I'm in the market for a new body but I'm pretty unsatisfied with the current offerings, perhaps you can offer some insight that I'm missing.

I have been a happy owner of the 10D since around when it came out. When the 20D came out there weren't enough features new to justify buying a new body over a new lens or lighting equipment.

Then along came the 30D... The bigger display screen is nice, at least.

The 5D has many features that I do like, the viewfinder and lack of frilly stuff that just gets in my way on the 10D - but (I may get tarred and feathered for this one) I'm not really interested in a FF body, and not because my glass isn't up to it. I shoot primarily underwater photography and I very very rarely think to myself "I wish I could get wider here" - I actually don't have a problem with the 1.6 magnification.

So the 1D MKII, but it's Canon's oldest body and really dosen't offer much that the 20D MKII dosen't for someone like myself. I'd hope that this is next to be upgraded.

The announcment of the XTi is exciting, I like some of the new features, especially the sensor dust feature, though I don't think it will be as good as Olympus in that respect.

Does anyone have any insight that I am missing, or am I being clever to sit and wait for the next lineup?

Any reason why?

I by no means have anything but speculation, but as I understand it the Olympus dust prevention system removes dust from a layer infront of the image sensor, where as the new feature on the Canon removes the dust directly from the sensor itself.

I havn't had time to read up as much as I would like about the new system, perahps this weekend I will though - but one thing for sure this is a step in the right direction for Canon!

The Olympus shakes the entire CCD assembly, while the Canon only shakes the antialias filter in front of the sensor.

Best policy is to find the underwater housing that suits you and your budget and then find which camera fits it. The underwater housings for the Canon 1-series were eye wateringly expensive last time I looked (more than the camera).

Any of the current offerings are so much nicer then the 10D in so many ways just pick something and go with it. Have you tested the 20D and 30D or used them at all? They're a LOT better then the 10D. I say that as a former 10D owner. There are numerous situations, lighting conditions, etc.. the 10D could really fall on it's face and the 20D/30D shot would simply be head and shoulders better, and allow you to get the shot with significantly less fiddling with the camera and so on and so forth.

Metering, dynamic range, speed of operation, ease of operation, battery life, autofocus, software, noise, etc.. are all improved a great deal on both the 20D/30D and 5D versus the 10D.

I have not tried the 350D or the 400D but IMO the image quality on the 300D was slightly better in some ways then the 10D, so even a 350D or 400D should be a noticeable upgrade for you.

It sounds like you just don't really want to spend the money on a new camera. If that's the case fine, if you do want a new camera, you're going to be very happy with any one of the current cameras.

My "Fun" photography is underwater as well. I leapt on the 10D as soon as it came out, had one of the first UW housings for it too. I was able to resist the draw of the 20 & 30Ds, but when a friend let me try his 5D underwater, it was literally an eye opener. My best wide angle shot of the trip was done using the borrowed system. The 5D response to highlights blows away any camera out there. Underwater sunburst pictures are very hard to do, the older cameras generated a cyan-ish halo around the sun due to sensor bloom, the 5D doesn't do that, the sensor response is similar to how film handled it, there is a sharp cut off between the overexposed areas of the sun then the transition to blue water. No matter how hard I tried...and others on my trip did too....with DSLRs from Canon (10 & 20D) and Nikon (D100 & D2x's), none could duplicate what the 5D did.



this is the best one with the 10D



After coming home, I promptly ordered a 5D and it is now my primary UW rig with my trusty 10D as backup.

Stu

Thanks for the insight guys. The issue isn't that I don't want to spend the money on a new body, it's that I want to spend it as best I can - I tend to hold onto bodys for a while and have been/contine to be sucessful with my 10D. Again, I appreciate the responses, it always helps to discuss with peers!