Giving up the mirror

[Matt]

I have gone mirror-less!
I started on a prosumer camera with the digital viewfinder, and switching to an SLR since March of 2007, I recently purchased a new camera, that is not an SLR.

Have I gone backwards in technology? Have I given up image quality and performance? Will I be holding my camera out in front of me and shooting from chest level?

Nope. Just giving up the mirror and getting a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. Micro 4/3, which is the successor of the 4/3 platform I have been using.

I don't have the camera yet, it's set to be released next month. And my experience using Micro 4/3 cameras is limited to shooting photos of my friend with her Olympus Pen. But I believe that mirrorless IS the future of photography. And I'm looking forward to the challenge of adapting to the new system.

SLR cameras use a mirror to direct the viewfinder through the lens. The mirror poses a few problems. It needs a housing for it's movement. It fails. It gets out of alignment. Focus is based on the mirror, not the sensor or film (and thus is off by a little), it makes a lot of noise, it shakes the camera. Remove the mirror and just let the sensor feed the image to the LCD viewfinder and you eliminate a lot of those issues.

My biggest fear IS the digital viewfinder. Not that i think it will be inferior, but i think it will be different, almost claustrophobic, looking into a box and not seeing the real world out on the other side. But I know what i will see is what my camera sees. And that will put things in better perspective when I'm shooting. The viewfinder will tell me what edges of the scene are in focus, superimpose a histogram, give me an aperture preview, and allow me to review what I had just shot without having to move the camera away from my face. The key is efficiency through technology integrated into the live view viewfinder, reduced motions, and less shutter mechanics (no mirror slap when taking photos). I think snapping photos feels a lot different on a mirrorless.

What I really am looking forward to is having a smaller camera, smaller lenses, and not sacrificing image quality. Lugging my metal E5 around the mountains was not fun at all. Even going a day around Niagara Falls was a pain. So when I travel again, i want to go lighter. I will report back when I have the camera and can do some testing.

[L_G_D]

Digital displays are getting to the point where an actual mirror viewfinder is becoming less and less desirable. Although I have no immediate plans to buy a new camera, I expect the next one I do buy will not have a mirror, but a very high resolution digital display view finder and external large display as well. Mirrors are going the way of film I think.

[Matt]

I was looking at something on my father's Powershot S2 camera (it's got to be from 2006) and took a look through the digital viewfinder. Wow... terrible. But it is 0.1 megapixels.
Most advanced digital viewfinders now are about 1.44 MP. I have seen a sony one like this and resolution was crisp. Contrast was low.
The camera I ordered has 2.36 MP (1024x768). The 4 inch iphone Retina display has 640×960 pixels. So I guess it's overkill.

[Matt]

What a fellow Olympus photographer says about the new viewfinder ...

In a recent article on the future of the DSLR, one of the sticking points was viewfinder technology: I think those arguments are losing weight with every generation of EVF. The E-M1′s panel is now about the same size and magnification as the D800E; something impossible to do with a smaller sensor size simply because of the laws of physics – you’d land up sacrificing brightness or size since you have to make a smaller image area larger. On top of that, we of course have the ability to a) see actual depth of field* all the time, b) have dynamic information overlays, c) judge exposure and d) judge color. There’s a new tool called the Color Creator which takes advantage of this: effectively, it’s a live dynamic white balance and saturation shift; in conjunction with the live tone adjustments – effectively curves – you have an enormous and instantly visible ability to alter color balance to taste on the fly, just using the front and rear dials. It also allows you to apply color filter effects to B&W conversions – e.g. darkening blue skies with a red filter – by reducing saturation to zero and shifting the hue. In fact, with the quality of the new jpeg engine, it’s even one less reason to shoot RAW for most people.

http://blog.mingthein.com/2013/09/10/ol ... -review-1/

[Matt]

I have had my mirrorless camera for just over a week and did one brief landscape outing and one shoot with the niece and nephew.

Here are my impressions so far:

1. Mirrorless cameras, even the big ones, are still small. Not just miniaturized, they are significantly thinner because they don't need room for an angled mirror and clearance for it to flip up. My camera is Olympus, so it still needs extra room for the stabilization and dust reduction motors behind the sensor, so it's not as thin as the platform has potential for.

2. Electronic Viewfinders still look like electronic viewfinders. From what I hear, this model has the best out there now, and I'm still disappointed. Based on what people were saying, I was expecting to be impressed. While it is bigger on this small camera than it is on many Full Frame cameras, contrast and framerate still make it obvious it is an EVF.

3. I love having a histogram, all the camera settings, real time focus clues, real time white balance, and real time review all in the viewfinder. It means less taking the camera away from my face to review and adjust. I can see what I am shooting before I shoot it. Even when I set the camera to HDR mode, I see a preview of what it will look like, in real time. Exposure, ISO, white balance... all real time.

4. I can customize about 3 different view setups of the EVF and turn a few features on and off of each. While that is expected, I want the ability to customize it completely. Why? Why the hell not?

5. Focus zooming and peaking alone opens me up to buying manual focus glass. I can now manual focus faster and with confidence.

6. 10 fps seems ridiculous, but comes in handy. Not having a mirror allows for shutters to be faster and with less mechanical movement. I can hand-hold and bracket so much reliably now. Three exposures shot in a split second with little variance between the scenes... it's wonderful.

[Des219]

There are definitely some advantages to the mirrorless, though there are still pluses to mirrors. I actually like the larger body. I started with a rebel and moved up to a full frame. The larger camera balances well with the heavier glass. The weight helps reduce vibration from wind. There are times that the size gets in the way though. And it would be nice to be more discrete.

To fix the mirror slap, you can always shoot in live view if you have it. The live view has almost everything that a mirrorless has, accept for speed of both focus and rapid shooting. Canon hacks exist that let you take photos from the live view stream. They can in theory support 30+ frames per second with no sound and no vibration.

I do agree with Matt and LGD that the future will be without mirrors.

[Matt]

The balancing issue for mirrorless is offset by the the smaller, squarer sensors, and shorter flange distance, so the glass i for micro4/3 is half the size, if not less then typical full frame glass. They have a 12-40 f/2.8 now that's about the same size as my kit 4/3 lens 14-42 f/3.5-5.6.

I'm excited about the ability to travel lighter, having lugged a standard size SLR up a mountain or two and having it be a burden on my enjoyment of travel, and even waterfall hiking. With performance of the Olympus EM-1 on par with high level APSC cameras, and then some on the bells and whistles, size is my new first feature when shopping for a camera and lenses. There are diminishing returns now on camera sensors and electronics, camera body form factor is the future.

A mirrorless camera can always always be as big as a larger format camera. But an SRL has limitations on how small it can go.
I love the prospect of having a pocketable camera, such as the GM1, I may pick up soon, be able to natively share lenses with my main pro body.


I'm also excited about having a quiet or non-existent shutter. When I shoot street scenes in china, people shooting or working a public market, or even my family at a get-together, the last thing i want them to do during a candid moment, is here my curtain of three clicks and immediately recognize that sound, and change up their behavior.

I guess I'll have to deal with an EFV looking artificial until they can optimize that technology.

[ApproachingLight]

Matt,

I would love to see some pics. Don't want to put you to the task of cleaning them up etc so much as to see the clarity. Did you have to get all new lenses. What lenses did you use. Any annotation on the pics would be great…"i used HDR setting here. No tripod here. Shot in to the sun there…" Post production differences if any. Really no need for an essay, just interested.

Great topic.

David