{"id":146,"date":"2012-01-20T16:56:58","date_gmt":"2012-01-20T21:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=146"},"modified":"2024-09-05T21:56:03","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T02:56:03","slug":"the-mirrorless-camera-industry-and-the-search-for-the-perfect-camera-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/the-mirrorless-camera-industry-and-the-search-for-the-perfect-camera-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mirrorless Camera Industry and the Search for the Perfect Camera – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this two-part series, Admiring Light will take a brief look at the history of cameras, look at the emergence of digital Compact System Cameras (mirrorless digital cameras), and finally examine upcoming products and how they may, or may not, fit into the modern photographer’s quest for the Perfect Camera.  This is part one; part two is here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since modern photography became a mainstream art, photographers have been searching for the perfect gear for their needs.  At the beginning of modern photography, it was a specialty art that required the use of large view cameras with solid plates of either metal or glass, and was not only extremely technically challenging, but often beyond the understanding or means of the average Joe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kodak No. 2A Brownie – Photo by John Kratz, Burlington NJ, USA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This began to change when George Eastman developed celluloid film and really began to take off with mass-market appeal with the introduction of the Brownie in 1900.  This opened low-cost photography to the masses, though professionals and those serious about photography generally stuck to plates and view cameras for superior quality.  When Oskar Barnack at Leitz developed the first camera using 35mm film and began marketing it as the Leica I in 1925, it really started the thought process among even serious photographers about which camera and system to choose, and what the drawbacks and benefits to the smaller 35mm format were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 35mm format ended up being a real sweet spot for quality, ease of use and portability, and became the dominant format for photography in the 20th Century.  This can be subdivided into two distinct categories of 35mm camera, as both Rangefinders and Single Lens Reflex cameras took a major foothold.  The 35mm rangefinder became the camera of choice for street photography and candid portraiture, while the SLR was dominant for most other types of photography within the 35mm realm. The SLR became most prominent due to the handling, through the lens viewfinder, development of fast autofocus and high speed motor drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then digital came along.  Around the turn of the 21st Century, digital imaging technology had reached a point where the quality was viable as an alternative to film for many uses and the first digital SLRs began to emerge, though priced for professionals only.  By 2003 , when Canon introduced the EOS Digital Rebel, digital had finally attained viability not only for working professionals, but for the enthusiast as well.  The digital SLR market exploded, and quality continued to evolve, equaling and eventually surpassing 35mm film in quality for almost any circumstance, while adding features that would have been unheard of just 15 years earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brings us to today, where a new quest has brought the industry to a very interesting place, where photographers of all kinds are taking a step back and searching for something more.   Simplicity and portability are taking a prominent position once again, as photographers realize that it is possible to achieve the portability and discreetness that rangefinder shooters  have enjoyed with film (and those lucky enough to afford the Leica digital M’s), but with all the advancements of a modern SLR system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, photographers want the Perfect Camera.  Lightweight, portable, stylish, but with excellent functionality and feel, modern autofocus, impeccable image quality.  Is all this even possible in one body?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, Mirrorless Digital Cameras:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Mirrorless Digital Cameras:<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In August of 2008, Panasonic and Olympus announced the Micro 4\/3 standard.  This ushered in a new era in digital imaging: the compact system camera (CSC) (or EVIL – Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens).   Panasonic was first out with the G1, an SLR styled camera with electronic viewfinder.  Olympus followed the next summer with their Pen E-P1, a rangefinder style camera, but without a viewfinder.  These cameras paved the way for what was to come, and many people (myself included) bought one for a small, yet high quality, option to use alongside their SLR rig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Olympus Pen E-P1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After Olympus and Panasonic made some inroads, other manufacturers started in, with Sony and Samsung releasing their own mirrorless solutions, but using larger sensors (APS-C).  While the Samsung system has largely been an also-ran, the Sony NEX system has been a huge success.  The NEX cameras are extremely small, and yield outstanding image quality…on par with, or in some cases better than, current APS-C DSLRs.   Nikon joined the fray in 2011 with their Nikon1 series, which uses an even smaller sensor than Micro 4\/3, but also allows for phase-detect autofocus for outstanding focus tracking ability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the flood of new, small, high quality options, and Micro 4\/3 and NEX continuing to develop and improve their sensor technology, autofocus capabilities and feature set, mirrorless cameras have truly exploded in popularity. Mirrorless camera systems offer several advantages over their SLR counterparts.  The bodies are significantly smaller and lighter, while offering competitive image quality.    The small size allows rangefinder lenses and old manual focus SLR lenses to be used on a modern digital camera, which has pleased fans of these classic lenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they’re not perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Panasonic GX1 with adapted Canon FD 200mm f\/2.8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Micro 4\/3<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Micro 4\/3 system has grown to a full-featured camera system, with a large repository of native lenses that cover everything from ultra-wide angle to super telephoto, with fast prime lenses and great options for adapting nearly everything out there.  Image quality in the latest models from Panasonic rival many entry-level SLRs and even professional SLRs from a generation or two ago.  The smaller 4\/3 sensor also allows the lenses to be very small, providing a truly compact system.  There is a great variety of bodies and form factors, including the ultra small E-PM1 from Olympus to the larger, but still slim Olympus E-P3 and Panasonic GX1, up to the larger SLR style bodies like the GH2 or G3 from Panasonic.  Contrast-detect Autofocus (CDAF) has reached a maturity that has allowed modern Micro 4\/3 cameras to have single shot AF speed comparable to (or even in some cases superior to) the best professional SLRs, while offering superior accuracy at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the down side, image quality for Micro 4\/3 is a little behind the newest SLRs and the sensor in the Sony NEX series of cameras, and while the single shot autofocus is outstanding, the continuous autofocus is not competitive with SLRs.  There’s also currently a lack of weather sealed cameras and lenses to cater to professionals.  So, at least for now, with many serious photographers….the search goes on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sony NEX<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Sony NEX-5 – Photo by Soe Lin, Boston, MA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Sony NEX series has very small camera bodies with best-in-class image quality and good single shot autofocus.  The extremely high image quality is accompanied by outstanding features, such as an excellent sweep panorama mode, manual focus peaking which is an excellent aid for users of adapted lenses, and superior electronic viewfinders that are rivaling the best optical finders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You would think the NEX, then, would be the perfect system for many people, but it has its own pitfalls.  Like micro 4\/3, the NEX autofocus is not built for capturing action and quick moving subjects, and it’s not quite as quick as Micro 4\/3 in single shot.  Currently, the lens selection is less than grand, and due to its larger sensor, telephoto lenses offer minimal size advantage compared to SLRs with an APS-C sensor.  Also, the NEX bodies all share a similar form factor, and the smaller bodies can cause handling problems with larger lenses due to their diminutive size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nikon 1<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Nikon 1 system is the newest player to the game.  Nikon’s system is as small or smaller than Micro 4\/3, while managing to add phase detect autofocus in a mirrorless design, allowing it by far the best continuous autofocus of the bunch. Their single-shot AF is no slouch either.  Also, despite the smaller sensor size, the Nikon 1 series manages to have image quality equal to that of many of the Micro 4\/3 cameras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This must be perfect, right?  Well, again no.  Compromises again rear their ugly head.  While image quality is certainly good (and arguably good enough for most serious photographers), it still lags Sony’s offerings and the best of the Micro 4\/3 camp.  Additionally, the lens selection is essentially non-existent at the moment, though this will change with time.  The biggest hurdle with the Nikon 1 may be the sensor size.  With the smaller sensor (and very limited fast lens selection), shallow depth of field is difficult to achieve, which might be essential to many professional’s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On to Part 2: The OM-D, Fuji X-Pro1, NEX-7 and the continued search for perfection.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this two-part series, Admiring Light will take a brief look at the history of cameras, look at the emergence of digital Compact System Cameras (mirrorless digital cameras), and finally examine upcoming products and how they may, or may not, fit into the modern photographer’s quest for the Perfect Camera.  This is part one; part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-shop"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/pen1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28RGq-2m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12742,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions\/12742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}