I normally don’t talk about cameras because the best camera is the one you have with you, and for most people, that’s their phone. Also, it’s not about the camera – it’s about the photo you take with whatever you have.
There have been too big changes in technology over the last few years. The first is the quality of the cameras on phones. They have taken over the majority of the point-and-shoot camera market. For most people the camera on their phone is more than adequate – so why carry anything else?
That leaves the professionals and enthusiasts. I’m in the enthusiast category and for me, the biggest recent change in technology has been DSLR to mirrorless.
What is the difference between a mirrorless camera and a DSLR?
First of all – what is an SLR? An SLR or single lens reflex camera is one that uses a mirror and prism system that allows you to look through the lens via the viewfinder. When you push the shutter button, the mirror is moved out of the way so the lens can project onto the film (or sensor as in the case of a Digital SLR or DSLR). Some early film reflex cameras avoided the mirror by having two lenses – one that you looked through and one that took the photo. These were called twin-lens reflex cameras (e.g. Rolleiflex).
There are two basic problems with DSLRs. The first is that “What you see is not What you get”. Yes it is true that you are looking through the same lens that is used to focus on the sensor. However, you do not get any feedback as to whether you set the exposure (shutter speed, aperture etc.) correctly. Things may look fine in the viewfinder but the resulting photo may end up too light or too dark if you didn’t get the exposure right.
The second problem is that when you are focusing with a DSLR, the sensor is not involved (hidden by the mirror). Most DSLR manufacturers created a separate focus plane that along with the lens has to be calibrated to insure that the final focus on the sensor is correct. The calibration results in potential focus errors and makes it difficult for other lens manufacturers to calibrate their lenses correctly for the camera.
Unlike a DSLR, a mirrorless camera is like a point and shoot with a viewfinder. When you look through the viewfinder, you are looking at the output from the sensor. What you see is what you get. Focus points are on the sensor so there is no calibration problem.
The problem with early mirrorless cameras was battery life and viewfinder refresh times. Sensor electronics did not allow writing to the sensor and reading from the sensor at the same time. If you were continuously shooting while taking a photo of a moving object, the viewfinder had blackout times when the photo was being taken (i.e. while writing to the sensor). It also limited the frame rate (the number of photos per second) that the camera could handle. Continuously refreshing the viewfinder also used up the battery very quickly.
For many people (including myself), when mirrorless cameras came out, we knew that DSLRs would eventually go the way of film cameras. It was just a matter of time. Canon, Nikon and a few other camera manufacturers appeared to be in denial.
The real problem for Canon and Nikon was that mirrorless was a disruptive technology. In order to switch to mirrorless, Canon and Nikon would have to come up with a new lens mount and the hundreds of lenses that they had developed for DSLRs would have to be re-developed.
When Sony came up with the first full frame mirrorless camera, Canon and Nikon executives said that mirrorless would never be fast enough. Did Canon and Nikon really believe that? I doubt it. They just wanted to sell more of their DSLRs and the 100’s of lenses that went with them. It wasn’t until 5 years later, when Sony came out with a high end mirrorless camera that was faster than Canon’s fastest DSLR, that Canon and Nikon both came out with their first full-frame mirrorless cameras – which they had obviously been working on all along.
I bought one of the early Sony cameras. Since it had no calibration problem and because the mirror was no longer there, that space could be used for an adapter. I sold my Canon DSLR, bought an adapter and used all my Canon lenses with the Sony camera. I eventually sold the Canon lenses in favour of Tamron and Sony lenses.
I don’t have the highest end camera Sony makes – but I do have one that does everything I need for the kind of photos I take. My phone camera on the other hand, doesn’t work at all. I dropped the phone on the floor and shattered the camera lens along with the back of the phone; it’s now being held together with the help of the plastic case. Since I almost always carry a separate camera with me wherever I go, it’s not really a problem. I’ll likely keep the phone until it falls apart altogether.
WR Foster 