Photonic Shunkan

This is a bold prediction, but Canon (and Nikon) will reintroduce the pellicle mirror into their DSLR line camera systems some time within the next 4-8 years. The last pellicle mirror camera released by Canon was the EOS-1N RS introduced in 1995 and only discontinued in 2001: A semi-translucent pellicle mirror replaces a moving reflex mirror that lifts up to capture the image. The key prediction being made here today is that the pellicle mirror will return to a 1D equivalent camera some time in the next 4-8 years. Nikon, in the more distant past, has also had pellicle mirror film cameras like the Nikon F2H from 1976, and they too will introduce a pellicle mirror digital single-lens translucent mirror (DSLT) camera with an electronic viewfinder (EVF) replacing an optical viewfinder. Canon tends to be more conservative than Nikon but in this instance Canon appears to own recent patents relevant to pellicle mirror cameras, whereas no DSLT relevant Nikon patents have be...

I've found myself thinking this seemingly simple question with an obvious answer: what are mirrorless cameras? And further what is the point of them? Now you might answer that everyone knows what a "mirrorless" camera is. They are very popular after all. The trouble is that a pinhole camera made from a shoebox has no mirror and is, therefore, a mirrorless camera. The earliest daguerreotype cameras introduced in 1839 were also a mirrorless design. ILLUSTRATION: SUSANNA CELESTE CASTELLI, DENSITYDESIGN RESEARCH LAB; SOURCE: GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM Contrary to popular opinion, rangefinder cameras are also mirrorless cameras. Why? Simple: they have no mirror! So what makes 21st-century "mirrorless cameras" different then to daguerreotype cameras and rangefinders from the nineteenth to early twentieth century? The answer is the electronic viewfinder. We should really call them "mirrorless electronic viewfinder...