Digital Rebel's life expectancy?

[COKE CAN]

Well, here is the scenario. I work at Circuit City, yea yea yea. Well, they dub spring time as whn we are going to sell the most digital cameras. I thought it was a hoax. But anyways, we are finally getting all of our dSLR's in, we only carried both Rebels for awhile. Now we have the 20D and an Olympus dSLR (Evolt?).

We also acquired a new manager for the Entertainment section of the store. I was helping a customer with the purchase of a Digital Rebel and needed some assistance from a manager. The only manager available was the Entertainment manager. So he comes over, the customer says, "So I was at Best Buy and they told me that the Digital Rebel has been discontinued."

Where I followed with, "No the Digital Rebel will still be around for a bit."

My manager looks at me and says, "No the Digital Rebel has been discontinued, that's why the Rebel XT is out."

I then told him I believed he was wrong, and he had the nerve to say, "I have a degree in Photography, I know what I am talking about."

Now, am I wrong? I would think the DRebel would still be around for some time. If the DRebel was going anywhere why do we continue to sell them? The XT has been out on the shelf for too long to just take the place of it's predecessor. I'm sure as the price of the XT comes down, the DRebel may be weeded out. But that would be some time, maybe within the year, but not now.

What do you guys think? Was this manager just being a cocky jerk? That same night as I was putting the 20D on display, I was joking around and made a comment about buying it. The manager over heard me and asked why? I said, I love Canon. He asked if I had ever heard of B&H, and if I knew what the D70 was. I told him yes, and in a crued manner asked why I would choose Canon over Nikon.

People these days.

[snibbetsj]

The Digital Rebel is still around, I think they make in black or silver now. Should be around for quite some time. :D

[COKE CAN]

The Digital Rebel is still around, I think they make in black or silver now. Should be around for quite some time. :D

That's what I thought.

[MazerRakhm]

Canon does not mention a discontinuation for it anywhere, and it is still an availible product on their site, so I would have to believe that they are still in production.

[Longwatcher]

Hmmm...
The 10D is also apparently still an active product according to the Canon USA site.

I do know the 300D is still being made. It is after all the low-end Canon camera.

And I know several people with degrees who usually don't know anything about their field of expertise. More importantly a degree in photography is not a degree in market economics which is what this is more a case of.

[Citizensmith]

Just tell him it isn't discontinued and you read that on the internet. :)

[MTalley]

Our local camera store told me that they had been discontinued and they didn't expect to get any more in when I called a couple weeks ago. They indicated that they only had the XT available. I ended up buying my DRebel from Circuit City, because they had it in stock.

Some website sellers no longer show it on their sites (I think Adorama is one), but B&H still shows them in stock. Dell doesn't show them any more, but their selection seems to change from day to day.

[PhotosGuy]

"I have a degree in Photography, I know what I am talking about." I don't, so I guess I don't. OTOH, I have one in Biology & Chemistry. So, put your feet in the stirrups, my dear. ;-)

[lostdoggy]

Hey Coke Can how much discount does employee get for the 20D? If the price is right I'm going to find myself a friend who works in Circuit City. As far as discontuing the 300D, it depends on the supply and demand. At the present price it beats out the Pentax and the EVOLT. So, Canon being Canon can't afford to loose market ground to other manufactures. Besides those who want a XT won't confuse themself w/ a 300D. And Grandma who can't afford to spend $1000 might consider the $800 Rebel. Just my 2 cent.

[COKE CAN]

Hey Coke Can how much discount does employee get for the 20D? If the price is right I'm going to find myself a friend who works in Circuit City. As far as discontuing the 300D, it depends on the supply and demand. At the present price it beats out the Pentax and the EVOLT. So, Canon being Canon can't afford to loose market ground to other manufactures. Besides those who want a XT won't confuse themself w/ a 300D. And Grandma who can't afford to spend $1000 might consider the $800 Rebel. Just my 2 cent.

I'm not sure of the exact discount, but on the DRebel it was only $50. It's cheaper online though.

[Jesper]

If you want some "proof" for your colleague...:
The Digital Rebel will not disappear with the introduction of the Digital Rebel XT. The two models will co-exist in Canon's digital SLR lineup, with manufacturing of the Digital Rebel to continue alongside the Digital Rebel XT. The main differentiator between the two will be price; Canon's goal is to obviously to put enough of a cost difference between the two models to make the original Digital Rebel an attractive option for consumers who will buy on price over features. Even when both cameras are to be well under US$1000 for the body alone.From Rob Galbraith (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-6464-7559).

*edit* - Oh, wait a minute! A few paragraphs down on the Rob Galbraith page it says:
Update, March 3, 2005: New information from Canon USA suggests that the plans for the original Digital Rebel have changed since our January 2005 briefing on the subject. The camera is now out of production, and while Canon USA has purposely secured enough units of this model to have inventory through approximately the first half of 2005, other regions may see their inventory dry up sooner than that. Canon Canada, for example, has already removed the original Digital Rebel from the March 2005 order sheets distributed to dealers.