Canon raise their game

Apparently Amazon had details of the new Canon 40D. Before they were taken down Bob Atkins copied them to his site: http://tinyurl.com/yshabj.

Salient points:
Live Preview, plus two Silent Modes which use the ‘LiveMos’ type CMOS sensor’s electronic shuttering ability (’LiveMos’ it is not, since that is an Olympus trademark, but it’s a Canon equivalent).
Unlimited JPEGs or a substantial 17-frame RAW sequence at 6.5 frames per second.
Tethered shooting via Ethernet, remote shooting via Wireless (g), GPS metadata embedding, and shoot-to-HD on camera all enabled by add-on base unit/s.
Interchangeable focusing screens.
New CMOS focusing array including a high resolution crossed sensor with enough sensitivity work well with typical superzooms, f/6.3 maximum aperture at the long end.
An Auto-ISO function based on ISO 400 default and 100-800 range.
A standard ISO range limited to 100-1600 unless you use a menu item to get 3200.
A conservative 10.1 megapixels in a small 1.6X sensor format, as with previous amateur and semi-pro Canons.
A mode very similar to Hi200 on the Alpha 100, preserving highlight detail, but operating at 100-800 ISO instead of just one setting.
A 14-bit A to D converter and 14-bit sRAW file format.
30 seconds to 1/8000th and flash sync at 1/250th.
A price of $1299 for the body only

Now some of this will already be familiar to K10D owners I think. Interesting to hear your views.

I like the embedded gps metadata. But won't be rushing out to buy one

Sounds pretty much what would be expected from the top end of their consumer spec cameras (i.e. those with smaller than full-frame sensors). The key point is that it's still the smaller sensor size rather than full-frame.

Nikon have certainly left Canon behind with the D300 and D3. Interesting to see what Pentax is bringing soon.