A mirrorless future - WYSIWYG

It struck me yesterday while I was shooting an event with a Sony RX1, Olympus OMD-EM5 and Canon 1D mark III, just how antiquated a flappy mirror is in a DSLR. I use the Sony electronic viewfinder (EVF) on the RX1, and the EM5 has an EVF built in. It seems like a tipping point has been reached with EVFs, and the Sony item is particularly superb in terms of detail and clarity.Compared to using the 1D, the two other cameras let you see exactly what your picture is going to look like before you press the button. This is kind of obvious of course, but when using the cameras alongside each other, it seems so clumsy to take a picture on the DSLR then have to double check what the exposure looks like by taking the camera away from your eye and looking at the rear screen.With the two EVF cameras, you can ensure your exposure is spot on, including seeing clipped highlights or lowlights, a histogram and even an angle level if you want it, plus all of the other camera settings, without taking the camera from your eye. Whilst you might claim (and many will) that you can expose correctly using just the meter in the viewfinder of a DSLR, the reality is that in a fast moving situation with lots of different light levels, the ability for the camera to display What You See Is What You Get is extremely useful.It's a bit like the old days of word processing, where you'd have to use various codes and character sequences in your document to get a word to be underlined, and you wouldn't see what the document looked like until you printed it out, at which point you'd find it was a right old mess because you left out a semi-colon or square bracket. When proper WYSIWYG word processing came out it was a revelation. The new EVFs are like that. With a rather ludicrous 2.3m pixels, the Sony EV1MK is very usable, giving you depth of field, white balance and exposure, all with a fast refresh rate and loads of information overlays if you want them, or non if you don't. You get 100% coverage of the shot in a bright, detailed image that looks great. You can also set the camera to display the taken picture briefly in the viewfinder if you want to but that seems a bit daft as it will look exactly as it did when you pressed the button.The other benefit of having no mirror is the reduced shutter noise. Trying to use a 1D in a quiet environment is pretty tough, even on the silent shutter mode, as everything flaps up & down. The RX1 makes virtually no noise whatsoever, and the EM5 just clicks gently.So, my great prediction is that future top end sports cameras will be mirrorless with highly detailed EVFs. With no mirror to move about, the frame rate limitations of 10-14 fps in current top end DSLRs will go out of the window and you should be able to shoot at 60fps or more. If the software is written correctly, you'll be able to have the same experience of seeing the live scene inbetween frames or even during capture to allow you to frame correctly, rather than having a black screen as the image is written to the card as some compacts do. With sensors now including phase detect as well as contrast detect focus points on the sensor, autofocus will be much improved and it should be possible to reach and exceed tracking capabilities of the best of today's DSLRs. You only have to look at the new Olympus OMD-EM1 to see the way things are going.Smaller, lighter cameras will result. They should be thinner, with no mirror box, and no pentaprism required. What a relief that will be.At the time of writing, I am awaiting the arrival of a Sony A7R - a 36mp full frame beast in a pocket sized package with an EVF built in. I'm really looking forward to putting some manual focus rangefinder lenses on this camera. Small, light lenses with exceptional quality that will work perfectly using the A7R's focus peaking capability. There are many adapters out there which allow you to put pretty much any lens on this camera, including Canon L lenses (might try my 400 2.8 out on it!), to old Canon FD to Leica M, Leica R etc etc.This is a game changing camera which will combine stunning image quality with the flexibility to break out of manufacturers' own brand lenses. I saw a very nice Canon 50 1.2 FD lens second hand for £250 a couple of days ago for example (the Leica 50 1.4 is 10x that) . Manual focus but with the Sony's EVF and focus peaking it will be a piece of cake. Sticking a 135mm Leica lens on will be simplicity itself, whereas using one on a Leica M is tricky to say the least.Having owned an M9, I can see why Leica are quaking about the new Sony. I can see Leica's M sales forecasts plummeting as it is reduced to a rich man's jewel or for those totally wedded to rangefinder focusing.Interesting times ahead. I'll keep you posted about the A7R.In the meantime, COME ON ENGLAND who face the All Blacks on Saturday.