You're right, Glenn: I've been surprised to learn that family shots can push the envelope.
I went from an EOS3 with L glass (PHENOMENAL combination!) and a Canoscan FS 2710 to the D30, and for the first few months never looked back: the convenience of the D30 was tremendous, and the image quality (tight, generally outdoor head shots of our children) was absolutely staggering up to and including 13 x 19" on an Epson 1270 (the 100mm 2.8 macro non-L, BTW, is INCREDIBLE). I also began to see the limitations of the film/scanner combo, as I actually saw how the scanner couldn't capture shadow detail that was clearly visible on the slides themselves.
On the flip side, it was when I started shooting ballet recitals that I began to bump into the limitations of the D30 that others have posted about. You pros have to forgive us amateurs: many of us may assume (as I did) that we just won't push the envelope the way you pros do, so would tend to ignore things like auto-focus speed because -- HEY, WE'RE ONLY AMATEURS!
Anyway -- under ballet conditions, I've come up against lots of hunting AND shutter lag when using the 70 - 200 2.8/L (SUPERB range for ballet!); it was enough to miss too many otherwise great shots. I have to say I've tried manual pre-focusing, and this hasn't been bad (though I generally have to shoot wide open, so have a fairly shallow depth of field), but it doesn't help the shutter lag.
So the 1D is very interesting to me, insofar as it's everything the D30 is and more. I have to write that the other thing I've seen is the limitation imposed by the 1.6x multiplier factor: it turns my favorite lens, the 28-70 2.8/L into a mismatch (again, a staggering combination with the EOS3, especially when traveling and looking for relatively light carry). The 17-35L doesn't really solve the problem.
So like others, I'd love to see the speed of the 1D with a 1.0 lens multiplier and 6mp, because the last limitation of the D30 is when you take group shots or landscapes and want to create large prints, the small details count. I'd thought about going to the Contax 645 and the Nikon 8000, but it's just not convenient enough...and the Contax N digital still seems to be smoke and doesn't have the same variety of lenses...and, well, my L lenses are just superb. Better to wait, I think, for the Canon D-SLR bodies (which, as someone else recently posted, begin to make more sense thought of as backs for the lenses) to reach the point where we'd like them to be...
Bottom line? 1D, mythical D60, Contax N or whatever...I've got more MOUNTED photographs with the D30 than with the EOS3 (isn't output the acid test?). I'm just so encouraged by the convenience of digital that I'm shooting more, getting better, and this in turn fuels a higher ambition level for the images I can create...
I wonder about an Epson 7500...
