If the multitude of rumors are true,  these new Canon cameras will carry swivel screens, which were obviously made to compete with Nikon.

The Canon EOS 60D is expected to come out with a metallic body featuring a 15.1 megapixel resolution. Additional rumors say they will also have an improved sensor as well as low light sensitivity.

So is this new Canon just an upgrade of the 50D?  Or, as the nomenclature suggests, has Canon done enough to warrant altering the numbers in increments of ten?

My wife first purchased the 40D, skipped over the 50D, so is this new camera really going to be a 60 . . . or perhaps a 7? Both the Canon and Nikon users in this household are waiting with baited breath…

A friend once asked, “What’s the difference between a professional photographer and an amateur?”

That question is not as difficult to answer as one might think. But the way these camera manufacturers talk about it, if you buy the less expensive cameras you are an amateur or amateur/professional.

They want you to believe that a true professional will buy only the high end cameras. A great marketing ploy, to be sure, yet most of the pros I know carry high end cameras on the job, with mid-range cameras such as the 40D or 50D for backup. They get the job done, often just as well as the high end model camera.

This is my answer to the friend’s question:

A true professional in any field will join, share with and learn from other professionals in organizations that strive to raise the standards of excellence and conduct in that field, such as the Professional Photographers of America (PPA), or Digital Imaging Association (DIA) .

Well, I’ve racked my brain enough in writing this blog, so I think I will go open up my camera locker and take out, let’s see, how about a Nikon F2? I purchased this one new in 1971, then in the next ten years took it on assignment to Vietnam, the Arctic, the North Sea, and Middle East.

I’m going to go out and shoot some film this afternoon. Just for the fun of it!

So I spent this rainy afternoon researching Canon’s timeline.  Here are my discoveries:

April 2000 – Canon revealed the EOS D30, the first digital SLR that amateur photographers could really afford. 10 years later, we have the latest incarnation of the original design – the 15.1 megapixel EOS 50D. (Added note: There are megapixels and then there are megapixels. But that’s another story.)

The EOS D30 offered the amateur 3.1 megapixels, a 3 point auto focus, continuous 3 frames per second (JPEG), and a 1.8 inch LCD monitor.

In February 2002, Canon introduced the EOS D60. Now why did they go from 30 to 60? I don’t know. Maybe because the D60 had 6.3 megapixels, upgraded from the D30’s 3.1. Canon kept the 3 point auto focus, increased the continuous number of frames one could shoot from 3.3 frames per second to 8.

Now Canon seemed to be bouncing out a new camera every year. My thinking was, if you want a new Canon, you had better buy it always the first month cause if you wait you will get yourself a outdated camera pretty quick :=)

POW – another Canon just 12 months later on February 2003 – the EOS 10D.

WHAT? Did I say EOS 10D?

Now why did they go and put the “D” behind the 10 instead of in front of it? And 30 and 60 are higher numbers than 10 … so why 10?

The truth will reveal itself in the years to come, but they were not going to tell us yet.

At first glance the EOS 10D looks quite similar to the D60. However, the changes are fairly significant.

When you first pick up the camera, you will notice the new magnesium alloy case and restyled softer shape. Its body is now made from the same material as the EOS-1D/1Ds and shares quite a few style shapes with those cameras.

New important features are incorporated:

• New body and control layout
• Orientation sensor
• Improved auto focus
• New and improved LCD monitor
• Kelvin selectable white balance
• Extended ISO range,
• More flexible image parameters, and
• New manufacturing process for the CMOS sensor

What’s next? The Canon EOS 20D. Looks like we are now on a trip down “numbers first, D last” path.

Introduced in August of 2004, the 20D went from 6.3 megapixels to 8.2; and 7 point auto focus to 9 points. And wow – we are now at 5 frames per second all the way up to 23 continuous frames. That’s a big jump for us photojournalists. Same size LCD monitor.

Then 18 months later – you got it – the new Canon 30D.

What’s new of significance: A 2.5 inch LCD monitor. That’s a welcome change. But I’m not going to buy the camera. Why? Well because I just know in my heart that the camera that my wife is dreaming about is only 18 months away.

On August of 2007 the Canon EOS 40D was born.

The 40D’s 10.1 megapixels is what she wanted, including the 9 point auto focus that everyone needs, and would you believe this: 75 frames continuous shooting at 6.5/3.0 frames per second. Amazing how this Canon 40D can keep up with that.

And look at all these other features:

1. A dust reduction system comprising a ultrasonic platform which shakes the low pass filter.
2. More improvements that bring the EOS 40D closer into line with the EOS-1D series, which include a move to the same page-by-page menu system, both RAW and sRAW (2.5 MP), 14-bitk A/D converter and 14-bit RAW, cross-type AF points for F5.6 or faster lenses, a larger and brighter viewfinder, interchangeable focusing screens a larger LCD monitor (3.0″) and faster continuouis shooting (6.5 frames per second).
3. Oh yes – and live view.

One year to the month, and here comes another. But its been a busy year in the camera manufacturing business with Nikon’s new D300 getting a lot of attention in the amateur/professional segment.

In true fashion Canon again comes out with a new camera: The 50D is essentially a 40D body wrapped around a newly-developed 15 megapixel sensor, and we all know everyone likes big numbers when it comes to sensors.

August 2008, Canon is claiming now that the new sensor’s design means that despite the higher resolution image, noise has improved. My wife didn’t buy a  50D to let me try it out so I don’t know about that.

Several other features of the 50D:

• Raw files: (CR2 format),(RAW full resolution),(sRAW1 – 7.1MP),(sRAW2 – 3.8MP)
• ISO’s up to 12,800
• And a bunch of other stuff that my wife will never use. A more techy photographer might, but she loves her 40D unconditionally

What’s next? Stay Tuned!

Despite my office filled with camera gear, computers and software, I’ve never owned a camcorder but wanting one for years. My complaining must have finally gotten to my wife, because she ordered the brand new Canon VIXIA HG21 from B & H Photo for Christmas.

Of course I knew, and was on the lookout. But she took the delivery and wrapped it! Made me wait for Christmas Eve, knowing full well I was leaving on a trip and would take it along.

I’ll admit, it did make it seem more like a special Christmas present than if I’d torn into it the day it arrived, but now I’m stuck on my trip trying to read the manual (yes, the manual is always the best place to start) and learn these rather complicated functions.

The quality of the images is fabulous … at least in the viewfinder. I’ve yet to figure out how to download to my laptop.

I gave up hot cars as a primary interest and hobby for awhile, pretty much missing the muscle car era while raising a family, make a living and all that during the 60s.

Nevertheless, photography and photojournalism brought me plenty of excitement from 1963 through the 80s, particularly as a photojournalist and publisher during the Vietnam war.

But that’s a whole other story.

First thing to go was the turbomatic transmission, which I replaced with a 4-speed from an almost-new wrecked ‘59 Chevy Impala.

That wrecked Impala was a beauty, with a 348 ci  that had powered my new 4 speed. I’ll never forget how beautiful she was, all bright red with fender skirts. I heard that the driver barely escaped with his life, after drag racing on Tustin Blvd., in Orange County California.

I’m sure I was much more careful … (drag racing, who me???)

My first was a 1940 Ford Coupe with a Chrysler C300 and 39 Packard transmission. Had her diego’d. When I shifted into 2nd at 90mph I could smoke her tires.

In 1955 Chrysler dropped a dual-carbed 331ci Hemi –the most powerful production V-8 engine of its day — into a two door Chrysler Windsor. This was arguably the first American musclecar.

It was on the sands of Daytona Beach in 1955 that a C300 posted a 127.580 mph two way average in the flying mile, more than 7 mph faster than its nearest competitor.

Every Saturday my parents would drive from Henderson to Las Vegas. My mother would go grocery shopping and my father would head for the Silver Dollar Casino to play poker. (He was a brilliant mathematician and man of few but important words. He usually won the grocery money.)

One afternoon, we were standing outside the window of the Silver Dollar Casino watching my dad and three other men inside at a poker table. My mother handed me one of those Kodak Brownie box cameras and told me to take a picture.

In the 1980s, I was going through my father’s personal things and found that photograph. My dad was sitting around the poker table with his buddies — cowboy hats, cigarettes and six guns lying on the table.

Even though I was very young, I clearly remember the day, and I’ve treasured the photograph ever since I found it. In this digital age, many of us capture more images than we can store and manage, but film was precious then.

This is a perfect example of how capturing a priceless moment in time can preserve its emotion forever.

And I love cameras. As a professional photographer for the past 40 years, you will seldom find me without one or more cameras. Film cameras, digital cameras, rotational panoramic cameras, underwater cameras, fully automatic, fully manual or even an occasional pinhole camera.

The beauty is, my two favorite things are a perfect match for my third favorite thing – traveling around the country and the world with my wife. We love renting different cars when we don’t drive our own, and our basement and computers are full of travel photos on our journeys.

So why not a blog to share my rants and raves and thoughts and experiences about both – cameras and cars and the things we enjoy doing with them?