Hi, Nigel,
I guess Rebel is the USA name for the 50D, right?
No.
Rebel is a specific EOS film camera. Digital Rebel is the model known outside the USA as the 300D (2003). Many newer "4-digit" and "3-digit" digital models, in the US, have names of "Digital Rebel" or, more recently, "Rebel" plus some silly alphanumeric group beginning with "X" or, more recently, "T". It is dumb as hell.
But the "2-digit" and "1-digit" cameras do not have "cute" names in the US - they are called here by their real names.
I imagine the 60D is the successor to the 50D cropped sensor model - so far so good. BUT it seems almost identical in specs to the 7D ...yet the 7D nomenclature doesn't fit with Canon's pattern since the single digit 1D series and 5D series are all full frame, yet the 7D is cropped.
Not so - the 1D series has a smaller sensor than full-frame 35-mm. The 1Ds series and the 5D series have a full-frame 35-mm size sensor.
I am just trying to figure out what their strategy or logic is to their range when single digits names are full frame yet the 7D is cropped, and the 'new' double digit successor to the 50D cropped sensor is already in existence in the 7D
Ah, yes, the mind of Canon!
The actual taxonomy is more about "status tier" than format size. Cameras with one-digit numbers are "higher" in status than those with "two-digit numbers", which are higher in status than those with three-digit numbers, which are higher in status than those with four-digit numbers. But in the one-digit tier, those with smaller one-digit numbers (
e.g., "1") are higher in status than those with larger one-digit numbers (
e.g., "5"), which are higher in status than those with even larger one digit numbers (
e.g., "7").
It's sort of like vanity license plates in the one-digit tier.
But within the two-digit tier, larger numbers are newer. Also within the three-digit tier, larger numbers (non-US notation) are newer. And that may well follow in the four-digit tier.
Then of course there is the curious matter of the very old D30 (2000) and the newer 30D (2006).
As I said, ah, yes, the mind of Canon.
Best regards,
Doug