Wish I'd seen this debate when it first started
Terry mentions that very valuable piece of equipment - the eye! Not available for purchase and can't really be trained or taught. Yes, you can enhance the eye through education and training - but, in my opinion, you have to have an element of artistic quality to see the image in the first place. Equipment and education can help enhance that vision, along with critique from other togs, but you need to be able to see the potential image in the first place.
I need to do some digging but there is a Magnum member who only uses compacts, other top pros have either no formal photographic training or many have 'only' done City & Guilds type courses. Most pros use the latest equipment - but there are also many out their with 'old' cameras (define 'old' in the digital age!).
I do smile when I nread the Forum posts along the lines of 'I want to be a pro so what camera and/or course should I do/get?'. Now, I have great admiration for anyone wanting to better themselves in photography but there does seem to be an element of 'how do I buy a Pro career'. Now, is that as a result of the digital age and people seeing fantastic imagery everywhere they look? Or are people generally looking for career changes? Personally, I think it's the digital age making photography more accessible and making the suggestion that we can all make a go of it - and that's great, the more photographers the better. But then there is the other side, the more photographers, the harder it is to make a career out of it through competition - so does this then mean you need better courses and cameras to stand out more?
NO! Know your camera inside out and develop your own photographic style. Yes, technology can help - Elvis mentions ISO/noise handling for his type of photography. But, for the majority of us, 15Mp doesn't give you a 'better' image than 6Mp - it might give a cleaner, bigger print, but does it make the subject matter stop someone in their stride and make them look at your print just because you used a Canon 1Ds MkIII? No, it goes back to what some of the great photographers say;
It's the difference between 'taking a photo' and 'making an image'.
And just for the record, I've been published many times and sold numerous prints through my website and exhibitions and I'm still using my Canon 300D from late 2004! Yes, Santa is helping with a body upgrade but...
Cheers
Andy