Official 5D announcement.

[gpaai]

http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/20080917_5dmkii.html

[akmc_in_au]

http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/20080917_5dmkii.html

Yes, one of the guys in my favourite money hole... er, sorry, photo equipment store was telling me earlier this week that they'd gotten their hands on a pre-release version only a few days earlier.

21.1 megapixels full frame? Yup, I should have been expecting that one. And

ISO 50 to ISO 25,600

ISO 25,600??? Georges Seurat, eat your heart out!

On the same store visit I noticed something else sitting in the display cases as well.... a 50D, which I wasn't aware was coming.

http://www.canon.com.au/products/cameras/digital_slr/eos50d_body_specs.aspx

It's not necessarily a huge step up from the 40D as far as I can see:
- 15.1 megapixels (up from 10.1) but a correspondingly (slightly) slower burst speed / maximum number of images;
- The chassis material has changed from Magnesium Alloy + Stainless Steel to Stainless Steel + polycarbonate with glass fibre (I'm not sure whether that's really a step forward); and of course the major one...
- It has a Dig!c 4 rather than Dig!c III processor.

Though whether Dig!c 4 ends up providing "real life" benefits over III remains to be seen. The benefits listed in the official release:
http://www.canon.com.au/about/press_room/story_1975.html
seem a little.... "fuzzy", for want of a better term.