The "myth" of Canon price drops?

T4 Cameras (www.t4cameras.co.uk) are doing them for £519... Nice helpful staff as well.

Still too much IMO!!
http://www.t4cameras.c​o.uk

Concur ... A friend has one and we think it's either a bad copy or soft for the price. Testing further today actually.

Sweet !

The Euro has nothing to do with it. The 17-40 goes for around €1000 (£690/ US$1200) in Ireland. The problem is Canon and the stores. Canon issue the store with price lists and the stores don't discount from it to compete. Call it a cartel if you wish. Heck, the 350D still costs around €1100 in Ireland. I got mine with the kit lens for €780 in Munich last Summer.

More importantly waiting lets them shake out the production problems. Same logic applies from computers to cars.

I didn't know the XT was a lens

Of course the price of bodies is always driven lower due to the much shorter product release cycle. In the case of DSLRs the cost is also rapidly coming down due the infancy of the technology. Remember how much a D30 was when first released? I thought I got a bargain when I bought one new 4 years ago for £1400! There is no doubt in my mind that bodies will eventually drop close to the equivalent cost of previous film bodies (factoring inflation of course).