And that's one of the problems with trying to talk in generalities about workflows. Everyone has their own needs and quirks. It's like walking into a shoe store and asking for the best shoe they have. Well, what you need the shoe for (dancing, basketball, football, etc.,) and what your individual quirks are (the shape of your feet) will determine the best shoe for you. And the best shoe for you might not even be the best shoe for the guy next to you even though you are both looking for a new pair of track shoes.
You are talking about two separate things, IMO. The spec of the gear and what the gear gets used for are two different things. I've used iDVD to make DVDs for clients but that doesn't make iDVD a pro-level DVD authoring app.
Consumer, prosumer and professional gear is typically separated by price, build quality, features, form factor, etc.,. but what tools you decided to use and how you use them is totally up to you.
Lethal
Going purely by the specs of the 5DMIII, judging by price, build quality, and features, IMO I find it to be 100% professional. The industry overwhelmingly agrees with this opinion. There's nothing prosumer about it.
The 7D gets a little murkier, but only because it doesn't have a full frame sensor. that's really the only drawback. However, people who have used the camera will generally tell you that this is only a hinderance to non-professionals, since professionals can easily get professional results from it. If you know what you're doing, and how to compensate for the cropped sensor, you're golden. The 60D and the Rebels
are considered prosumer, and mostly because of the build, not the results.
Canon, based on conversations with their reps, and their professional product catalogue, consider the 7D to be professional. Their website, however, description describes the 7D as "semi-professional". It seems even Canon can't decide on that one. But Hollywood can. The 7D was used for several shots in Black Swan, according to the 7D wikipedia page. It was used in Red Tails, Red State, House, and SNL. The 5D was recently used in The Avengers.
And that does matter. In the end, being professional has far more to do with results than specs. Final Cut was finally considered professional after Cold Mountain and LOTR, not the addition of some feature. The studios that make those titles, they aren't printing DVDs on iDVD, even though you might. Those productions are as professional as this industry gets.
Also, regarding, "there's no genlock, TC I/O, XLRs, etc," a lot of professionals don't need those. Those are minor worries.
P.S. I use iDVD sometimes too.
🙂
TV. Whether or not the viewer will care depends on the individual. That's really a non-issue to me though because it's my goal to do the best I can in the time I have with material I have.