Since time immemorial I've been attracted to cameras, and specifically SLRs. My first camera was a compact 35mm with an uncoupled viewfinder and zone focus system, and a VERY sharp lens. In the right hands it could do wonders. In my ham-fisted ones it rarely shone.. and so I eventually managed to convince a rich uncle to gift me an.. SLR. This one was great, I could see what I was doing, but the ham-fisted hands persisted and if anything I struggled even more to get decent pictures. These were the days of expired film and hand-developing with old chemicals.. The results were a bit iffy, but once in a blue moon something special came out. Fast forward many years and after the inevitable switch to digital I was still firmly in the SRL camp. And what does SLR mean, you ask?!
Single Lens Reflex. Reflex because the image is reflected from the image plane up through a viewfinder, so you see what the film will see. Single lens because unlike dual lens systems like the TLR's (TWIN.. get it?) SLR's only use one lens, so you're seeing exactly what will end up as the final image, in terms of framing. And now add a D for Digital and you get a DSLR, which is what I'm currently shooting. But lately the buzz-word has been Mirrorless. What is mirrorless you say?! Well, effectively it's taking out the Reflex out of Single Lens.. The imaging sensor "sees" the image before you take it and a copy of that is projected onto an electronic viewfinder. So you're still effectively looking through the single lens, just in a different way. For a long time SLR's and DSLR's could claim a better viewfinder, especially the higher end cameras which offered 100% viewfinder coverage (WYSIWYG for the computer programmers out there) and long eye-relief (meaning you could see the whole viewfinder comfortably, withought having to push your eyeball into the camera!
Time though marches on, and what initially seemed like a lacklustre solution.. looking at a mini TV-screen approximating the scene in front of you, soon matured and became a surreal experience.. being able to see IN THE DARK as if in daylight, easily focusing on your subject, while DSLR's started to struggle. Not only that but mirrorless cameras could do away with the whole mirror-box assembly making the cameras slimmer, and as a side benefit the shorter flange to sensor distance meant that all of a sudden you could mount all your competitor's lenses on your own camera.. A massive advantage indeed, which meant that all those vintage manual focus lenses languishing in op-shops and thrift stores and under layers of dust in old camera stores suddenly came into vogue.. an adapter away from photographic heaven. And indeed the ability to use different lenses from different manufacturers all on one body is a most liberating feeling. No longer "locked into" a camera system, you are free to choose the best lens, no matter the manufacturer. Think of Canon's legendary 50mm f0.95, which only worked on ONE rangefinder model, the Canon 7. Or Nikon's 200mm f2 VR lens.. a monster of a lens with bokeh in spades.. Smoething more esoteric? An Apo Lanthar macro lens from Voightlander, a modern gem of a lens that outresolves just about anything out there. A tilt and shift from Canon? Or a Hasselblad lens? You can use (almost) all of them on this humble Mirrorless..
So what did I do? I went out and bought one. Stay tuned to find out more...
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