Keep or Upgrade

Really? Don't tell that to my 60D. It's a year old with about - gosh - 16-18k actuations? And it feels as composed as the day I got it. In fact, so does my old 400D, which has probably 90k actuations on it. The old 350D last I saw it (it got borrowed by our CEO and occasionally surfaces) was feeling fine too, but looking pretty sad. The fake grips on those just sort of rub off.

Anyway, I've not noticed any sort of "loosening" of any of my plastic bodied cameras, but will still agree that the metal ones have a certain heft and even balance lacking on their resin cousins. Of course, a 70-200 f2.8 on the rebel - there's really no way to hold the body to find out - you can barely make out the camera!

One thing I've noticed that I don't like about the metal bodies is that the paint wears off on the edges, where the plastic is the same color all the way through and doesn't show wear or scratches.

Ditto!