Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/08/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Phong writes in response to my question about why a digital (SLR) would need a mirror: <<Any SLR (digital or film) uses a mirror in the viewing system to implement a WYSIWYG (what you see is what ou get) design, thus avoiding viewing problems in other systems such as paralax with rangefinders. So in fact the image you see thru the viewfinder is more or less the same as will be recorded on the sensor or film.>> But why? Clearly a mirror is necessary in a film SLR but in a digital camera, if you want to see the image that will be recorded on the sensor, why not use a fine grained TFT display? With the display viewed through a magnifying eyepiece it can be enlarged to a reasonable size for composition. I have camcorders that work in exactly this way. When using a film SLR you see exactly what the lens is viewing, but you have only a very approximate idea of what the film will record - or even if there is film in the camera. Are we simply hung up on making digital SLRs look like their film counterparts? Larry Z - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html