winterrose Loc: Kyneton, Victoria, Australia

Gee, that's what I have been doing wrong. I was always told I should peer into the viewfinder and out the lens so I can see the crap I'm about to shoot.....

Dlevon Loc: New Jersey

Love your answer. Sounds right about the serious stuff. I still have my old Exacta, and you should hear that thing. All the mechanical noises when shooting a picture. And that loud mirror slap, I loved it. Something was really going on, not the wissy stuff as with todays cameras!

TucsonCoyote Loc: Tucson AZ

Yes Dlevon, then add to that the motor drive that would advance the film ! lol (I don't know if your Exacta had that but my Nikon did !) :thumbup:

Dlevon Loc: New Jersey

No TucsonCoyote, no motor drive on mine, but it doers have shutter speed from 12 seconds to1/1000th, all automatic. It has 2 dials. One dial for speeds of B, T, and 1/25th to 1000 sec.. The other is a separate slow speed dial with a spring wound self timer, of speeds of 1/5th sec to 12 sec. plus an additional 10 second delay if you want. I would go to cathedrals in Europe, mount it on a tripod set the exposure and trip the shutter. You'd hear the spring winding down for the 10second delay, then the focal plane shutter would open and after a few seconds would close, making the correct exposure, all of this with all sorts of noises. With all of this I'd be waving my arms at others to keep away from the camera. Hearing all the noise, they knew something important was going on! Hah! I loved it! Heres the outfit. I still got her.

schuchmn

SLRs still have the widest selection of lens choices. Rangefinder cameras are great for working in the moderate wide to moderate telephoto ranges, but if you want to do things like macro, sports or wildlife, you need to be seeing exactly what the lens sees.

LED screens on the backs of cameras can be hard to see in bright light and a camera held at arm's length is not as steady as a one with an eye-level viewfinder where you can keep your elbows tight to your body and brace the camera against your face. This is important if you're shooting with slow shutter speeds. Yes, the various vibration reduction systems help, but sometimes you need every advantage you can get.

Eye-level electronic viewfinders (EVFS) have improved in recent years, but the view still can't compare to the view through an SLR, and light from behind you that gets into the EVF washes out the view. I have a Panasonic G3 with an EVF as well as DSLRs and the view through the SLR finder is still way better.

That said, the G3 is still capable of capturing excellent images and it's a whole lot smaller and lighter than a DSLR -- I use it when I need to travel light.

Any camera system involves compromises and, as others have said, you need to choose what's best suited to what you want to do, how much you have to spend, etc.

bgl Loc: Brooklyn,New York

Historically, SLRs have offered the highest resolution, lowest noise, user control, and tremendous flexibility through the use of interchangeable lenses of any camera types available. Technology has advanced to the point where view finders with OLED screens compete with optical finders and other innovations are making other systems competitive with SLRs. As others have mentioned, it's all a matter of what you need and what you are comfortable with - the choices seem to be endless.

bersharbp Loc: Texas

To get, and to meter, what you see, whether it be telephoto, macro, or wide-angle

Effate Loc: El Dorado Hills, Ca.

I chose my 5d111 because I couldn't afford an m9 with a compliment of zeiss glass!

cthahn

Everyone has their likes and dislikes. Every photographer is different, every camera is different, so therefor it is strictly what the photographer thinks that works best for him.

wilpharm Loc: Oklahoma

As in a song by the wonderful Mary Gautier.."fish swim...I drink""
dunno why...
actually the 1st decent camera I bought was a dslr recommended by my photo instructor...just took her word for it..worked out well..

coolhoosier Loc: Dover, NH, USA

No parallax in the Sony A99. No mirror either.

bgl Loc: Brooklyn,New York

same for the Sony A77

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

It is FAST and ACCURATE - especially for telephoto work....

StephenVL Loc: Los Angeles, USA

I happily used SLR's for 40 years. Two years ago I went mirrorless and I have no plans to go back. What I love about the EVF is that it shows me exactly what sensor is going to capture. The eye can see a much wider range of exposure than the sensor can. In an optical viewfinder I can see better in the shadows and highlights than the sensor.
With a high quality electronic viewfinder I can see how much detail their is in the shadows and highlights there is and can adjust to get what I want.

norvik1943 Loc: Jenks, OK and Domazan, France

To me, using rangefinder camera brought parallex issues and incorrect framing as well as not knowing for sure what the image outcome might be until the film was processed. The SLR minimized later cropping, and gave an on the scene idea of the final exposure as you played with aperture and speed settings, plus preview mode.

Rangefinder cameras did some parallex correction though so the main reason I like "mirror" is getting a better idea of what the final image might look like.