The companies that make the cameras are being driven by profits. They could create a super DSLR - they could give us the features we want all at once. But then, what would they sell us next year?
The latest offering from Canon, the 30D, is an example of a camera designed by the company shareholders. A minimum of real new features, just slight improvements. They don't want to give us too much at once since they want to release another new camera next year.
The 30D has spot metering - great. It has 1/3 ISO settings - ok. It has a larger LCD screen - ok. It can take 3 or 5 frames per second - ok. It has a longer life shutter - ok. It displays the ISO in the viewfinder (but only when you push a button) - bah. It has enhancements to PictBridge - WHO CARES! There is only one really nice new feature (spot metering). None of the others alone could cause anyone to upgrade.
The next offering from Canon in the 10D, 20D, 30D line will likely have even cleaner high ISO settings, maybe a slightly brighter viewfinder, perhaps enhanced focusing at f/4 and (if we are lucky) more improvements to PictBridge!
They are just going to keep trickling out the improvements - now and then they will need to really do a big upgrade of the body or processor to accommodate the incremental minor improvements such as we saw this year with Canon. Next year will likely be a slack year for Nikon improvements.
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