With Nikon’s strong product line and the D60 and D300 and Canon needs to reply (and those of us with Canon lenses are praying). Nikon has doubled its market share in the last two years, so Canon is really in an interesting position (read, they don’t have products to defend share).
“Canonrumors.com”:http://canonrumors.com provides those of us with hope and “Northlight Images”:http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/rumours.html. The long and short is that this summer looks like not a great time to actually buy as everyone is targeting launches now. Wait for the coming turn of the crank for mid to pro SLRs. For entry level, you are OK, the Canon 450D and the Nikon D60 look like the winners there.
Digital Rebel XSi (aka 450D). Looks like a winner. At 12MP and also decent noise at ISO 800 (vs. 8MP and ISO 400 for my Digital Rebel XT or 350D). But, this means the rest of the line, notably the 40D and the 5D sure look long in the tooth. It competes with the Nikon D60 which is slightly lower in resolution but much better in low noise.
Digital Rebel XS (aka 1000D) is their lower cost camera. The 450D looks like the better price/performance, but it is $750 street, so they need a cheaper one which XS is. It competes with the Nikon d40. It is priced like the D60, but competes with D40, so should do well for budget dSLR. These make sense for folks who should take the money saved and spend it on a great lense.
The most interesting thing happening is in the semi-pro steps which are the Canon EOS-40D and the Nikon D300. The Nikon is the hands down winner because its sensor (thank you Sony!) is so sensitive. It can take ISO 1600 pictures with no problem. And the 40D is clearly in need of a refresh as it is lower resolution than the 450D right now.
So the next battleground are the full frame cameras. Nikon has really expensive $5000 and so does Canon. Canon is the only one with a reasonably priced full frame but it is old (relatively at two years!) called the EOS-5D. The “rumor”:http://www.canonrumors.com/images/canoneos5dmk2.jpg is that the 6D will be 12MP at $2200 street while the 3D will be 18MP and $3200. Drool, drool. That would be amazing! The other “rumor”:http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/cameras/Canon_5d2_3d_7d.html is that Nikon will introduce a D700 which will be a full frame 12 MP camera like the D3. “DPReview Forum”:http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1032&message=28341773 says the schedule for Canon 5D follow-on is September. But that Sony will launch a 25MP full frame then as well!
