an SLR works much the same way beyond that.
As far as 'quality' is concernd?!?!?! There's a LOT of equipment snobbery, and obsession with sales-man's features..... bottom line; 35mm film has a 'sensor' area the same size as the mush more expensive modern 'full-frame' digital cameras; meanwhile, I am using a twenty year old film scanner to digtise film photo's, it bungs out 12Mpix resolution files from a 35mm negative, that was more than most direct digital cameras could achieve until perhaps five years ago! Also did t with a far greater exposure latitude, and colour depth than even current DSLR offerings can achieve.... and yet, for almost ALL practical purposes, what ever gets shown gets compressed down from what I ca get out of scanner, to what a standard JPG format file can show, and for almost all web display purposes, that is at a 'resolution' of less than 2Mpix, far lower than even direct Digtal cameras delver!
A-N-D..... biggest 'problem' you will have to getting 'decent' photo's from ANY camera as a newby, and long long beyond, will NOT be 'the camera', but you the person pointing it!
Which takes me back to top.... what you currently have, is not particularly valuable; and you can buy a heck of a lot of film and processing, and get just as many pictures, and of just as 'good' a standard, as you could get from a Digtal SLR, before it will have cost you more than going digital.
So as a start place? I would check the battery issue; get it working, grab some film, and get shooting with it. Its as good a place to start as any, and technically, twenty years ago, a pretty advanced one, compared to what a lot of us started with by way of point and shoot film cameras of much more convoluted all manual, manual focus, manual exposure setting SLR's.... and for so little upfront investment, what have you really got to loose for the effort, compard to how much you may learn/gain?
) film photography you might like it? Note - there is a film sub fora here that you could ask any questions in? As for its value, I would think no more than a very few pounds or dollars if you could find someone interested in buying it?
