The Canon T4i

Canon has announced the replacement for the venerable T3i. The T4i should be available in stores in Canada by the 20th, with the new lenses available likely in July. The new camera still has the 18mp sensor as seen in the 7D and the 60D. What is new is the Digic 5 processor that is driving the processing in the camera that provides 14 bit depth compared to the 8 bit depth in the predecessor. That's a significant enhancement. The new camera has 9 cross point autofocus and 63 zone metering, similar to the 60D. The burst mode is to be 5 fps and that's very quick for decent resolution in a consumer oriented camera.

Unlike most DSLRs, the T4i will have continuous autofocus for video, but there is a small catch. For the continuous AF to work, you'll want to be using one of the new lenses announced at the same time.

First up is an EF-S 18-135. This new lens incorporates a stepper motor which gives very fast focus movement. Second is a 40/2.8 pancake lens also with a stepper motor for AF with video, but this lens is an EF mount so it can be used on full frame bodies. The new lenses as noted likely won't be available until July so we'll have to wait to see them to give a fair performance assessment.

Look for sales on the T3i to make space for the T4i which is a replacement. Prices are still in flux but the new camera will likely retail pretty close to the older one.