We have quite possibly the most un-disputedly true information on the new Canon 40D. $1599, available Sept. 2nd.

Now for the speculation…

$1600 is pretty steep for a 40D, if Canon is simply planning on updating the 30D that came out at $1400. Usually they are able to bring out new models at a few hundred bucks LESS than the previous model… If they follow their body-only price trends, the 40D should be $1200. That leads us to believe that $1600 is with AT LEAST with a kit lens, and even then the price still sounds fishy. There was a “W” at the end of the 40D’s item name in the leak, leading us to believe that it was “w/ kit lens” or something…

The 30D now however is a mere $1000, and with a lens it’s $1150. That puts the current kit lens at $150.

So, we have the 40D that should cost $1200, but it costs $1600, and if it came with the current 18-55 kit lens that could only account for $150 of the difference.

What does this prove? One or two things:

Either Canon is bringing out a new kit lens, one that costs $400, or they’re totally re-designing the 40D.

My first impulse is to think “SWEET! They’re going to finally make a 17-200 IS!”

However the current “nice kit lens”, the 17-85 IS, is $500 or so. So either the 17-200 is going to be el-cheapo unlike Nikon’s awesome $750 18-200 VR, or it’s going to be a different lens. Maybe it’s just the 17-85 but with $100 since it’s a kit…

That’s probably the case, but just for kicks let’s move on to “what if” Canon has decided to beef up the 40D a little more than we were expecting them to:

Our options are a weather-sealed body, better AF system, live LCD view, and not much else.

Our options are NOT a full-frame sensor, in-camera IS, or more FPS, sorry!

What I predict:

40D= 10 megapixels, 5 FPS, 2.5″ screen, anti-dust sensor shaker, live view, same AF as 20D and 30D but with maybe a few algorithm tweaks, and no weather-sealing.

kit lens= Something to equal or slightly better than Nikon’s 18-135 DX ($330) that comes with the D80- a Canon 17-135 EF-S with no IS? Sounds good to me.

The Nikon 18-135 DX by the way is a feat of engineering that I must blog about soon. But now I’m going to try and get some more sleep. Don’t you just hate it when you have a really tiring day, you come home and crash to sleep just a little early, and then wake up at 2 AM and feel ready for the next day even though you know that if you get up and start the day you’ll be dead-tired again by 10 AM? Yeah that’s what’s up.

In the end, remember that it’s not about the latest-and-greatest equipment, it’s about the photographer’s eye and his skill with the camera he’s got. And remember in the END-end we can’t take anything material with us…

=Matt=