60D announced, along with some new L lenses.

[funkboy]

Huge prism? Canon has been building `full frame' cameras (analog slrs) for years, including some with very advanced AF systems.

Right, but the 5D was the first one since the EOS1v to not be a huge monster, and the first non-1series FF since the EOS 3. Compare the size of the viewfinder bulge on any 1-series FF (film or digital) with the 5DII. The 5D has a much lower bulge as the body was designed to look & feel "prosumer" not "godzilla".

The D700 didn't bankrupt Nikon, so why would you suggest such a thing would happen for Canon? If anything, Canon could rest assured that cannibalization is not an issue.

If I understood your post correctly, your suggestion was that Canon shift everything in its model lineup down a segment. Meaning that the 550D would sell at the price of the 1000D, etc. How would they do that without killing their margins?

 

[OreoCookie]

Right, but the 5D was the first one since the EOS1v to not be a huge monster, and the first non-1series FF since the EOS 3. Compare the size of the viewfinder bulge on any 1-series FF (film or digital) with the 5DII. The 5D has a much lower bulge as the body was designed to look & feel "prosumer" not "godzilla".

Who cares what it looks like. The integration of such an advanced AF system to a full frame camera has been done before by Canon (e. g. the EOS-3's 45 point AF) and Nikon (D700), so it is technologically possible. Even if Canon had felt that this is too challenging for the Mark I, they certainly could have adopted a more advanced AF into the Mark II.

If I understood your post correctly, your suggestion was that Canon shift everything in its model lineup down a segment. Meaning that the 550D would sell at the price of the 1000D, etc. How would they do that without killing their margins?

You misunderstood: I meant that Canon should have repositioned their line-up: the x0D were one of the advantages, because they were quite a bit cheaper than Nikon's Dx00 series and better specced than the D80/D90. In fact, I think Nikon's D7000 was intended to be the answer to the x0D series.

The 60D could have been positioned as a direct competitor to the D90 (much better viewfinder than the 550D and 1000D, plastic body, but a step up from the smaller models, better AF, etc.). Canon has a history of pushing older models down which are sold alongside their upgrades as cheaper models (e. g. the 550D pushed the 500D down a notch and Canon keeps on selling it, ditto for the 450D when the 500D came out). So depending on the economics, Canon could have replaced the 550D with the `600D' or pushed it down. At least in case of earlier triple-digit Canons, it seems to make financial sense to the company and it would seem like a logical continuation of Canon's product policy.