Tag Archives: DSLR

Over at Flickr: Photographer’s Tech Resources I asked the members to speculate what the replacement for the Canon 350D will look like. I got some great answers and the discussion is still going on.

There are a couple of features that would be great but I can’t see
happening, resolution increase and full size sensor. Full sensor would
make it ridiculously expensive even if the engineers could sneak it
past marketing. On the resolution side I think they could feasibly
manage a consumer camera now with 10mp for same price as the current
8mp but I don’t think they would want to eat into the rest of their
lineup. Having said that the 300 to 350 did bring with it an increase
of 2mp …

One thing I would love them to do is match the Nikons and have digital
overlays for the focus screen, I find them so nice to line up horizons
and for rule of thirds shots (so shoot me, I am an amateur, why do you
think I own a 350d in the first place!).

All the features I can think of them adding would eat into the 20D/30D
market in some way. My wishlist makes it basically a smaller, lighter
20D.

So what do you think the 350D replacement will be like and what will they call it? The 400D?

FWGroove suggested a list of features that I completely agree with apart from number 3, I think the 350D starts up just fine and it is actually one of the faster DSLRs on the market for boot time:

1. Put focus points in “rule of thirds” locations. After all, that’s where you’re supposed to put your subjects right?
2. Flash exposure compensation. We shouldn’t have to hack our firmware to get this feature.
3. Faster startup.
4. Stop making the grey ones…They tarnish the image of the 300D/350D.
   I just feel they look like cheap point and shoots and they look funny
   with black or white lenses.
5. Larger viewfinder for better manual focus.

We all seem to be agreed that Sony is going to have a big influence on the final design, they are aggressively entering the market with a decent machine with a good heritage. There is some discussion about in-body vibration reduction, probably to early to draw conclusions about what impact that feature will have and there is some doubt that Nikon and Canon will follow suit. Sensor cleaning, another Sony feature, would be a welcome addition. As Fenster says though, perhaps too late to change the design of this coming model he also speculates if the successor will not be an upgrade but a dumbed-down model like the D50 was to the D70s.

Back when we were rumour-mongering about what turned out to be the Canon 30D there was talk of a budget DSLR, the 3000D. Perhaps that will be it?

My guess is while we might know by autumn in time for Christmas,
probably some big photo show like Photokina, it might well be Feb 2007
(PMA?) like the 30D ..

dslr, canon, cameras, 350d, rumours, photography

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