Best Mirrorless Cameras For Every Photographer!

There are three principal elements which make up the still film camera, and these are:

• The optical element( which is the lens),
• The chemical element(which is the film), and
• Mechanical element (which is the camera body itself).

The only challenge in camera design can bring all these components together in a way that achieves a crystal clear image.

As you would expect, there are a variety of ways in which this is made possible. The following few minutes will be spent on the manual lens reflex camera. It will set the foundation for our understanding of the mirrorless camera in terms of how it operates and how it’s different from the standard camera in terms of setup. 

The SLR camera allows the user to see the exact image and control the key parameters by a series of dials and buttons. Since the camera doesn’t require any sort of electricity to sustain its processes, it affords a great illustration of the key processes in photography.

The lens constitutes the camera’s optical element. It is essentially a piece of glass that’s curved in the middle and has the fundamental property of being able to redirect beams of light to a single point, or away from each other depending on its overall shape. This allows it to be able to take the beams of light which are reflected from a particular object and form an image on the opposite end.

The mechanism is quite straightforward. Light changes speed when it travels from one medium to another. In the Lens case, light travels from the surrounding air into the Lens glass, and since it travels faster in the air than it does in glass, it slows down.

When the light beam strikes the Lens glass at a particular angle, the front part of the wave strikes the glass first and thus will be the first to slow down. This creates a scenario where one part of the beam is traveling at a slower rate than the other. This causes the beam of light to bend and change direction. Again, when the beam is exiting the glass, it bends further, as the speed changes again due to change of the medium of travel from glass to air.

Lenses can be classified into convex and concave lenses based on the general shape. Convex lenses are wide in the middle to form a slightly oval shape, whereas concave lenses are the complete opposite; they are thin in the middle and wide on the peripherals.

These have different effects on the incoming light rays. For convex lens, incoming rays bend toward the middle once they hit the surface while as concave lens direct the rays outwards.

Most advanced cameras allow you to attach a different set of lenses to let you have different magnifications. Its overall focal length defines the lens’ power. The term “focal length” describes the distance between the Lens and the formed image. The higher the focal length, the greater the Lense’s magnification capacity.

Lenses occur in a myriad of types which are appropriate for different use cases. For instance, if you want to take pictures of large scale objects, such as a mountain range, you may need to use a more powerful lens (large focal length).

Cameras deal with this by utilizing lenses with a variety of materials. Each lens handles the colors differently, and with an ideal combination, each color is aligned correctly to form a perfect image.

Most cameras come with the zooming functionality, which allows the user to enlarge or reduce the image’s size to an appropriate level. This is made possible through a mechanism which allows for moving the Lens back and forth, thus altering the focal length.

Operation

Having looked at the general functioning principle and the Lens as a key component of the camera, let’s now consider the different parts of the camera

The aperture and Iris diaphragm  

The Camera’s Iris Diaphragm and Aperture allow us to control how much light reaches the lens of the camera. The word “aperture” refers to an opening which is usually placed on the front part of the camera.

The Iris diaphragm consists of a series of thin metal plates which move over each other to either increase or reduce the size of the opening. You can think of it as the Iris of your eye, which expands or shrinks to alter the size of the opening, which in turn alters the amount of light going in.  

The film

The film is the surface where the image is formed. It is a specially prepared surface which is extremely sensitive to light due to the presence of compounds known as light grains. Once the light rays pass through the lens, they converge and form an image of the object on the film.

On the film, the parts which are in direct contact with the image’s light rays react accordingly, thus forming an exact copy of the image.

The size of the light grains defines the film’s capacity to form images. You can have an idea of the light grains size by looking at the films speed, which is usually indicated on the film’s canister.

Some films need a higher degree of light exposure to react significantly, while other films require lower amounts of exposure. For instance, the 100 ISO film is considered ideal in relatively higher exposures such as in bright sunlight, whereas the 1600 ISO film is considered ideal in low light environments. 

The shutter: controlling the film’s exposure to light

The film cannot be continuously exposed to light. Otherwise, the whole film will just react to the exposure, thus causing no perceivable image at all. The amount of light reaching the film and length of exposure should be controlled. Too little exposure to light will lead to a darker image, while as too much exposure will lead to a brighter image.

The Shutter is responsible for controlling the film’s length of exposure to light. The majority of cameras use what’s known as the Focal Plane Shutter, which is placed between the film and the lens. The shutter consists of two layers of curtains, whereby one is placed in front of the other. 

When you press the capture button, the first curtain opens, thus letting light from the Lens reach the film. The second layer controls the length of exposure by sliding in to stop the exposure after a designated period. The Shutter speed knob allows you to determine the film’s length of exposure.

This seemingly simple process is driven by a series of tiny gears, springs, and switches just like you might observe in a watch. Pressing the camera’s shutter button allows you to release a lever, which activates several gears which ultimately leads to the opening of the first curtain.

The shutter speed knob allows you to control the second curtain’s timing by working on a series of springs, which fine-tune the gear mechanism to a desired length of time between the opening and closing of the two curtains.

Setting the knob to a slower speed implies having the shutter opened for a longer period, whereas the opposite implies lengthening the total amount of time of exposure.

The light meter

As you might have observed, there are quite some parameters you need to control to achieve the ideal light exposure. You will need to have a way to make sure the size of the aperture, film speed, and shutter speed are well balanced to achieve the ideal exposure.

To simplify this process, most cameras incorporate a form of a light meter to automate the process fairly.  The meter features a set of light sensors, which detect the light energy and express it as electrical energy, which is then interpreted based on the aperture’s size, shutter speed, and other relevant parameters.  

The mirror and prism

Single-lens cameras incorporate a mirror,  which is usually placed in front of the film. When the shutter is closed, the mirror reflects the light rays from the Lens towards a set of special glasses called a prism. The prism reorients the light rays before reflecting it towards a viewing component known as the Viewfinder.

Viewfinder

This is the viewing piece at the back of the camera, which allows you to look at the image as you are adjusting various parameters.

As the name suggests, mirrorless cameras eliminate the mirror, which is a key component of SLR and DSLR cameras. They replace the prism and viewfinder with an imaging sensor and an Electronic Viewfinder.

The imaging sensors detect the presence of an image formed by the light rays from the lens, which is then interpreted by the electronic Viewfinder. The lack of extra components makes mirrorless cameras considerably smaller and lighter than SLR and DSLR cameras. 

Here is a basic illustration of the fundamental differences between mirrorless and DSLR cameras. As illustrated by the picture above, you can easily observe that the DSLR camera incorporates more components such as the Pentaprism and Condenser Lens.

Let’s have a quick walk-through the path on which the light rays through the mirrorless camera to have a clear idea on how it operates.

• Light passes through the aperture and lens
• It travels through the shutter to the image sensor.
• The electronic Viewfinder finder reproduces the image detected by the sensor.

Mirrorless 

Pros

• Mirrorless cameras are typically smaller and lighter.
• They tend to have richer Viewfinders in terms of information. Electronic Viewfinders tend to come with more settings and information aids such as histograms, white balance, contrast, and saturation.
• They provide an easier method of achieving the best focus with greater precision.
• The electronic Viewfinder provides a more effective way of reviewing images in daylight conditions.

Cons

• They can only function when there is a reliable power supply, such as a battery. The battery life can also be affected by the number of features you activate in the process.
• Due to the image processing, they tend to come with a lag, and may also come with high contrasts which may be hard for some users.
• They may not produce the best quality when it comes to fast action in low light conditions.