Posts Tagged ‘ILCs’

If you own an interchangeable lens camera, then you may be faced with a dilemma if you decide to upgrade your kit. Should you prioritize upgrading the camera body, or purchasing a new lens?

To answer this question you need to look carefully at what your current gear doesn't do satisfactorily. By looking at the main problems you have with your current gear, you can better understand whether it is a new camera or new lens that will best resolve those problems for you.

Sometimes when reading photography articles or camera reviews, you may find that they refer to 'crop factor'. Crop factor is only really relevant to interchangeable lens cameras, but it is worth understanding what crop factor means.

Crop factor all comes down to the fact that most digital cameras use a smaller image sensor size than a frame of 35mm film. Where this comes into play is (primarily) when looking at lens focal lengths.

In recent years, the choice in camera models has become much greater, with some completely new types of camera being released. With all the different types of camera, and the different names used to describe them, it can be a bit confusing. In the next series of articles I'll try and clear this up a bit, as well as listing the advantages and disadvantages of each type.

This composite photo shows the relative scale of a Nikon D3100 DSLR (left), Panasonic GX1 MILC (bottom right), and Panasonic ZS9 Compact camera (top right).

MILCs

MILC stands for Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera, and they are a cross between a compact camera and an SLR. MILCs (with the exception of the Pentax Q and Nikon 1 models) feature the large sensor and ability to change lenses of a DSLR camera, while lacking the DSLR's mirror, which allows a much smaller body size.

They are also known as Mirrorless cameras, ILCs (Interchangeable Lens Compacts), EVIL (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens) and CSCs (Compact System Cameras). As these types of cameras are relatively new, a standard name has not yet won out in terms of usage.