I did product photography for housewares and giftware and clothing for fifteen years. It depends entirely on what the boss is willing to spring for, and I can tell you, they only want to buy cheap equipment. I used a Rebel XT, Ti and cheap horrible lenses. The final images were used in catalogues, and honestly, printed and online images really don't need high-end cameras. Lighting is important, a decent lens is nice but even with excellent lighting, it was much faster to use the pen tool in photoshop to cut out the product for any background I wished. I could do a fairly complicated product cutout in about 5-10 seconds, twenty at most. Whereas setting up the lighting for the subject and trying to blow the background at the same time could take much much longer.
Whether I used softboxes or not, depended entirely on my art directors. Some preferred the softbox lighting, some preferred a harder look or gobos.. (I wanted to try and explain that it really made no difference to a catalogue image that was reduced down to a 500px x 500px image, but that would have been a waste of breath, lol).
Posting images online, and even in catalogues, pretty much negates any advantages of the higher end cameras. The subject isn't going to move or run away, and that really is the benefit of the more expensive cameras, to have the benefit of capturing fast subjects with accurate AF. If it aint moving, you could use the cheapest dslr out there.
When I did freelance product photography, I used my own equipment, which ranged from a 5Dmkii, to a 6D, to a mirrorless, with four monolights with softboxes, and gobos. I usually only used two monos, the others were for incidentals or accidents.There are some great inexpensive brands out there today. I had black and white flags of foamcore boards, reflectors, etc. as well.
Unless you are working with extreme colour corrected images (never gonna happen for product photography that is in catalogues or online) you don't need the most expensive lighting. The product photography on my website will show there's no difference between the cheapest camera setups I started out with and the more expensive equipment.
One of the things you have to watch out for, if you're planning on freelancing product photography, is to check where they want you to take the images. I had one manufacturer ask me to take images of cutlery in a store room full of shelving with product! Every little reflection would show! You need either a large backdrop, or a plain room. Those tabletop popup product photography boxes are useless by the way. You never get the lighting right, it's too constrictive. And the material texture will show on reflectiv products. A white or black foamcore tripartite stand backdrop will work much better and it's adjustable.
I realise the smartphones have come a long way, but I am absolutely biased in my hatred for them as professional tools. The images are hard to correct, and a tiny little lens is simply not gonna do it in my opinion. I don't care if it's the latest 100mpx iphone, but that's me. I know some do it, I don't know if they do it professionally though.
I'll be interested to see what other photographers say on this subject.
Cheers.
