Today, Canon announced the successor to their succesful (literally) consumer DSLR EOS 500D / Rebel T1i. It features full HD video recording as well as three more megapixels compared to its predecessor. See the full news here.

I reckon this new 18 MP sensor is the same as they put into the 7D. If that’s the case, it’s probably not worth upgrading from the 500/T1i just for the sensor, since it’s awful. Take a look at this comparison Steve Huff made between the 7D and, among others, the Leica M9 and Olympus E-P2, and you’ll se what I mean. Even the E-P2’s output looks better …

Well, I guess it’s all about the numbers again …

UPDATE: heise.de say it’s not the 7D’s sensor, but one specifically designed for the 550/T2i. Still, in my opinion it’s got a good number of pixels too much … but we’ll see how it’ll perform in low-light situations …