350D to be discontinued! Almost certain at some point, on passed strategy it is likely to be superseded by the end of 2006, retailers are getting wise to the DSLR cycle, so maybe they are just trying to get rid of stock before the prices drop off. I think that the EFs lenses and mount are here to stay for some time to come, I dont think that canon will do away with the 1.6 crop sensor, as they have put allot of time and money into the system. Also the 1.6 censors have a real benefit for telephoto shooters. I can certainly see that the FF and 1.6 sensors will complement one another for shooters that like wide angle and telephoto alike. Although it may be difficult to push a 1.6 fov sensor much further than 10MP without tonal range and noise handling being compromised (speculation) I do think that the FF sensor bodies will become more widespread also. I think that the 1.3 crop sensors of the 1D II and (n) are more likely to be dropped from the canon line, as this wont have an impact on people that have invested in Canon lenses and these also cant use the EFs mount lenses, I wouldnt be surprised to see the next 1D generation to have a FF sensor with a lesser resolution but faster than the higher speced 1Ds line. Dont forget that the 1D and 1Ds series are aimed at different market segments. As for the 30D, I think it is a pretty significant upgrade to the 300D or 10D, but less of a significant upgrade to the 20D, the 20D and 30D are both closely (if not identically) matched as far as image quality and noise handling (the 10D is very good with noise too) are concerned with a much faster imaging engine than the 10D, even with the 20Ds lesser RAW buffer of 6 frames, over the 10Ds 9 frames, there is much less time delay waiting for the memory buffer to write to card (with a high speed card) than it takes the 10D to perform the same function (I have used both the 10 and 20D) total lock out is almost impossible even when the buffer is full you can still squeeze out 1fps as it clears to card. This is where the 30D has an advantage over the 20D, and also spot metering if that is important to you. Spot metering is great but has its pitfalls like any TTL metering, in the end all the metering does is set shutter speed and or f stop, if you have the 20D investing in a hand held meter with spot capability is a far cheaper option, unless you really need the larger frame buffer. There are rumors that Canon are developing an even lower speced DSLR for the bugget market as well as something to fit between the 30D and 5D. 3D?? maybe not (based on passed designations) as the EOS 3 was a higher speced camera than the EOS 5 maybe a 7D (more speculation) or maybe both!

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