EOS 500D, Speedlite 270EX
Couple of new products from Canon: a new consumer model (Rebel T1i in the US) with many of the features of the EOS 50D, including HD video, and a new low-end flash unit.
The 270EX is sort of a funny one - it’s like a resurrected Speedlite 300EZ from the days of yore. It adds E-TTL metering and the ability to tilt upwards but takes away flash head zooming (you can manually zoom to one of two positions), a test light, and an autofocus assist light. It’s this last which is a bit annoying. Instead of a red LED you get the nice stuttering blasts of light from the main tube.
It doesn’t have wireless capabilities. Interestingly, it has control over manual output, but the goofy thing is there are no manual controls on the device itself - manual output works only with those EOS cameras which support Speedlite control via the menu system.