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Archive 2011 · Got my B&H catalog today

wickerprints
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Got my B&H catalog today

Usually I don't bother reading it, since the website is all that I really need if I want to find something. But I was bored so I flipped through a bit of it. And in big bold letters at the top of page 135, I saw:

Mirrorless DSLRs

I'm not sure who writes the copy for the catalog, but I just had to come here and point out that this is a rather unfortunate oxymoron and a corruption of the meaning of "SLR." An SLR is an SLR precisely because it has a mirror; hence the term "reflex mirror." There's no "reflex" involved if there's no mirror.

So, if you're going to call these cameras something, call them "mirrorless system cameras" or "mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras." If someone at B&H is listening, please don't contribute to the corruption and confusion of photographic vocabulary. Yes, I know I'm being somewhat pedantic. But to be fair, someone at B&H went through the trouble of drawing diagrams and composing explanatory text for this section of your catalog; the least they could do is avoid self-contradictory terminology.

Nov 10, 2011 at 08:52 PM

helimat
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Got my B&H catalog today

Why don't you send them an email?

Nov 10, 2011 at 09:48 PM

dudemanppl
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Got my B&H catalog today

They should just call it MILK. Mirrorless Interchangable Lens Kamera. Cause milk is tasty.

Nov 10, 2011 at 10:11 PM

chez
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Got my B&H catalog today

Except for the die hard photo geeks, I think most understand what is meant by mirror less DSLR.

Nov 10, 2011 at 10:23 PM

RustyBug
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Got my B&H catalog today

Photo geek maybe ... but look at all the confusion the "effective focal length" caused when the crop factor got semantically perverted by careless marketing terminology.

Nov 10, 2011 at 10:48 PM

wickerprints
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Got my B&H catalog today

RustyBug wrote:
Photo geek maybe ... but look at all the confusion the "effective focal length" caused when the crop factor got semantically perverted by careless marketing terminology.

Exactly. Thanks for pointing that out.

Nov 10, 2011 at 10:54 PM

wickerprints
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Got my B&H catalog today

chez wrote:
Except for the die hard photo geeks, I think most understand what is meant by mirror less DSLR.

Your statement means that someone who is a "die hard photo geek" doesn't understand what is meant by "mirrorless DSLR."

Speaking good English are hard.

Nov 10, 2011 at 10:57 PM

bluetsunami
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Got my B&H catalog today

Its sort of weird that a standard acronym hasn't come about yet with mirrorless bodies. I guess DSLR has just become the de facto term for "non-rangefinder" and not a point and shoot or something. I wouldn't mind this being cleared up.

Nov 10, 2011 at 11:54 PM

umihoshijima
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Got my B&H catalog today

bluetsunami wrote:
Its sort of weird that a standard acronym hasn't come about yet with mirrorless bodies. I guess DSLR has just become the de facto term for "non-rangefinder" and not a point and shoot or something. I wouldn't mind this being cleared up.

It's probably because the term "DSLR" holds a lot of prestige to those slightly knowledgeable about cameras. a lot of people who want to upgrade from a point-and-shoot might only want to buy something labeled as such…

Nov 10, 2011 at 11:57 PM

chez
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Got my B&H catalog today

wickerprints wrote:
Your statement means that someone who is a "die hard photo geek" doesn't understand what is meant by "mirrorless DSLR."

Speaking good English are hard.
I wrote exactly what I meant...only the photo geeks get hung up on this terminology because of some technicality.

I guess sped readen gets ahead of ones brain at times.

Nov 11, 2011 at 12:27 AM

sirimiri
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Got my B&H catalog today

At least it's not "Mirrorless DSLR's"

or Camera's

or HDTV's

or "How-to's"

or "FAQ's"

What can I say? Sister Maria hammered home the grammar.

Nov 11, 2011 at 12:46 AM

RustyBug
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Got my B&H catalog today

bluetsunami wrote:
Its sort of weird that a standard acronym hasn't come about yet with mirrorless bodies. I guess DSLR has just become the de facto term for "non-rangefinder" and not a point and shoot or something. I wouldn't mind this being cleared up.

Honest question:

So what separates a "mirrorless" body from a rangefinder body ... that would be of significance for determining proper nomenclature such as EVF or E-rangefinder rather than the oxymoron of "mirrorless DSLR"

Nov 11, 2011 at 12:01 PM

helimat
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Got my B&H catalog today

I think 'mirrorless interchangeable lens digital camera' instead of 'mirrorless DSLR' would work for me. But it's a mouthful...

Nov 11, 2011 at 12:04 PM

wickerprints
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Got my B&H catalog today

RustyBug wrote:
Honest question:

So what separates a "mirrorless" body from a rangefinder body ... that would be of significance for determining proper nomenclature such as EVF or E-rangefinder rather than the oxymoron of "mirrorless DSLR"

Well, the term "rangefinder" implies the use of a parallax based optical focusing mechanism, so I would imagine this term is also unsuitable to describe cameras that exclusively use an electronic, contrast-detecting method of focus. This type of focusing is relatively new, especially for cameras with interchangeable lenses that are reliant on it as the only focusing method.

Some people have been using the term "EVIL" = electronic viewfinder, interchangeable lens, but for marketing purposes this obviously is not a good acronym to choose!

Nov 12, 2011 at 06:33 PM

rhyder
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Got my B&H catalog today

RustyBug wrote:
Photo geek maybe ... but look at all the confusion the "effective focal length" caused when the crop factor got semantically perverted by careless marketing terminology.

+100

Nov 12, 2011 at 06:48 PM

Jman13
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Got my B&H catalog today

What seems to have gained the most traction recently is CSC: Compact System Camera. I like it; it's short, accurate and kind of catchy.

Nov 12, 2011 at 07:23 PM

wickerprints
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Got my B&H catalog today

I like that too! I'll start using it and hopefully it will continue increasing in popularity.

Nov 12, 2011 at 07:32 PM

h00ligan
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Got my B&H catalog today

sirimiri wrote:
At least it's not "Mirrorless DSLR's"

or Camera's

or HDTV's

or "How-to's"

or "FAQ's"

What can I say? Sister Maria hammered home the grammar.

Two of those are correct as they are contracted acronyms.

Nov 12, 2011 at 07:45 PM

philip_pj
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Got my B&H catalog today

No defence of them, or their inaccuracies, but it may be they are trying to imply - or have the reader infer - that these cameras are competitors in the same market at DSLRs, with comparable image quality and usage.

The magazines are full of stories like: 'Why your next camera will be a mirrorless compact', 'mirrorless versus DSLR shootout!' or 'Do mirrorless cameras rate?', and similar inanities.

At least Sony tried with 'SLT' but got hammered anyway for not using the exact dictionary definition for 'translucent'.

To throw some wood on the fire, how about 'single' lens reflex for a confusing term - who markets a 'multiple' lens reflex to make this term necessary? Would not 'reflex camera' describe the device just as well?

What gets overlooked in all this, is that it's just a term, a descriptor, and once users learn the connection between term and its object, the term matters very little indeed, since its function becomes merely that of a label - as any politician or rhetorician will admit, in their honest moments, if they have any of them.

Nov 12, 2011 at 07:52 PM

wickerprints
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Got my B&H catalog today

philip_pj wrote:
To throw some wood on the fire, how about 'single' lens reflex for a confusing term - who markets a 'multiple' lens reflex to make this term necessary? Would not 'reflex camera' describe the device just as well?

Perhaps you are unaware of the existence of the twin lens reflex camera?

Nov 12, 2011 at 07:59 PM

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