Originally posted by RBellavance I hadn't thought of that. There were so many complaints about the perceived lower IQ of the 50D vs. the 40D, that Canon may get a lot of 40D "hold outs" to upgrade by going with a lower MP count.
Well, I have my own thoughts on that (don't I always?).
First off, the perceived "noise issue" was based on an initially flawed DPreview test (they used a less than ideal lens and a beta RAW converter), and people not understanding that 100% crops from a 15MP image should not be directly compared to 100% crops from a 10MP one. The resolution numbers they got weren't impressive, but other places (e.g. cameralabs) found a 20+% increase in resolution over the 40D, in line with what you'd expect from the additional pixel density. As tends to be the case often however, the dpreview results became a big issue on the Internet and immediately everyone "knew" how noisy the 50D was and how small of an increase in resolution it offered. Those who actually decided to buy and use one know that the real story is quite different!
Also, Canon forum posters have a bit of a history when it comes to bashing the current model. When the 40D was released it was considered a poor/inadequate upgrade, and a lot of people voiced that opinion all the way until the day the 50D was released, when the 40D suddenly became a wonderful DSLR and now the 50D was the crappy upgrade..
So if the 60D comes out with say 12MP, I bet you that six months down the road we'll have people waxing nostalgic over the superior resolution of the 50D... just the nature of things.