The magic of mirrorless
Angela Nicholson
Photographer and journalist Angela Nicholson reviewed cameras for Amateur Photographer and was our technical editor. She’s tested everything from compacts to medium-format cameras. She’s also witnessed the evolution of mirrorless system cameras first-hand. Visit www.angelanicholson.com
In the earliest days of modern mirrorless cameras, the main claim made for them was that they were smaller and lighter than DSLRs. Dumping the mirror and pentaprism saved lots of space and allowed the lens mount to be moved closer to the sensor, enabling the cameras and lenses to be made smaller. But the first mirrorless system cameras weren’t without issues. Their electronic viewfinders (EVF) lacked in the resolution and refresh-rate department, so they were often viewed as something of a poor relative to optical viewfinders. And their autofocus (AF) systems needed good light to work and could only really cope with stationary subjects.
Thankfully things have moved on a lot in the past 10 years. Mirrorless cameras can still be tiny, but there are also larger models to
