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Mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera (MILC) or simply mirrorless cameras have become popular with the release of micro four thirds (MFT) sensor cameras from Panasonic and Olympus. Additionally, Sony took the mirrorless camera industry to the whole new level with its APS-C & Full Frame mirrorless cameras. In fact, Sony made mirrorless cameras so popular that Canon & Nikon were forced to release Full frame mirrorless cameras with launch of Canon EOS R and Nikon Z6 & Z7 mirrorless cameras.

Not many people know that, first mirrorless camera was released by an unlikely company Epson in the year 2004 with its 6.1MP rangefinder style mirrorless camera R-D1. In 2008, Panasonic launched the word’s first MFT sensor mirrorless camera – Lumix G1. Panasonic Lumix G1 was almost half the size and weight of DSLR cameras offered by the likes of Canon & Nikon at that time. Since its launch, Panasonic Lumix G series MFT sensor cameras are extremely popular with video shooters because of features (such as, zebra stripes) that were, till then, only available on high end cinema cameras from Arri or RED.

Later, Samsung with its NX and Nikon with its 1 Series, launched mirrorless cameras from 2010 onwards. However, none of the cameras offered any reliable performance. Samsung has not launched any new NX camera since 2015.

Sony in 2010, launched NEX series of mirrorless APS-C sensor cameras. Later in 2013, Sony launched 24.3MP Sony Alpha A7 & 36.4MP Sony Alpha A7R series of Full frame mirrorless cameras. Sony Alpha A7 & Alpha A7R revolutionized the entire camera industry.

Sony Alpha full frame mirrorless cameras are the best-selling mirrorless cameras of all time.

So, what are the differences between a DSLR camera and a Mirrorless camera?

Answer: no mirror! hence the term mirrorless.

DSLR cameras have a reflex mirror inside them, which bounces light up into the optical viewfinder; Hence, the name DSLR (‘Digital single-lens reflex camera’). Further, reflex mirror slides up to send the light to an digital (image) sensor when the shutter release button is pressed.  DSLR cameras have simply replaced the 35mm film with a digital sensor while keeping the rest of the design of SLR cameras exactly same.

Mirrorless cameras, on the other hand, got rid of DSLR’s clunky mirror contraption in favour of a electronic viewfinder (EVF).

So, what is the advantage of getting rid of mirrors?

Answer: small size! and arguably better Autofocus.

By getting rid of mirrors and optical viewfinder, mirrorless cameras are substantially smaller, lighter and have shorter flange distance.

“The flange distance refers to the space between where the lens is mounted to the camera body and to the camera’s image sensor.”

DSLR cameras have a separate autofocus sensor chip in them. On the contrary, mirrorless cameras have autofocus operation integrated on a digital sensor. This integration of autofocus on the digital sensor along with the shorter flange distance resulted in faster and more accurate autofocus. Gone are the days of out-of-focus portraits due to back/front focusing by a DSLR camera (to understand how focus works, please refer to the post titled ‘Focus’).       

Lastly, since a DSLR’s optical viewfinder reflects light from the reflex mirror without altering the image, you are dependent on the DSLR camera’s metering and your experience to predict what the final image will look like. Meanwhile, electronic viewfinder in the mirrorless cameras shows exposure simulated preview of an image that is being captured by a digital sensor. i.e., EVFs on mirrorless cameras shows you a preview of what the final image will look like before you take the picture. For example, if you change the shutter speed or the aperture, the preview on the EVF will change accordingly.

Not everything is hunky-dory in the mirrorless universe. Since, mirrorless cameras require battery to power electronic viewfinder, they consume significantly more battery life as compared to DSLR’s. For example, Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR and Canon EOS R mirrorless share same Canon LP-E6N battery pack. However, Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR is rated for 900 shots while as Canon EOS R mirrorless is rated for 350 shots.

Also, apart from the flagship mirrorless camera models, EVSs in the mirrorless cameras suffer from traditional display related quarks. i.e., blackouts in burst shooting, low refresh rate, pixelated images.     

In conclusion, even with battery and EVF limitations, mirrorless camera technology is the FUTURE – no doubt about it.