I’ve been on the fence for a while about upgrading my camera setup. The Canon T1i has sat perfectly in that in-between zone that I always approach traffic lights in. (If I stop, I’ll have to stop really quick. If I go, it’ll turn red as I go under it.) If the camera were any more affordable, I’d be reviewing it and selling my old one. If it were any more expensive, I’d have written it off as unreasonably expensive.

I eventually decided to go for a Strobist-style lighting setup instead, and to postpone any camera upgrades. And as soon as I set that in motion, I noticed an interesting deal at Costco. (And, apparently, everywhere else.) If you buy the T1i with the $300 MP980 printer, there’s a $300 rebate. This appears to be run by Canon and not Costco, so it’s possible to shop around and see if there are even better deals. I don’t need a $300 printer, but assuming I could unload it on eBay for close to what it goes for new, that brings the camera down to the $500 range, at which point it’s very competitive with their existing digital SLR lineup. (In fact, it undercuts many of them.) The downside is that you have to put up $1,100 cash to get in.

There have been a lot of rumors about a Canon 7D coming out. In the past, there was the 1D line, which was Canon’s flagship line, often in the $5,000-$8,000 range. The 5D line was a more affordable version, but Canon’s 5D Mark II came out with a lot of features that the 1D line didn’t have. So there has been a lot of speculation around the 7D and what it might entail. This Canon Rumors thread is being quoted as fact, suggesting some nice improvements that probably won’t cannibalize 1D sales too much.

This post suggests that the release date is very soon, and that the T1i might give rise to a T1 released at the same time (next week?) as the 7D. Traditionally, the XTi and the XSi have spawned the more affordable XT and XS lines, which are more affordable versions of their bigger siblings. The description of the T1 is too vague for me, though. The movie mode on the Ti1 was very exciting, but so was the greatly-improved LCD and the greatly-improved ISO sensitivity. Rumors of a Canon 1D Mark IV and a Canon 60D are out, too, but with a release of next year. Also on the rumor mill: an updated version of Canon’s beloved 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens.