50D is not the successor of the 40D, it is just an ADDITIONAL model in Canon's line. One might be suspicious if this is true in the long run, but for sure availability of both 40D and 50D during the holiday season will have at least price effects. Expect the 50D to keep it's introduction price for a while (at least until next spring). It's seems Canon is looking for a greater spread in it's product portfolio and narrowing the gaps in different price classes. This was an explicit statement from Canon at press release. You can also read it in the newsrelease: http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/20080826_eos50d.html

just marketing BS. of course it's a replacement, and the 40d will quietly disappear. since it's not available until october, there may well be a few 40Ds at christmas, but I doubt any big retailers are going to restock and will try to get rid of them long before that. They seem to have decisively leapfrogged the state of the art this time (or at least the nominal specs...we'll see), and more importantly reduced product cycles in the face of blistering competition. However a company such as Canon will never publicly admit or even imply that their previous product may have been lacking. thus, this press release.

It's more than that. Canon does offer 40D and 50D camera's at different price settings at the same time to the retailers. Production of the 40D has not been stopped yet! It seems Canon wants to have a greater part of the D-SLR market at the low end while keeping production costs low by sharing components with other cameras, like 50D and 1000D. Really they are gonna have a wider spread like Nikon.

I can just see the christmas shoppers. "hey honey, what should I get? the new 15mp camera, or should I save a couple a benjis and get the lowest-resolution SLR on the market?"

eosfun wrote:
50D is not the successor of the 40D, it is just an ADDITIONAL model in Canon's line. One might be suspicious if this is true in the long run, but for sure availability of both 40D and 50D during the holiday season will have at least price effects. Expect the 50D to keep it's introduction price for a while (at least until next spring). It's seems Canon is looking for a greater spread in it's product portfolio and narrowing the gaps in different price classes. This was an explicit statement from Canon at press release. You can also read it in the newsrelease: http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/20080826_eos50d.html


Bloody hell, that means in the UK that the 50D will be more expensive than the D300 for a while. Canon marketers should be taken out at dawn and shot if this is true.

Beni wrote:

Bloody hell, that means in the UK that the 50D will be more expensive than the D300 for a while. Canon marketers should be taken out at dawn and shot if this is true.

Here in the US, the D700 is currently selling for $3,000. The 50D MSRP is going to be $1,400.

D300 was $1,800 when announced.

I was comparing to the D300, not D700, in the UK the D300 is £948 and the 50D is starting at £1200 (warehouseexpress.co.uk), Even if it hits £1000 about a month after hitting the street assuming they only kill the 40D by December that's still very bad pricing strategy from Canon.

Bloody hell, that means in the UK that the 50D will be more expensive than the D300 for a while. Canon marketers should be taken out at dawn and shot if this is true.

I second that.... £1200 ($2200 US) body only - I would have expected to pay £800. If the 5D11 is released it will probably be over £2000 in the UK given the price of the 50D.

eosfun wrote:
50D is not the successor of the 40D, it is just an ADDITIONAL model in Canon's line. One might be suspicious if this is true in the long run, but for sure availability of both 40D and 50D during the holiday season will have at least price effects. Expect the 50D to keep it's introduction price for a while (at least until next spring). It's seems Canon is looking for a greater spread in it's product portfolio and narrowing the gaps in different price classes. This was an explicit statement from Canon at press release. You can also read it in the newsrelease: http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/20080826_eos50d.html


All that means is that Canon has too many 40D's on hand to consider phasing it out yet. It couldn't be more like the 40D and still be a new camera (perhaps a slight step above the 20D>30D 'update').

IN USA it was announced at a price of 1399$!!!!!!!!!

I personally think it is a good camera on spec and at the US price $1400 it is good but a extra $800 on the price for the UK market ouch.....

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canoneos50d/page2.asp

Here it says US price will be $1299 and in EU: 1299 Euros

iso 1600 is looking very good...

http://cweb.canon.jp/camera/eosd/50d/sample/html/sample4_j.html

Holy crap, how many friggin threads do we need about this