We once categorized cameras as either pro or consumer. The distinctions were probably not as big as I imagined them to be as a kid, but the gulf seemed impossibly wide. The major difference between the two were that with a pro camera you could swap out lenses and a consumer grade camera had a fixed zoom lens on it, with compromises. Professional cameras also offered full control over settings whereas consumer grade cameras did the work for you, at the cost of creativity. And then, as the world went digital, the division became a matter of sensor size, with full-frame sensors being a distinguishing factor between pro and consumer.
But for many it was not a very complicated distinction; one knew a professional camera because they were the ones in the hands of the professionals — and there weren’t that many kinds of professional photographers out there. Sports photography was one of the most visible types of photography when I was growing up, so like a lot of people, I associated professional photography with the kinds of cameras used on the sidelines of major sporting events: big, chunky and rugged, with long glass and tripods. The cast was set: big jobs required big…
