Re: what is a pro consumer camera?

That line is blurring, to be sure, based on the image quality delivered. One thing I will say, however, is that "prosumer" cameras can still be defined by price range based on one important factor: construction.

Coming from broadcast to a production company, I was distressed by the flimsy little connectors on prosumer gear. Lenses that aren't sealed as well as the pro gear, plastic parts that should be metal, and that sort of thing. That silly little A/V cable that plugs into the Sony EX's in perhaps the worst possible location? Ridiculous. But there's only so much real estate on a camera this size.

Day-to-day abuse such as can be expected with ENG duty, for example, will destroy an EX camera in a day or two. It ain't right, but it's the way a lot of people treat gear that isn't theirs. At least that's how my experience in broadcasting has been. I'm neurotic in the way I baby equipment that I use, but sadly there are a lot of people who are just plain careless.

The paradigm shift has come in that the "guts" of the cameras can be made smaller and more economically, producing fantastic results (as our EX cameras demonstrate), closing the price point between the two. So for me the term "prosumer" has always indicated more about the external qualities of a camera than the internal.

Cf