A mirrorless camera is a type of digital camera. Most cameras, including smartphones, lack mirrors, but the term mirrorless is primarily used to describe digital interchangeable lens cameras. Mirrorless cameras have become the most popular kind of interchangeable lens camera in both professional and amateur use, surpassing DSLRs, which use a mirror system. Lacking mirrors allows mirrorless cameras to be smaller, lighter, and quieter than equivalent DSLRs, but may decrease battery life because of the need to constantly power the sensor and electronic viewfinder (EVF) during use. In a mirrorless camera, the lens always shines light onto the image sensor, and the picture from the sensor is displayed on a screen for the photographer. Many cameras utilize one or more electronic displays to simulate a traditional viewfinder. In contrast, DSLRs use a mechanical movable mirror sitting behind the lens to direct light to the viewfinder, then redirect it to the image sensor at the moment that a photograph is taken. Other terms for these cameras include mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera (MILC), electronic viewfinder interchangeable lens (EVIL), compact system camera (CSC), and digital single-lens mirrorless (DSLM).
Design Mirrorless cameras are mechanically simpler than DSLR cameras, and are smaller, lighter, and quieter due to the elimination of the moving mirror. While nearly all mirrorless cameras have a mechanical shutter, many also have an electronic shutter, allowing completely silent operation. As the image from the lens is always projected onto the image sensor, features can be available which are only possible in DSLRs when the mirror is locked up into "live view" mode. Since the viewfinder is a screen, it can display anything, including overlaid graphics that would be impossible in a traditional optical viewfinder. For example, it can show a focus-peaking display, zebra patterning, and face or eye tracking. The electronic viewfinder can provide live previews of depth of field, exposure, white balance and picture style settings, as well as offer a real-time view of camera settings even in extremely low or bright light levels, making it easier to view the results. These features are only available in DSLRs if they use a "live view" mode, in which the mirror locks up and light always shines onto the image sensor, making it act like a mirrorless camera. With the latest AI autofocus available on newer mirrorless cameras, the autofocus speed and accuracy of newer models has been shown to be better than DSLRs. But mirrorless cameras have shorter battery life than DSLRs due to prolonged use of LCD and/or OLED viewfinder displays. On-sensor autofocus is free of the adjustment requirements of the indirect focusing system of the DSLR (which relies on a separate autofocus sensor located below the reflex mirror), and as of 2025 mirrorless cameras could shoot with AI autofocus at up to 40 frames per second using up to 759 focus points —a number far exceeding what was possible on any DSLR. However, some older mirrorless cameras with on-sensor phase detection autofocus (except for Canon's Dual Pixel Autofocus) repurposes pixel sites for autofocus acquisition, so that image data is partially or entirely missing for the autofocus "pixels", which can cause banding artifacts in the final image.
History
Early 2000s: Digital rangefinder origins The first digital rangefinder camera commercially marketed was the Epson R-D1 (released in 2004), followed by the Leica M8 in 2006. They were some of the first digital lens-interchangeable cameras without a reflex mirror, but they are not considered mirrorless cameras because they did not use an electronic viewfinder for live preview, but, rather, an optical viewfinder. Compact cameras with large sensors, technically akin to the current mirrorless cameras, were also marketed in this period. Cameras like Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 and Sigma DP1 proved that live preview operation is possible, and useful with APS-C sized sensors.
Late 2000s: Micro Four Thirds system
The first mirrorless camera commercially marketed was the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1, released in Japan in October 2008. It was also the first camera of Micro Four Thirds system, developed exclusively for the mirrorless ILC system. The term mirrorless came into use in order to describe Micro Four Thirds cameras when they were announced in 2008, especially as the first Micro Four Thirds camera, the Lumix G1, was designed to be as similar to a DSLR as possible. There are other terms that were created, too, but mirrorless became the most popular.
The Ricoh GXR (November 2009) had a radically different design. The mirrorless camera featured interchangeable lens units – a sealed unit of a lens and sensor, instead of the lens only being interchangeable. This design was different from other mirrorless cameras, and received mixed reviews, primarily due to its higher cost.
2010s: Pocket mirrorless cameras Following the introduction of the Micro Four Thirds system, several other cameras were released by Panasonic and Olympus, with the Olympus PEN E-P1 (announced June 2009) being the first mirrorless camera in a compact size (pocketable with a small lens). The Samsung NX10 (announced January 2010) was the first camera in this class not using the Micro Four Thirds system, instead utilizing a new, proprietary lens mount (Samsung NX-mount). The Sony Alpha NEX-3 and NEX-5 (announced May 14, 2010, and released in July 2010) saw Sony enter the market with a new, proprietary lens mount (the Sony E-mount), though the camera included LA-EA1 and LA-EA2 adapters for the legacy Minolta A-mount.In June 2011, Pentax announced the 'Q' mirrorless interchangeable lens camera and the 'Q-mount' lens system. The original Q series featured a smaller 1/2.3 inch 12.4 megapixel CMOS sensor. The Q7, introduced in 2013, has a slightly larger 1/1.7 inch CMOS sensor with the same megapixel count. In September 2011, Nikon announced their Nikon 1 system which consists of the Nikon 1 J1 and Nikon 1 V1 cameras and lenses. The V1 features an electronic viewfinder. The series includes high-speed mirrorless cameras which, according to Nikon, had the fastest autofocus and the fastest continuous shooting speed (60 fps) of any camera with interchangeable lenses, including DSLRs.
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