Mirror, mirror on the wall...

[DougFord]

...not so fast

...not so fast

During the recent holiday I noticed that one of my nieces had bought a small canikon dSLR. My niece and her husband are in their mid-twenties and are diehard Apple product fanatics. But they've got a small kid running around, and the iPhone just doesn't cut it. So they went out and bought the device that they thought would get the job done.
dSLRs will probably become extinct when they cease to be the right tool for the job at hand.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Every time mirrorless convert is mirking DSLR future I have fresh example of the opposite. 🙂

Today we went to Toronto Aquarium. Very young couple asked me to take their picture. And they gave me... single use Kodak film camera.
I was using my compact DSLR with pancake lens on it (I don't need mirrorless at all in near future). Two others with DSLR as well. And couple of ladies with advanced digital P&S.
Few days ago it was me with old big DSLR and not so small 50 1.2 on it and another person with very new consumer DSLR taking pictures of Christmas Lights display at the waterfront park.
And about week ago my co-worker purchased his daughter request for Christmas... The DSLR.

I think only gearheads are getting fuzzy about how "real" EVF is. The rest of those who are just taking pictures will do it with OVF or EVF, doesn't matter. While majority takes it by the image on the screen for sometime now 🙂


Cheers, Ko.

 

[honozooloo]

Honestly Bill, I think that sadly the era of still cameras are coming to an end, regardless of form factor. Not now, perhaps not even a decade from now, but eventually. I have surf photographer friends who take Red Epic cameras into the water with them these days, instead of Nikonoses or 1DXes in water housings. A single frame of 5k video equivalates to a 15 MP image. Even a single HD video frame from my iPhone 6 beats the pants off of a still image from an original iPhone. It's progress. Sure, Red Epic cameras/gear are expensive unobtanium for most today, but we all know that technology at this level will not be so costly in a decade. Or less.

I understand the logic for a pro using a single still frame from a 5K video camera if they've got to get a shot...I mean short of pointing the camera the wrong direction you literally cannot miss. I can also see how parents would probably love the idea of capturing ultra hi-res video of Junior's little league game and printing a perfect single frame from it if they want a print of their kid hitting that game winning home run. And I can't come up with many reasons why most consumers wouldn't want to eventually move in this direction when it comes to buying their cameras. The success of the goPro line is testament to this I think, these days if you see a family at Disneyland with a camera that isn't a smartphone, it seems like it's a goPro on a stick more often than not.

Granted, the whole idea does bum me out, after all when you peel away all the technology, what makes a photographer is knowing when to push the button, and capture that decisive moment. But maybe the way people capture still images is evolving and although we here at RFF take joy from photographing things the way we do it, it isn't necessarily the "best" way to do it either? Best way or not, I love shooting stills in the traditional sense...but I can't help but feel like this isn't going to be the way the rest of the world does it in the near future.

 

[CMur12]

I really like SLRs, myself, especially my old mechanical ones. However ...

I was utterly amazed at how fast digital technology advanced and digital capture became capable of higher resolution than film. I have no doubt that EVF technology will advance to the point that there is no longer any visual advantage to OVFs. I just don't know when this will be.

If pro-level EVFs require a CPU of their own and larger battery packs, that will nullify some of the size and weight reduction that we might otherwise expect. On the other hand, no moving mirror will mean less vibration and more space to allow true wide-angle lenses, rather than the obligatory retrofocus wide-angles used now with SLRs.

I just hope that SLRs will continue to be available as long as photographers find them to have the advantage.

- Murray

 

[dct]

Lack of clarity

Lack of clarity

From reading the replies, and the marketplace, I'm guessing that priorities are ordered much differently for different people. Some people are a lot more obsessed with size and weight differences than I am. I'm one of those obsessed with viewfinder clarity instead, and who thinks that, as a practical matter, the size difference between my F6 and my RX1 is just a rounding error, while the EVF on the Sony, and all the other EVFs I have used, is just sad compared to the F6 viewfinder., which means that I would much rather shoot with the F6. The file results from the RX1 are beyond superb, but putting that thing up to your eye is such a letdown.....sigh.... It's not the EVF lag that is the most annoying, it's the relative lack of clarity. And, the Leicaflex viewfinder, which someone else mentioned, is even better. As far as an EVF being better than an excellent OVF for shooting in the dark, I understand the argument, it's just not been my experience, though I tend to not shoot in anything darker than a nightclub. I realize that EVFs will get better, I just don't see them approaching the clarity and color accuracy of a good OVF anytime soon...[snip]

Exactly that.
Not a (D)SLR related example, but an OVF one. For that reason slightly off-topic. But it was a revealing and satisfying experience when my son (used for many years to EVF and smartphone photography) played around with my Hexar RF and Fuji X-Pro1 and sighing stated:
I didn't remember. It is like looking through a clear window rather than to a tiny monitor! How is it that they don't offer this for more cameras nowadays?

He put my arguments down to the essence, using an OVF (in SLR and mirrorless) rather than an EVF.

Regarding classical still photography I really hope the OVF technology remains a choice in the offerings of DSLRs (and other still cameras).

 

[Bill Pierce]

This may be of interest. Notice the Leica reference.


DIY PHOTOGRAPHY



NEW HI-RES EVF COVERS 98% OF SRGB, OPENS NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR MIRRORLESS CAMERAS
December 9, 2015 · Gannon Burgett 3 Comments
For DSLR photographers looking to make the jump to mirrorless, one of the biggest turnoffs is having to settle for an electronic viewfinder (EVF). As things currently stand, most EVFs are good enough to get the job done, but many still lack in resolution and – arguably most importantly – color rendering.
That’s changing though, with the production of a new EVF from Epson (yes, the company most known for printers). It’s unglamorously called the ‘Ultimicron L3FJ63800C’ and said to be the highest resolution EVF for mass production – packing in almost twice the pixels and 30% more color gamut than anything on the market.
The impressive viewfinder, first shown off at this year’s CP+ expo, boasts a 4.4 megapixel screen, measuring in at .66 inches with a 1,400 × 1,050 pixel resolution. It’s capable of producing 16.77 million colors, roughly 98& of the sRGB color gamut.

This additional color reproduction is significant, because it will allow photographers to adjust the EVF to more accurately represent what it is they’re seeing and how they want it to be represented in-camera.
One particular implementation I could see being used it the ability for photographers to create custom presets of sorts to apply to the EVF, similar to those found in post-processing programs.
Take for example the extremely popular VSCO Film presets. Imagine being able to live-preview the Portra 400 preset as you’re composing and shooting an image? Furthermore, imagine having that preset tied into Lightroom so that it automatically processed the image upon importing it?
Interestingly, as pointed out by DC Watch, it appears as though this particular EVF is the one being used the monstrous Leica SL. While Leica doesn’t particularly point out where it’s sourcing the viewfinder from, the specs match up identically.
While the megapixel wars for sensors might be all but finished, there’s still plenty of pixels and far better color accuracy to pack into EVFs. This is just the one of may strides to be taken towards EVF perfection.
[via DC Watch]

 

[Out to Lunch]

The Leica SL and Leica Q are proving my point. The only small detail, so far is cost: I can't imagine the SL and Q reaching wide audiences with the prices they are going for today. Whether or not the industry can translate this level of sophistication into affordable consumer products remains to be seen.

 

[Bill Pierce]

I've had Leica like viewfinders on my digital cameras for awhile, Leica's auxilliary bright line finders that fit into an accessory shoe. Admittedly, not a substitute for a DSLR viewfinder, but a very good substitute for a Leica rangefinder's viewfinder.

 

[jsrockit]

Why are we so obsessed with this question?

 

[BillBingham2]

I think that there is point of diminishing returns pixels and colors on EVFs.

I agree that it's also a perception issue that may go away as professionals who grew up on analog SLRs age out.

I think the big issue is more the response speed when panning with a highly diverse image. Diversity from the perspective of colors/tones across the image. How often does that pixel of the EVF have to change from it's current state (color/brightness).

B2 (;->

 

[kbb]

The OVF will not disappear from the market, but it may fall in commonness.
As has been described, the visually-aware younger, raised-on-electronic-displays folks will eventually discover the pleasure, or...more correctly, the lack of torture... of viewing a clear optical image, whether on ground glass or direct view.
I always feel a burst of pleasure/relief along my optic pathway when I switch back to the DSLR from my little mirrorless EVF.
By the way, my Fuji XE1 EVF almost always has correct color that matches the real [daylight] scene. Too bad it's 13 stops darker than the real daylight scene!

 

[sc_rufctr]

Not long now and the "mirror" will be a thing of the past.
The next generation of photogs are being raised with smart phones and tablets and the photos they take will be mostly viewed online.
So to them it would seem normal.

I'm not happy about it but I'm over 50 and the companies that design and make this gear aren't targeting me as a customer. (Maybe Leica is)

So an EVF will become the norm. Less moving parts also makes it cheaper to manufacture.

The next mechanical item to become redundant will be the shutter. The shutters job will be done by something electronically.
Just a naked sensor and the capture will happen as soon as the energizing of the sensor is complete. All of this happening very quickly.

 

[sc_rufctr]

Why are we so obsessed with this question?

Because an SLR with a Mirror is a joy to use. I for one will be sad to see it go.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Interesting chart of cameras use on Flickr.
Zero mirrorless on the most used. Phones and DSLRs only.
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=153599