Almost exactly a year after the arrival of the EOS 40D, Canon has announced the 50D, which we're assured will be a sister-model, rather than a replacement. Recent history has seen Canon release new models every 18 months-or-so but it's been a busy year with newcomers such as the Nikon D300 getting a lot of attention in the 40D's keen-amateur/professional segment.

The 50D is essentially a 40D body wrapped around a newly-developed 15 megapixel sensor that finally rectifies the situation in which Canon's XXD range trailed the company's entry-level line, in pixel terms. Canon is claiming that the new sensor's design (new manufacturing processes, redesigned photo diodes and micro lenses) mean that despite the higher resolution image noise has improved, something we'll be putting to the test later.

The other big change is the inclusion of a new, high-resolution LCD screen. 920,000 dots mean that it can convey 640 x 480 RGB pixels, making it effectively a VGA standard monitor. Three anti-reflection layers built into the screen do their best to keep it useable in bright conditions, too.