[MDB8]

A new Canon DSLR, the 70D has been announced and various stores are already accepting pre-orders. Around $1200 or $1300 for the body.

It's an APS-C model, meaning it's sensor is smaller than full frame, and with 20.3 MP, it has slightly more pixels than the 7D model.

It takes the same battery as the 7D, which is nice, but doesn't accept CF memory cards, which is not so nice.

The major innovation in this model lies in Live View focusing. It uses "Dual Pixel CMOS AF", which seems oriented towards video use. Every pixel is split into two photo diodes, meaning over 40 million photo diodes on the sensor. So for those who like to take videos of birds, this is a major upgrade.

For still photographers, probably not.

It has WiFi connectivity, but not GPS. Digic 5+ processor and 7 fps speed. ISO up to 12,800 before a push setting of 25,600.

Still awaiting the 7D II, which hopefully will have GPS and can use the same battery and memory cards as the current model.

[Guyzerr]

imo the memory card should be a non issue because the SD cards are considerably cheaper than Compact Flash cards. I suppose it would make a difference if someone were to keep their 7D as I did when I purchased my 6D. It would have been nice to need only one size of card but that's the price we pay for progress I suppose.

[MDB8]

Right, I prefer to retain my current cards. However, it is not cost that is the issue. It is speed. The cheap SD cards are too slow to be of much use.

I expect the new 7D II (or whatever it will be called) to fire at about 10fps and a fast card is necessary. 90MB/second at least. I now use USB3.0 of offload my cards and it is the card's speed which is the limiting factor. When I took a trip recently I took along my laptop which doesn't have USB3.0. The real-world speed boost for the same card is 7X. That is, my USB3.0 card reader is 7X faster than my USB2.0 one.