Originally posted by RiceHigh The reality is. D700 takes up the role of D300. D90 replaces both D300 and D80! Nikon just knows how the market will react when they released the D90! Ditto for Canon made the 450D and much fewer people considered the 40D then. Now that the D90 is even much stronger and very close to the D300, then? How would the market react?
Both Canon and Nikon introduces more power in each camera they release, even when this means that this power and features are more than what the model above offers.
So, yes Canon released the 450D to replace the 400 and less people got interrested in the 40D. Now they release the 50D that replaces, or is an upgrade to, the 40D.
Nikon now has the D90 and next one up is the D400 that will replace the D300 and be another step up the ladder.
And we have had - sort of - the same thing in Pentax lineup, remember when Pentax released the *ist DS? It had some improvements over the *ist Dand some were actually debating "buy a *ist DS or *ist D?"... And what about the K200D, it replaces the K100D, but many features and sensor and image processing is borrowed from the K10D which is a higher class model.
Now we have recent speculations that the new entry level model from Pentax will offer more than the K200D... so Pentax are moving towards the same product philosophy as Canon and Nikon = a new lower model offers more, in certain areas, than an older upper model.