CharlieWebster wrote:
And last is the the question: What IS a DSLR? Does it have to have a mirror? No? Then it has to have an EVF? Some pros consider the nex a DSLR others are scandalized by this heresey.
Technically, since the viewing and taking lens are the same, any P&S model w/ live view, including the NEX and similar, are SLRs.
However, besides the technical meaning, I'd say the term has evolved to mean a camera with an optical viewfinder that receives it's viewing image from the taking lens.
That would mean the NEX is a world leading P&S camera with interchangeable lenses.
That may also be why Sony doesn't refer the the 33/55 as DLSRs but at DSLTs.
They are not DSLRs as they do not have a reflex mirror and focusing screen - which is what the R in SLR stands for. SL as in single lens does not mean viewing and taking lens are the same either, it simply means the camera is not a TLR - twin lens reflex, where a second matched lens provides the focusing screen via a mirror.
TLRs range in size from 16mm subminature to the Gowlandflex 5 x 4". Most view cameras prior to the invention of both TLRs and SLRs (early 20th c) used one lens for taking and viewing, but instead of having a reflex design (mirror) they used a focusing screen inserted where the plate or film would be. The old head under the dark cloth thing.
Box cameras used a reflex finder, but not twin lens, just a reflex finder - you may remember the little thing you peered down into, which certainly used a lens but not a focusing lens of the same focal length as the taking lens! Folding cameras often had a small reflex waist-level viewfinder too.
The NEX and modern digital compacts are an entirely new type of camera and if we needed to have a term for them, EVF has been accepted for electronic viewfinder. No general term has been adopted for an electronic viewing screen, as opposed to a finder. EVS could make sense, LCD, Live View, or simply terms such as 'rear screen', 'tilting screen', 'articulated screen'.
People don't talk about 'viewfinders' at all when using mobile phones with cameras, or camcorders. They simply talk about 'the screen'. The camera is often not even called a camera. I never hear anyone say, I'm going to use my phone camera or use the camera in my phone. They just say - 'let me take a shot' or 'I must get a photo of this'. They do not need any terms to describe the type of viewfinder.
If I was to ask you what FAD was, what manual means versus manual preset, what a roof prism is and why we once called SLR viewfinders pentaprism but eventually dropped down to just saying prism, how a quick return mirror differs from an instant return mirror, how an autowinder differs from a motordrive, what a coupled EV shutter and aperture mechanism was, what GN coupling was and whether it was known as Flashmatic...
You probably know them all, but photography is littered with technical terms and abbreviations which were once absolutely vital to knowing what you got. 'Auto Takumar' meant semi-automatic diaphragm, 'Super Takumar' meant fully automatic diaphragm. But when the Auto design was introduced, FAD had not been developed so the semi-auto design which required the user to cock the lens and open the aperture under spring tension was called 'auto'. Then a method was devised which let the lens stop down instantly for the exposure and return to full aperture, no spring loading, no cocking. So this had to be called Fully Automatic - FAD. There never was a term SAD...
The thread you link to is littered with accounts of all sorts of lenses using non-electronic adaptors. We already know that nearly everything can be used manually--though many modern lenses have no way to change aperture.
We are concerned with something very specific and very usefull: electronic aperture control BY the nex, and auto-focus.
This is ONLY possible through the LAEA-1.
Perhaps there is some reference to alpha mounts in that huge thread, but it's not easy to find, that's for sure.
We have already seen countless pictures of cats taken with leica lenses.
For example what about the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM?
If AF works on this fast prime decently it would be big news.
David Kilpatrick wrote:...
People don't talk about 'viewfinders' at all when using mobile phones with cameras, or camcorders. They simply talk about 'the screen'. The camera is often not even called a camera. I never hear anyone say, I'm going to use my phone camera or use the camera in my phone. They just say - 'let me take a shot' or 'I must get a photo of this'. They do not need any terms to describe the type of viewfinder.
David
to add to that ... my mother always says : I will take a picture with my "Kodak" and now it is the Numeric "Kodak" sometime she said (it is a Panasonic point and shoot ).
Regards,
Frank
Frank
A7 (R, S & R II) + NEX 3N ( and few lenses )
Tried the 135mm STF with LA-EA1. No AF . Aperture does work with the normal aperture, the other aperture needs manual adjustment but thats normal. Good nice sharp pictures but definetly needs tripod no OS. Now it's mine .
On my tripod it lens heavy or my tripod ballhead isn't good enough. When I compose the picture and tighten the ballhead the image shifts down.
Grtz de7geitjes
Last edited by de7geitjes on Fri Dec 17, 2010 9:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
and now it is the Numeric "Kodak" sometime she said (it is a Panasonic point and shoot 
. Aperture does work with the normal aperture, the other aperture needs manual adjustment but thats normal. Good nice sharp pictures but definetly needs tripod no OS. Now it's mine 
.
