We have been talking a lot about it lately. Now, the Canon EOS 50D is out in the open, announced by Canon itself. If you followed here, nothing will surprise you. Even the body-only price of $1,399/£1,199.99/1499€ is expected (we’ll wait for a little step down when the camera is really available, in October 2008).

Here is a list of articles on the Internet describing the  new camera (to replace the Canon EOS 40D):

• PopPhoto
• DPreview
• DPreview preview
• Chasseur d’Images (French)
• dPhoto Expert
• PopPhoto
• Photography Bay (only a copy of the Press Release)
• PhotographyBlog

The Canon EOS 50D looks like a very good camera. As usual in this part of the camera range at Canon, this is an improvement, but having 15MP, more than 6 frames per second bursts, and a good image quality (up to 12800 ISO) is going to make it definitely interesting for people coming from either the EOS 40D or the EOS 30D. I’d say, the Canon EOS 50D is going to be loved.

The Canon web site in China just made a big error probably very revealing since it has been leaking the detailled cahracteristics of the a new Digital SLR camera named Canon EOS 50D (so, this is the long-awaited successor to the beautiful Canon EOS 40D).

The level of details is extraordinary (for leaked data), which certainly means that the camera is fully ready and will be announced at the next Photokina fair (in less than a month) or on August 26th, 2008 (as I was told previously).

• 15.1 megapixel CMOS sensor
• DIGIC 4
• 1.6x crop
• Dust Reduction
• Automatic correction of brightness/vignetting
• 95% viewfinder, 0.97 magnification
• 9 point AF(All Cross Type)
• 35 meter area equipped with high-precision sensors
• AF Fine Tuning
• ISO 100-12800
• 6.3 fps (high speed) 3fps (low speed)
• Buffer: 16 RAW – 60 JPG – 10 RAW+JPG
• 920,000 points VGA 3.0-inch LCD monitor
• 100,000 cycle shutter
• Rugged magnesium alloy body

Full Specification for Canon EOS 50D (in English partly translated from Chinese)

(more…)

You loved the Canon EOS 30D, then the EOS 40D. But since you’re hooked to buying always the best technology that money can buy, you are already looking for the next digital SLR camera from Canon. And you’re right. If something can be learned from history, the regular schedule of launches for the mid-range line of SLR cameras from cameras will bring us the Canon EOS 50D around the beginning of 2009.

Can you recognize the pattern?

But it does not tell us the features list of the future camera, unfortunately.

Some people have been speaking about seeing Canon moving into a much faster cycle of replacement for its D-SLR cameras. However, it seems that this is the case for entry level only. You can expect that competition is so hot there that the Canon EOS 1000D will need to receive a replacement in Spring 2009 already. But the Canon EOS 50D is aimed at a higher price point and more stable population of photographers. But it won’t be true forever (what about the Canon EOS 60D and then the EOS 70D?)