I was quick to transition from film to digital cameras. I’ve been using DSLRs for over 15 years now. I embraced the technology. The concept of a lightweight body with extensive manual controls, and an electronic viewfinder is old news. Over twenty years ago I was running around with my Olympus C-2100UZ.

Mirrorless (Sans-mirror)

When looking through the viewfinder of a digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR), you see right through the lens. This is possible by reflecting the light passing through the lens off multiple mirrors/prisms to the viewfinder. When you take a picture, one of the mirrors tucks away to allow the light coming through the lens to hit the image sensor instead of your viewfinder. This action temporarily blocks your vision through the lens, allowing the mechanical shutter to expose the image sensor, making the iconic click noise.

When looking through the electronic viewfinder of a mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera (MILC), you see a small LED display, a preview of what your lens sees, and a fairly accurate representation of how your picture will be captured. Most MILCs have a mechanical shutter; which works similarly to the DSLR, and an electronic shutter. The ladder has no moving parts, allows for silent shooting, and extremely fast shutter speeds.

Good Exciting

I don’t want to sound like an old curmudgeon, so I’ll start with what excites me about mirrorless cameras.

Electronic Viewfinder

Visualizing your photo as it will be captured right in the viewfinder is nice. There is no guesswork involved. Change your shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, and see the effect before pulling the trigger. I imagine this will make it easier for newbies to conceptualize these functions.

In-Body Image Stabilization

I push the limits of low-light situations and need all the help I can get. Having a little extra stabilization right in the body sounds amazing, especially for a couple of my lenses without image stabilization.

Control Rings

Canon RF lenses now have "control rings". These are circular dials that wrap around the barrel of the lens. You can customize the ring to manipulate functions of the camera like shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and so on. A quick, easy-to-remember, no-hassle selector, right at your fingertips, sounds amazing. They even sell an EF to RF mount adapter with a control ring, so my old lenses could use the same feature.

New Lenses

The new Canon RF lenses have me salivating. Constant and fast aperture (under F/3), image stabilized, weather sealed, 15mm wide-angel telephoto, auto and full-time manual focus, and of course a control ring. What more can you ask for?

Bad Sad Day

Here is what concerns me about our mirrorless future.

RF Mount

The new RF lens mount comes with new licensing agreements. This means that companies like Sigma and Tamron were not able to start making lenses for the RF mount themselves until a couple of years ago. I don’t blame Canon for holding back as long as they did, but the stifling of innovation and competition is worth noting.

Electronic Viewfinder

Photography is occasionally my excuse to ‘touch grass’.

Is looking down a viewfinder and seeing life through a half-inch television hampered by that?

  • Resolution: even with millions of pixels that are practically touching your eye
  • Organic Light-Emitting Diodes: even with amazing contrast and great viewing angels
  • Frame Rate: even with fast refresh rates

Yes, you’re still looking at a screen! It's amazing how noticeable the latency is outdoors, even at 120 frames per second.

Battery Life

These advancements; like the electronic viewfinder, are likely the cause of the battery life on mirrorless cameras to be noticeably worse. Although the life of the battery can be extended by Canon’s “Eco Mode”, you best pack a few more batteries lest you like motion sickness.

Canon does deserve kudos for their battery’s backward compatibility though.

Ugly Spaghetti Western

The hype around taking 20+ photos per second, extended continuous shooting, and doing it all silently is great until you realize the side effects, such as:

  • Reduced Dynamic Range: bit depth of photos is often reduced to increase speed
  • Rolling Shutter Effect: objects moving quickly can become distorted
  • Banding: certain artificial light sources render as stripes

The shutter controls the exposure time of the photograph. Although mirrorless cameras can; and often are, armed with both types of shutters. It’s worth noting that some of these fantastic-sounding specs have drawbacks.

You see, in this world there's two kinds of shutters, my friend: mechanical ones and electronic ones.

Quote parody from the movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966

Mechanical Shutters

Imagine sitting in a dark room on a sunny day. You yank on the pull cord of nearby Venetian blinds covering a window. Flash! The room fills with blinding light. Now, picture closing the blinds, and returning yourself to darkness, all within a fraction of a millisecond. Mechanical shutters work similarly. That flash of light is all that the sensor needs to capture the moment.

Electronic Shutters

On the other hand, in that same dark room, imagine you drag your finger from the top of the Venetian blinds to the bottom. Each horizontal slat will flick up momentarily, piercing the room with light, one at a time. This is similar to how the electronic shutter works, but digitally. No moving parts. The sensor is exposed to bans of light over time. The ramifications of this are listed above.

To learn more about the difference, check out a visual demonstration here.

Although I’m excited for what’s next for mirrorless cameras, it’s the end of a great era. What will the future hold (Canon R7 Mk II)??!!?