...and I say, just as authoritatively as you, that the 300D will be a marketing *flop*. Consumers with a thousand bucks for a camera are much smarter than Canon realizes. The will invariably spend the extra few hundred for the 10D rather than be seen as kiddie-Rebel-photographer-wannabees. Or, as Mike suggests, they will go for a nicely specified digicam for the same or less money.
-- John Mustarde www.photolin.com
With all due respect, I beg to differ. The "homework" that a typical beginner does was to walk into a drugstore, an electronic store, or whatever (but not a camera store), and see the low end models of Canon (Rebel), Minolta and Pentax. They ended up buying a Rebel Ti in most cases because that's the latest model, it is the most expensive in the store, and on paper there are more features than the others, though they have no idea whether they need those features. The salesperson then rounded out the sale with some overpriced filter and cleaning kit... I don't think the DSLR buying process is any different from the film SLR one. $1,000 is not really that much money, they could have spent it on a digicam anyway.
The difference between a Digital Rebel and a 10D is so subtle, that many 10D owners are lamenting on digital camera discussion boards already over their purchases, and their tactic was to tone down the Digital Rebel as a cheap, inferior camera. No there is nothing wrong with it at all. I have handled a relatively recent Rebel, it is not what you think, nothing like the original Rebel or EOS 1000. I personally would not use it, but I have to admit it is a pretty strong photographic tool. I'd expect the price gap of 10D and 300D to narrow, until they match the price gap between a Elan 7E and a Rebel Ti. And I'd further expect *ist D to track the 10D price closely.
