What is a "Mirrorless" Camera?
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...