Mirrorless cameras The days of chunky and clunky DSLRs are behind us – the best innovations in the camera market are now in the mirrorless sector. Time to take your snaps to the next level

or several decades, when you wanted a ‘serious’ or ‘proper’ camera, there was one place to turn: the SLR (single-lens reflex), followed closely by the DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) when the market turned away from analogue and towards digital.

In 2009, things started to change when the first ‘mirrorless’ camera came along in the shape of the Panasonic G1. In the intervening 10-and-a-bit years, the camera market became almost unrecognisable compared to what it once was. Just to be clear – although technically any camera without a mirror could be classed as ‘mirrorless’ (including phones and compact cameras), this name generally refers to interchangeable lens cameras.

While DSLRs still very much do exist and make up the bulk of the market, the future is almost definitely headed towards a complete domination by devices that do away with traditional camera construction. If you take a look at

Fthe new models that have entered the market in 2019 and 2020, just a handful are DSLRs – the overwhelming majority went down the mirrorless route.

As the name implies, the main difference between DSLRs and mirrorless cameras is the lack of a mirror. With a DSLR, a physical mirror reflects the image up to an optical viewfinder. When you take a picture, this mirror flips up out of the way to allow light to hit the camera’s sensor. In a mirrorless camera, the sensor is always exposed to light and displays an image via something known as Live View, displayed either on the camera’s rear screen or through an electronic viewfinder.

THE MERITS OF MIRRORLESS

It took a while for the mirrorless revolution to really start to take hold, as the benefits weren’t strong enough to outweigh the drawbacks. But as more and more players joined the market and innovation began to accelerate, it’s fair to say the opposite is now true. A large number of people are still buying DSLRs – by and large because there are lots of cheap models available – but those who want the latest tech increasingly seek out the newer format.

One of the major benefits of early mirrorless models was their small size. Removing the mirror allows the device to be much more compact. Early models from Panasonic and Olympus also used smaller sensors than has since become the norm, so overall, devices were small, light and extremely portable. No longer did you have to sign up to the books of your local chiropractor once you became invested in photography.

While it’s still true that, on average, mirrorless cameras remain smaller than their DSLR counterparts, the introduction of larger sensors has led to the differences becoming a bit more marginal. In some cases, there’s barely any size difference at all. That might not be a problem for those who like the feel, weight and tactility that a larger camera brings, though – so don’t necessarily write off the bigger models out of hand.