Heard a new rumor from a camera industry insider that Canon has another new DSLR up their sleeve. It's expected before the holiday and will be based on the Rebel 2000. It will use a small 3+ mega pixel sensor. Possibly the sensor from the D30? No word on features or price. However, I would guess that a street price of $599 USD for the body would be in order.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit!

Hmm. I would have thought that the new Digital Rebel would have plugged the lower-end DSLR in Canon's line for this Christmas.

Interestingly, with only one exception, friends and acquaintences with whom I've discussed and/or shown my new EOS 10D are interested in its capabilities but would never dream of owning or using such a large, heavy camera. They all want small cameras that take "good" photos, are easy to use and unload, and are convenient for carrying around. So I can't help wondering just how broad the market for large-body (DSLR) cameras really is.

BTW, the "exception" I cited above is a fellow who's been an semi-pro for many years and who thinks nothing of carrying two cameras (loaded with different film) all day. That is, he's a photo geek.

There are some interesting threads running around about who uses DSLR and who's going to buy the Digital Rebel. I have women show up with Nikon F100's for my classes. These are just moms with extra time on their hands, wanting to learn the camera their husbands bought for them.

I don’t think the women would have bought that sophisticated a camera for themselves. But their techie husband bought the camera they would want rather than what their wife would want. We used to call that a Homer Simpson Gift. Homer buys Marge a bowling ball as a gift, but it's drilled for him.