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why they need the mirrors then? (genuinely asking)
by pbalau 8y ago
why they need the mirrors then? (genuinely asking)
- Someone1234 8y agoYeah. I think the person above is confusing a digital overlay with a digital viewfinder. Apples and oranges. As useful as digital overlays are (and they are, particularly the graphs) they cannot do what an LCD viewfinder can do which is to say completely "demo" what the final picture will look like (i.e. show the results of shutter speed and ISO settings). Mirrored lens cameras still have their usages. I'd definitely take one for high speed sports shooting in particular (even the best LCDs introduce some latency). But for day to day, particularly learning photography, digital viewfinders are a huge improvement that make mirrorless worth it all by themselves. I'd never go back to a DSLR, the loss of information in the viewfinder is a massive deficit (not to mention the weight/size/unreliability).
- jsjohnst 8y ago> they cannot do what an LCD viewfinder can do which is to say completely "demo" what the final picture will look like (i.e. show the results of shutter speed and ISO settings). I’m definitely not talking about an overlay. I’m talking live full demo view on the LCD screen. The mirror is “locked up” when the LCD screen is on and you get a preview of what the end result photo would be just like you describe isn’t possible. From Wikipedia[0], here’s a list of the first model supporting live view of each respective series: Canon: 20Da, 40D, 450D, 1000D, 1D Mark III, 5D Mark II, 6D Mark II, 7D Fujifilm: FinePix S3 Pro, FinePix IS Pro Leica: Digilux 3 Nikon: D90, D300, D700, D3 Olympus: E-10, E-330, E-30, E-3 Panasonic: DMC-L1 Pentax: K20D, K-7, K-x Samsung: GX-20 Sony: A300, A350, A500, A55, and A77 As most of those cameras were released ~10 years ago and as the Wikipedia article indicates “there is no product line in which live preview has been abandoned after being introduced”, there are now probably almost a hundred models of dSLRs with live preview functionality, if not more. In fact, that article goes on to state: > and almost all new DSLRs have had the feature since mid-2008 [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_preview https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_preview
- Someone1234 8y agoWhich is completely off-topic. The discussion is Viewfinders. Even your own reply above referenced Viewfinders specifically: > There’s plenty of dSLRs with digital viewfinders A digital Viewfinder actually has an LCD (or other type of digital display) within the Viewfinder assembly itself. It has nothing to do with the rear/main display at all. Your other reply makes me think you don't know what the Viewfinder is. So here's some references: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewfinder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewfinder https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/50028/whats-the-proper-name-for-the-eye-viewfinder https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/50028/whats-the-pr...
- pbalau 8y agoTo be pedantic, the topic started about "wayfinders". But that shows I'm an idiot, so let's not talk about that
- jsjohnst 8y agoMany mirrorless cameras only have an LCD screen, so are we saying they don’t have a viewfinder? The context wasn’t your pedantic view of what a viewfinder is, the context was comparing mirrorless cameras to dSLR cameras. I have clearly laid out a case why OPs critique of dSLRs only having optical viewfinders (which they called “analog”) is misguided with extensive examples and a solid basis for my claim. The fact you are so focused on your definition of a single word shows you are trying to “win” the debate rather than be factual and genuine, so I’ll say have a “great day!” and continue on with my life.
- Someone1234 8y ago> Many mirrorless cameras only have an LCD screen, so are we saying they don’t have a viewfinder? Yes. That's what everyone says, manufacturers, retailers, and customers. Take for example this comparison chart on Olympus' website. Note some cameras, with a rear display have no Viewfinder listed where there is none: https://www.getolympus.com/us/en/pen#products-table-1 https://www.getolympus.com/us/en/pen#products-table-1 They call the rear screen the "monitor." Which seems fine, but I've also read it called the rear display, main display, preview screen, and so on. > The context wasn’t your pedantic view of what a viewfinder is If I call an apple an "apple," that isn't a pedantic view, that's the name of the object. If I call a Viewfinder a "Viewfinder" that is no less a pedantic view, and instead the name of thing we're discussing. In general you obviously misunderstood what the word viewfinder meant, and went off on a rant that didn't make a whole lot of sense as a result. I'd suggest you go try a mirrorless camera with a digital viewfinder and report back when you have the prerequisite knowledge for this topic.
- jsjohnst 8y agoThe mirror is for the small optical viewfinder window at the top. When you hit the button for live preview, the mirror is “locked up” and the main sensor powers a “live view” on the LCD screen which gives you a preview including aperture/iso/exposure/etc settings all applied just like on many mirrorless cameras. The reason the small viewfinder exists is because it draws power to keep the sensor on and the mirror locked up. Keeping the sensor on for long periods of time can cause the sensor to heat up which will degrade picture quality (albeit not by a lot with current high end sensors, so the main reason is power draw). Historically the focusing and E-TTL sensors were also only on the same side of the mirror as the optical viewfinder, so you’d lose auto-focus and flash metering when the mirror was locked up, but that is generally not the case anymore.