All of this camera equipment you can buy is marketed as "Professional Equipment." I have a problem with that. Namely that you don't need a camera or lens branded as professional to take good, quality photos.
I'm going to start out by saying that I do not view myself as a professional photographer. I have been told by many people over the years that a good portion of my work is indistinguishable from such, but I do not view myself as such.
My preferred camera is a Nikon Nikkormat FS which is the most stripped down, absolutely nothing fancy (not even a light meter!) 35mm SLR camera that Nikon ever made (that I am aware of), but I have been recently relying more and more on my Nikon D40x. I love that Nikon hasn't changed their lens mount since something like 1965, so all of their old SLR glass still works!
Also! So cheap!
Anyway, the following photos were not taken with that.
They were taken with my Olympus FE-4000 point and shoot camera. It's a mediocre little portable camera. I like it though. It can take some surprisingly good (and dare I say it...Professional quality!) photos if you set it up correctly.
Long story short, it's not the equipment that makes the pro, it's the pro that makes good use of the equipment at hand.
Yes, there are some specialized lenses for certain things, but I've been able to take some pretty similar photos with some pretty cheap, fifty year old glass.
