Sure, :-)

Gary,

I think Canon agrees with you. This is why they have completely new EF-S lenses with moderately fast aperture. The totally new 18-200mm is for the 1.6X line of cameras, and not the professional bodies. And IS is very handy for certain situations not involving fast action, like landscape photography. Here's a review of the brand-new very high-quality super zoom, equivalent to 29mm - 320mm focal length:
www.dpreview.com/previews/...p5-5p6_is/

Canon has not abandoned the APS-C format sensor line, they've actually expanded it. These are not professional lenses, and their price points are rather modest for the performance attained. These are not L-series weight, durability, and ultimate sharpness lenses, but for f-stops >= f/3.5, I believe the test reports will indicate that the sharpness, coma, bokeh, and chromatic aberration are really quite good on these pro-sumer lenses. These are not crap lenses, and a 10:1 zoom lens with IS seems incredibly useful.

So, I keep thinking about the cameras as complete systems, bodies + lenses, not just a body from one manufacturer versus that of another. It's really understanding the offerings in the entire line. For example, the Canon tilt-shift lenses still work on the 50D, to enable perspective correction directly in-camera. At the same time, looking backwards, the new 18-200mm super zoom will also work on the 40D, the 30D, and 20D (but not the 10D). So thee better optics, wrought from advanced technology, are available as well for the older DSLR cameras.

Aside from matching or excelling the competition, another way to look at the 50D is that it's really just the first of a series of cameras, the next batch of which will most-likely be the professional bodies. Correspondingly, I'd imagine (but have no insider knowledge whatsoever) that there will also be some additions, upgrades, and/or makeover of the full lens line, across all price points.

Blessings and Light,
M