On 20th August 2003 Canon dropped a bomb into the digital SLR market with the six megapixel sub-$1,000 EOS 300D (Digital Rebel). Eighteen months later and just in time for the largest trade show of the year (PMA 2005) Canon has revealed the successor to the 300D, the new, smaller, eight megapixel, EOS 350D (Digital Rebel XT). At first you'd be forgiven for thinking this was just a drop-in upgrade of the EOS 300D with the EOS 20D's eight megapixel sensor, but in actual fact it has a new CMOS sensor (it's 8.0 megapixels versus the 20D's 8.2 megapixels), the 350D also has a smaller body, re-worked design, DIGIC II, new features and custom functions.

Global production of the EOS 300D started at 70,000 units per month, this was increased to 100,000 units per month a few months later. Canon clearly have big plans for the EOS 350D because they will be start production at 130,000 units per month (which is almost twice the initial production level for the EOS 300D).