Meaning of mirrors: Pardon my ignorance or being away from the nuts and bolts of photography for too long: but what is the meaning of mirrorless photography?

cboysen Loc: Homewood, IL

Pardon my ignorance or being away from the nuts and bolts of photography for too long: but what is the meaning of mirrorless photography?

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

OMG - you ignorant dolt!! ;-D

No, seriously - mirrorless refers to cameras that have interchangeable lenses but do not use the mirror/pentaprism manner to put an image in the eyepiece. Instead, an Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) which is like a little TV screen, is behind the eyepiece you hold up to your eye and it shows what is essentially a "live view" of the image being passed through the taking lens. Another acronym for the cameras is "EVIL" - Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens

TucsonCoyote Loc: Tucson AZ

And if it doesn't have a changeable lens then it's a Bridge Camera !

n3eg Loc: West coast USA

You forgot to mention that it makes the camera lighter and smaller, and the lenses are around 20-30mm shorter.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

n3eg wrote:

You forgot to mention that it makes the camera lighter and smaller, and the lenses are around 20-30mm shorter.

I didn't "forget" - those are features of but not the definition of mirrorless.

BebuLamar

I think most people consider a mirrorless camera is a camera which has the following features.

1. A digital camera. They don't call a film camera mirrorless.
2. Interchangeable lenses although some don't consider this as a must.
3. Provide viewing thru the lens but not using the reflex mirror like that in an SLR but rather with an EVF or Liveview LCD.

TucsonCoyote Loc: Tucson AZ

BebuLamar wrote:

I think most people consider a mirrorless camera is a camera which has the following features.

1. A digital camera. They don't call a film camera mirrorless.
2. Interchangeable lenses although some don't consider this as a must.
3. Provide viewing thru the lens but not using the reflex mirror like that in an SLR but rather with an EVF or Liveview LCD.

I had a small mirrorless when I was a kid ....Brownie 120 film camera !

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Mirror, what mirror...I don't need no stinkin' mirror.

bikerbill7

f8lee wrote:

OMG - you ignorant dolt!! ;-D br br No, seriousl... (show quote)

OK then, I bought my wife what might be called a mirrorless camera though one cannot change the lens...it does have a nice zoom though...The view through the viewfinder is essentially "live view" my question here is: the camera takes forever to take the picture, press the shutter and then wait....and sometimes the subject does not....So, does the same thing happen with a mirrorless camera?

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

bikerbill7 wrote:

OK then, I bought my wife what might be called a mirrorless camera though one cannot change the lens...it does have a nice zoom though...The view through the viewfinder is essentially "live view" my question here is: the camera takes forever to take the picture, press the shutter and then wait....and sometimes the subject does not....So, does the same thing happen with a mirrorless camera?

Not with EM1...it's a machine gun, darn near instant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWwj7LxRv6g...

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

bikerbill7 wrote:

OK then, I bought my wife what might be called a mirrorless camera though one cannot change the lens...it does have a nice zoom though...The view through the viewfinder is essentially "live view" my question here is: the camera takes forever to take the picture, press the shutter and then wait....and sometimes the subject does not....So, does the same thing happen with a mirrorless camera?

As @MT alludes, the answer is no - the camera you have is based on a different kind of chip (most P&S and bridge cameras use imaging chips designed for movie use, and so have a rather significant shutter lag due to the electronics in the camera having to rejigger stuff in order to take a still shot). The mirrorless cameras about which we speak here use imaging chips meant for still shots, and so do not have that long shutter lag at all. That's why I like the term "EVIL" - the "interchangeable lens" part excludes these other kinds of models.

bikerbill7

f8lee wrote:

As @MT alludes, the answer is no - the camera you ... (show quote)

Thanks, I had been wondering about that for some time

BebuLamar

TucsonCoyote wrote:

I had a small mirrorless when I was a kid ....Brownie 120 film camera !

Exactly what I meant. I know you have cameras without a mirror but I have heard nobody called them that.

CHOLLY Loc: THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE!

BebuLamar wrote:

I think most people consider a mirrorless camera is a camera which has the following features.

1. A digital camera. They don't call a film camera mirrorless.
2. Interchangeable lenses although some don't consider this as a must.
3. Provide viewing thru the lens but not using the reflex mirror like that in an SLR but rather with an EVF or Liveview LCD.

^^^This.

Though any digital camera without a mirror is mirrorless, regardless of the lens arrangement. ;)

sbesaw Loc: Boston

Interesting perspective on future of mirrorlesss cameras by Byungdeok Nam, Senior Vice President of Samsung's R&D team in the company's Mobile (formerly Digital Imaging) division

Full text of interview at CES below as reported by DPReview but here are a couple of questions and answers:

"Do you think theres anything that DSLRs still do better?"

"No, not really. At least not for customers who want small sized cameras. If we put the NX1s functions into a DSLR it would be much bigger."

"When will DSLRs become extinct?"

"I wouldnt like to say, but since 2008 when mirrorless systems were announced, mirrorless didnt grow very rapidly. In the last year, however, market reports are predicting that in 2018/19 mirrorless cameras will outsell DSLRs."

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/7808127857/ces-2015-samsung-interview-mirrorless-to-outsell-dslrs-in-three-years