Due to a rebate program good until July 19th, the price of the Canon 40D (introduced in August 2007 and current standard-bearer of the once-groundbreaking D30–D60–10D–20D–30D mid-level Canon DSLR heritage) has fallen below $1,000. I'm sure Canon fora everywhere are awash in speculation about what this might portend for Canon's lineup, but it does seem significant. You can get a 40D for only $940.

That's $940.

10 months old. Very well trained. Friendly and companionable! Cheap to a good home.

You've always been able to tell when Canon's on to a good thing when its cameras start spawning variants. It happened with the AE-1, the first camera to make use of modern polycarbonate manufacturing techniques; it happened with the 630, Canon's first really good AF SLR; and now it's happening with the Digital Rebel (XT, XTi, Xsi, a.k.a. 350–400–450, a.k.a. the "Kiss" series), which, has just dropped another baby, the new XS (1000D), price TBD. The XS is a simplified XSi that would have come in under $500 in the U.S. if our currency were doing better. It's going to be the price leader once the XT's go away, for those who just adamantly feel undeserving of a camera as good as the XSi.

Is it just me, or are the lowest-level cameras in Canikon's DSLR lineups spawning new mini-lineups?

But anyway, here's another remarkable fact about the current price of the 40D: it's just $167 more than the price of the XSi.

$167 is what Leicaphiles pay for a lens hood. It's what Ram-tough drivers pay for a fill-up. It will buy two cube-shaped watermelons in Tokyo. It's not nothing. But it's relatively close to nothing.

Skip a fill-up, move up to a 40D.

The XSi is a really, really nice DSLR, apart from being crippled, as all Canons are, by a lack of built-in IS. (And don't kid yourself—in-lens IS is only better for telephotos. Long telephotos.) You pays your money and you takes your choice, but the 40D is a better camera. $167 better? Better than that, if you ask us.

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Mike