Canon's announcement of the EOS 400D yesterday does seem to be somewhat of a kneejerk reaction to recent cameras produced by both Sony and Nikon.

Being little more than a 350D with a 10mp sensor in it, along with the nature of its announcement makes one think that Canon are running just a little scared!

Canon's new 400D

Normally, most folk know more or less what is coming at least a week beforehand. On this occasion however, nothing was rumoured until the day before the official announcement, not that there was a lot to shout about!

There is the increased sensor size, up by 25% on the 350D and a built in sensor cleaning system, although how effective that will be is yet to be seen. Other tweaks include 9 point AF as in the 20D and a two and a half inch screen, but at the expense of the secondary LCD screen that carried all the exposure info. That's OK though, because the new big screen does turn itself off when you put it close to your face. That should be really good for the short sighted!

When the 30D was announced, again shortly after Nikon's D200, a lot of photographers were a little disappointed in the fairly minor improvements over the 20D, and now purchasers of that camera are up in arms about the apparent improvement to the lower ranked sibling. A couple of years ago, it seemed that Nikon were the ones being left behind, but they bided their time and came up with genuine improvements. Now the shoe is on the other foot, it looks like panic in the Canon camp.  It also leaves Canons range in a bit of an up and down state in terms of pixel count along with a bunch of rumours about sensor sizes! i.e.

• Entry level                                 = 10mp 1.6x crop sensor
• Advanced amatuer                   = 8mp 1.6x crop sensor
• Advanced amatuer & semi-pro = 12.8mp 1x crop sensor (35mm full frame size)
• Sport and action Pro                 =  8.2mp 1.3x crop sensor
• Full Pro spec                             = 16.6mp 1x crop sensor (35mm full frame size)

And don't forget that in that mess are two different lens mounts that confuse a lot of folks, with EF lenses able to be used on EF-S cameras but EF-S lenses not able to be used on EF mount cameras!

And, up against them is the marketing prowess of Sony and the constantcy of Nikon, both with 1.5x crop sensors and good lens and accessory lines.

Diversification should be commended, but with modern manufacturing dependent on numbers to keep the prices down, Canon should be wary of confusing their customer base and alienating them through minor tweaks that are no real upgrade at all.

Or maybe, that is what they have been doing all along!

So what should we expect next from Canon? Perhaps a 30D MkII with the 10mp sensor from the 400D just in time for christmas??