The Panasonic Lumix G1
September 2008
The first mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera: no mirror, just a sensor feeding an electronic viewfinder, in a smaller body.
How it began
Compact digital cameras showed a live image from the sensor, but serious cameras kept the SLR mirror. Panasonic’s G1 of 2008, the first Micro Four Thirds camera, dropped it.
How it works
Light goes straight to the sensor, which feeds an electronic viewfinder and the rear screen. Without a mirror box the lens can sit close to the sensor, so bodies and wide lenses can be smaller.
Why it mattered
It started the mirrorless camera, which shows the exposure before the shot and focuses using the sensor itself. After the Sony α7 in 2013, mirrorless cameras replaced SLRs.
Limits and what replaced it
Early electronic viewfinders lagged and drained batteries, and contrast-detect focusing was slow for action. Better screens and on-sensor phase-detect focus fixed both.
Today
Mirrorless has replaced the SLR almost completely at every major maker.