[MUSIC] Welcome back. We're going to talk about mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. This is a really cool camera format, so let's get going. Here we are, looking at my old, antique-style view camera. It's actually not an old camera, they're still made today and very popular, actually. But you'll see my view camera, which is the style of camera that this is called, is set up to photograph two wooden nutcrackers. And I'm showing you it from two different angles, so you get a pretty good idea of what the camera looks like and its positioning relative to the subject. And you can see on the back of the camera on the right-hand slide, you can see a little bit of the ground glass. So when a photographer uses a view camera such as this one, we're looking at that ground glass on the back of the camera to see the image that's created as light passes through the lens, through that black bellows, it's just a space, and then is focused on that ground glass area. That focus area is called the focal plane. Remember that focal plane? F-O-C-A-L P-L-A-N-E. That's the place where the light sensitive material, in the case of a view camera it would be film. In the case of a digital camera it would be sensor. That's where that light sensitive material is placed. We place the light sensitive material at the focal plane because that's where the image is going to be focused. The viewing screen of a mirrorless camera is similar in a way to the ground glass, in that the image is created by light that goes directly through the camera to the sensor at the focal plane, except that the image is digital, of course. There's no mirror for that light to bounce off of. There's no prism for the light to bounce around in out to your eye. In other words, it's not a single-lens reflex. There's nothing other than the light passing through the lens directly into the camera body to the area the light is going to be received. And the photographer with the view camera's going to see that image before exposure on the ground glass. If you've got one of these cameras, you're going to see it on the viewing screen on the back of the camera. Here's how that image appears when I set my camera up to photograph these two nutcrackers. You can see that the image is upside down and it's backwards. And that's the way the image is going to be rendered in every camera when it hits the sensor. There's a little bit of digital magic that turns that image right side up so that you can see it properly. But it always appears because the action of a lens on the sensor upside down and reversed. So here's my view camera and here's a diagram of how that mirrorless rear view camera works. The light passes straight through from the lens, through the camera body, just like it would here in this view camera. And in this instance it'll hit the ground glass, which is where I would put my film. In the instance of the digital camera, it's going to hit the sensor. That's the black part on that diagram. The little green line is the electronic connection between the sensor and the red line, which represent the viewing screen on the back of the camera. A mirrorless camera is called mirrorless because there's no mirror, it's not an SLR. In some mirrorless cameras there's an EVF, or electronic viewfinder, which is a tiny high-resolution TV screen that's viewed through a prism mounted just under a housing on top of the camera. Very similar to what you see in the DSLR. You'd look through a viewfinder, in this case I'm looking through the lens itself because there's a mirror in there. In the case of a mirror less camera I would be looking in the viewfinder and seeing a little tv image that shows the picture that is being rendered by the lens. While there are a large number of mirrorless cameras with EVFs, some only permit viewing on the rear LCD screen. So that praying mantis pose that we saw illustrated in the lesson on point and shoot cameras is also sometimes commonly struck by photographers who use these mirrorless cameras as well. Many mirrorless cameras have what's called a Micro Four Thirds sensor or Four Thirds sensor. It's a format that was introduced by Panasonic in cooperation with Olympus in 2008. And the first camera to hold this was the Lumix DMC-G1, and that's a Panasonic camera, followed shortly by Olympus's Pen E-P1 camera. The sensor size is 17 millimeters by 13 millimeters. That's about half the size of a normal full frame sensor. The new format had the look and feel of the DSLR but doesn't have the weight, the size, the bulkiness. An agreement by Panasonic and Olympus made it possible for purchasers to use lenses from either company, which gave them quite a wide choice of lenses to use on their new cameras. With interchangeable lenses, sturdy built bodies, and generally high quality optics and image processors and other features, mirrorless cameras, although they're small in size and have the look sometimes of an amateur camera, can be used for amateur purposes or for more professional purposes as well. Some of the advantages of mirrorless cameras are obvious from their size. They're lightweight, they're compact, they're especially good if you travel a lot or if you're a travel photographer. Interchangeable lenses, that's a great option, and a solid number to choose from within any brand, and they get more and more every day. This is another great advantage of mirrorless cameras. And then there's usually an excellent range, especially at the higher end, of options for ISO, exposure, lots of accessories, and the things that you might normally associate with a pro-level DSLR camera. Just as with other cameras that we've looked at, other camera styles, when you go out and look for a new camera that's a mirrorless or maybe you've got a mirrorless camera and you really haven't explored it very much, you want to look at its capabilities. And within a given price range, you'll want to be looking at the exposure modes, ISO options, metering capabilities. What the white balance options are also? What types of images can you create? And what are the sensor sizes? Do you have video capability? Is it HD or just regular? Can you do stereo sound or mono? What are the image output capabilities? Do you have to plug it in or do you have to remove the memory card? Or is there WiFi or other connection options? And what are the custom settings, and options, and accessories that are available for that particular brand of camera? You also want to look very carefully, especially because of the size, at the design features in this camera. They can sometimes feel too small for people, especially if they've been accustomed to using a larger camera. And sometimes the controls can feel awkwardly placed because of that size and the light weight as well. While most photographers can get accustomed to the feel of the camera, as with all others, you should try before you buy. Pick it up, hold it, swing around with it, hold it for more than five seconds. Besides the ergonomics, look at the flash position, look at the distance of that flash from the lens, look at the body color options, there are more in some brands than others, and look for screen adjustments. Can that screen tilt out, up down, to allow you to hold the camera in a lot of different positions, especially if it doesn't have an electronic viewfinder. Looking at cameras at different price points, we've picked out some that are a representative of the field. In the lower price point around $300, the Nikon 1 S2 is a very good example of capabilities that you might find in this area. It has ISO settings from 200 to 2,800, full HD video, and a burst rate of 20 pictures per second. That's pretty fast. Like this camera, others at this price range often have a pop-up flash, no hot shoe though. This has 14 megapixel file and you can shoot in RAW as well as JPEG. And it accepts over a dozen lenses in the Nikon One system. When you get into the mid range camera, you're going to find bodies that are a little bit more sturdily built. You should still have quite a wide range of lenses to chose from. And this Olympus Pen E-PL7 camera, it's a Four Thirds sensor camera also, has a robust set of those kinds of features to look for. It's got a 16 megapixel file size in RAW. Plus, you can communicate back and forth between the camera and your computer via WiFi. The solid body is something I really like about this camera. And it also has controls in a place that I associate them with my DSLRs and other more advanced cameras. Not just on the back of the camera, but on the top as well. We also want to look for the capability of that screen. Is it large enough, is it bright enough? And does it have the flip capability that we like, especially if there's no EVF, so that we can hold the camera above our heads or down below or at different strange angles. What are the range of special exposure effects options that you can find? Well there are many. And that's another benchmark to look at in this price range. The most full-featured mirrorless cameras can have price points many times that of this camera. The Fujifilm X-T10 is about a $1,000 right now. There are cameras in the 6 or $7,000 price range also. But this is a good camera to look at, at the lower end of that high end category. You want to look for that high resolution sensor, like the 16 mega pixel this carries or higher. Really nice, solid body that can put up with some resistance to water, maybe take it out in the rain, you got a dust storm, lots of pollution, who knows. An electronic view finder, built in, not an add on. That's a common feature in cameras at this price point. And also very wide range of ISO with a solid microprocessor, in this camera it goes up to over 51,000. Like others in this price point, it's got an extensive array of professional type manual dials and levers and such on the top of the camera as well as on the back. Makes the transition from a DSLR to this smaller body style a little bit easier for some photographers who are accustomed to that bigger format. And also gives you the controls you need to make the kind of exacting pictures you'd want to make. Cameras at this level will probably have built in WiFi. And image sharing is fairly standard at this price point in that respect, also with NFC. Fast continuous shooting rate, that's something else you want to look at. And even though the eye-level viewfinder's a feature that you're going to find many photographers using who buy cameras such as this. You still want to look for a high resolution screen and perhaps also with touch screen and tilt capabilities. If a mirrorless camera is in your future or if you've got one in your hands and you're just kind of getting used to it, and trying to figure out what it does. Compare different models, compare the capabilities and think about what it is that you want to have with a camera that's got interchangeable lenses, that's got this smaller sensor, smaller build format. And look at the brand as a whole, especially when you're buying higher end cameras, remember you are buying into a brand and you're making a commitment to future lenses, future accessory purchase, centered around that brand option. Good luck with your choices. [MUSIC]
