I think that I understand where you were going with this thread, skieur. Sony's "top" camera is now the A77, fixed-mirror, crop-sensor camera, with Sony's newest 24.6 megapixel sensor in it. However, I do not really think that Sony's top model camera automatically qualifies it as a "pro camera". To me, the term "pro camera" has always meant a "flagship-level" camera, ie, the BEST-possible technology and construction, and reliability and ruggedness, that the camera's maker can muster. So, over the past decades, that would encompass cameras like the Nikon F and F2, Nikon F3,F4,and F5, and the Canon F1 and F1-n, then the EOS-1, and then in modern times the Nikon 1-digit series cameras, and the Canon 1-digit series of bodies.
Of course, over the past decades there have been high-end AMATEUR-oriented camera models that have found widespread professional use. Nikon's FM- and FE- series camera models were a great example of "high-end amateur" cameras that were used by tens of thousands of professionals for many years. Same with the later N90,N90s,and F100 film cameras.
While the Canon 5D and 5D-II have found wide acceptance among wedding and social photographers...these are not really "professional cameras" in the "flagship" sense of the word--they are in fact, really quite stripped-down, very BASIC cameras, lacking in many features found in lower-cost cameras from multiple makers. However, if the term professional camera simply means "in use by quite a few professional photographers," then the Canon 5D and 5D-II, as well as the Nikon D700, and D300 and D300s would also qualify as "professional cameras." Sony however, does not have much in the way of professional acceptance or use...their user base is new,and in part some of Minolta's old user base, and is for the most part I think, amateurs and people who are just entering into the d-slr market. If your intent was to lump the A77 into the "professional camera" segment, it would ONLY be based upon the megapixel count of the camera, because it does not have a wide professional photographer user base like the Canon 5D series has, or the Nikon cameras have. Sony's efforts in the A900 and A850 models, full-frame, simple, great design, good viewfinders, low-tech bodies (no live view, no video) fell FLAT, and now Sony has regrouped and is trying to push fixed-mirror cameras onto consumers. They are trying to convince people that their new technology is an "advantage", and one worth paying for. I simply do not think that bearing the highest-ranking model number makes the Sony A77 a "professional camera".
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