That's more like it!

Well, I've had my trusty Canon 350D (Rebel XT) for, what, almost 3 years now? I adore it, but I've also been jonesing to upgrade for quite some time. There are just new bells and whistles out there that I would love to have (like a larger LCD screen with live view on the LCD) and some more fundamental things that I'd really like to improve on (like spot metering, better autofocus, a wider and more granular range of ISO settings, better noise performance, and maybe a few more megapixels for cropping purposes). Plus, I have the silver 350D because that's all the store had when we bought it, and to be honest the silver does look rather cheesy and consumer-grade--I wouldn't want to show up at a paid shooting gig with a silver camera, even though I know it produces good images.

In the 3 years since I got my camera, Canon have released several models in their semi-pro dSLR line, namely the 30D and 40D. The 30D is by all accounts a great camera, but didn't seem like enough of a step-up to justify upgrading. The 40D added some good stuff like live view, but still it felt like there was something missing. Well, today Canon have officially announced the 50D (excellent preview here), and I think it's finally what I've been waiting for. I especially like the addition of a hi-res LCD screen, which also allows for a nice revamping of the interface and some improvements in the live view functionality too. And it has an HDMI output, which is pretty cool. It's 15.1 megapixels, which to me is overkill, but might be nice to have on occasion. The ISO goes from 100 (still no 50?!) to 3200, with emergency 6400 and 12800 modes. And according to one preview, the autofocus is improved and superior speed-wise to even the pro-level 1D series. Impressive!

So hopefully we can swing that purchase once it comes out. There are always no-interest financing deals out there, I don't mind having a little camera payment. :)