Why the REBEL model naming system?

[Tronhard]

I remain confused by the naming convention for Canon Rebel Cameras.  In NZ and many other places there is a convention that seems logical and consistent.

Canon Professional and Semi-Pro Bodies:  EOS XD: E.G. 1D Mkx, 5d Mk IV, 6D (problematic) 7D Mk II

Canon Prosumer bodies:                               EOS XXD: e.g. 60d, 70D, 80D

Conumer / enthusiast bodies:                       EOS XXXD  e.g. 350D.... 750D, 760D

All well and good, the number is logcal and a consistent numerical progression. 

However I am totally confused by the Rebel branding in North America that replaces the numerical progression with a dingle digit and some letters:

e.g. EOS Rebel EOS 400d (Digital Rebel XTi ) EOS 450D (Rebel XSi) ... EOS 750D (Rebel T6i) and  760D (Rebel T6s)

This is obviously a marketing decision, but the questions I have are:

1. Why?
2. Is there a logical pattern, particulary as regards the three character suffix?

[Tronhard]

Hi Bob:  Re: non photographic stuff.

I know this may be a sensitive issue in the USA, but Canada and NZ both have amazing universal health care systems and both countries really value them.  In  Canada, basically if you earn more than $24k per year you pay a monthly flat fee which covers all doctors and hospital visits, and things like x-rays, CT and MRI scans.  You just show your medical card and away you go.  You do have to pay for your drugs though.  For people like me who are retired and on a fixed income it is a life saver, in my case literally as I got amazing medical care for no further payment, but the drugs did cost about $400 per month.

NZ is similar, but you usually pay a top-up to see  your GP.  However what you lose on the swings you gain on the round-abouts because the purchase of ALL drugs is managed by one agency Pharmac, that is government run.  They get deals on volume and they go for generics as much as possible, which means that those costs are kept way down.  In the recent election in Canada last year, doctors were asking that the federal government do the same thing as NZ.  For example a drug that is available in NZ for $80 costs over $940 in Canada.  The Canadian government has recognized that this is an issue and as they don't want to throw away billions of dollars nationally if the don't have to, I think they are looking into it.

Meanwhile in NZ the government has come under tremendous pressure from US government on behalf of drug companies to water down their control of costs as a price of the proposed TPP.  Like many in the USA there is a lot of resistance to that being signed as it stands right now as it gives private companies too much political and legal control over a government's decisions.  The results of your elections will be of interest, because if the USA does not proceed with the TPP, it will probably die on the spot.

Being of multiple nationalities (I hold four, which I know is a bit out there for most Americans!! ), I have coverage for medical care in NZ and Canada, which is a huge saving when I spend months in either one of the two.

As far as my partner goes.  When she was evaluated post-op by a specialist they put a chart in front of her that said she had a less than 42% chance of living 10 years.  Now, that was based on a mathematical profile and had nothing to do with her personally.  Since the operation she has just about blown every measure out of the water with the strenght of her recover and her determination to do what it takes to make a strong and permanent recovery.  As I said she grows her own organic food (she was always a vegetarian), goes paddleboarding, does light weights and step aerobics, cycles pretty much everywhere and walks.  In fact we have hiked over most of NZ together in the last 17 years we have been together. Still that report lives on in her record.  But the main thing is that she has full private coverage as well as the public system while she is employed by her university in NZ.  They gave her all the time she needed on full pay and are letting her ease back into work with minimum pressure.  Still she quickly decided that she could not give up those benefits as she woud not be insured for any cancer treatment by any other private insurer, so she said she was staying put.  The rest was simple after that.

[Tronhard]

On the photographic Front:

I first developed my adult interest in photography when I was serving in Vietnam.  I was with a detachment of NZ and Aussie troops who had a couple of photojournalists on board, and I was amazed at their talents and found the mix of tech and art very appealing.  Years later I was going overseas from NZ and decided to apply that asperation as part of my world tour, so I got a book on photography from John Hedgcoe and studied it from cover to cover for six months before I bought my first SLR.  The book was great because it covered most aspects of photography, with the finished image shown to begin with and then the explanation of the technique, camera settings and progression through the workflow.

In those days there was a huge amount of tax on cameras in NZ, so I picked up my gear duty-free on the way out of the country: two Nikon F3 bodies, two Canon A-1s and Tamron Adaptall SP lenses 17mm, 24-105, 35-70,  70-300.  When I got to Australia I went on a bit of a photo holiday to get used to my gear, but economics demanded I get a regular job.  I applied for a position as an engineer on a dam project in the outback. It had the appeal of being 250km from the nearest shop, accommodation was free, tax was minimal and the pay was great.  During the interview I mentioned I was into photography, so the interviewer asked if I would be prepared to work as the site photographer to do progress and technical photography. Of course I said yes, but I was brought down to earth when I got to the site, and they showed me the darkroom all set up and provisioned.  I had imagined they would use transparencies or commercially processed prints, but no, I was to do all my own.  Problem was I hadn't read that part of the book!! 🙂

Luckily I still had the book, and after much reading, and many ruined prints, I was churning out quite good b&w images.  When I finished my contract a year later, I went around Australia and through the centre, then did the same for NZ, and later in Asia, taking transparencies.  It tought me to be very frugal and careful with my images as I had a limited number of rolls I could carry, but of course, being film I would not know if one particular setting had worked until the film was developed, perhaps weeks later.  That habit of frugality lives with me today and I tend to take WAY fewer shots compared with my associates who have grown up in the digital era of no cost per shot.

I sold images to image banks, and was doing ok, but I met a Canadian girl on my travels and became her souvenir of Australia.  We married and lived for a while in NZ but eventually moved to Canada.  I had all my commercial quality tranparencies in boxes in my car when it was stolen from the parking garage in my building.  When I got the car back we found that all the slides had been burnt as the side of the road.  I was gutted...  two plus years, and five countries of images were gone.  So when digital came along I immediately saw the benefits of being able to do backups.  I was by this time working in the IT industry and photography was a hobby, but I got back into the game on a more casual basis as I got to learn about the differences in the tehcnology and their implications.

There are times when I wish manufacturers could produce a digital camera with just the same controls as the old film days (and of course I know why not!), when life was simple a matter of setting the ISO for a film, then playing with the shutter and aperture settings.  I am now grateful for that time as a technical photographer because I did all my work in b&w and it made me appreciate the significance of composition, contrast and light without the complexities and sometimes distraction of colour.  I still recommend it as an exercise for new photographers, and I use it as a first step when doing a workflow in PP: i.e. deal with the image in b&w before I play with the colour.  That said, having taken images on transparencies, where what you see is the final outcome, I do as little PP as possible.  Making me even more of a fossil!