Nikon’s mirrorless is going to be absolutely amazing. Patents have been published that show a Nikon mirrorless camera without a mechanical shutter, first picked up by a Japanese blog before being helpfully aggregated by NikonRumors.
The Japanese patent features a detailed cross-section view of the camera which has some extremely innovative features never seen before.
• The main embodiment of the patent is of a camera which ‘lacks a mechanical shutter’ and is 100% electronic. This means it features a global shutter which will be great for video.
• The EVF sits in a prism, with a mirror magnifying the image to a large viewfinder.
• The lens release button is on the lens barrel
• The lens flange back is very short and the lens sits inside the camera
• A protective barrier sits over the sensor and retracts when an object comes close to it, such as the back of a lens
Previous patents have suggested the camera has very small lenses and a smaller sensor than the GH1, possibly similar to the 16mm / c-mount combination we had in the days of Bolex cameras.
A smaller sensor is also helpful for the implementation of a global shutter. The sensor will probably not have a high megapixel count but will have good sensitivity and the global ‘all-at-once’ electronic exposure system.
Meanwhile the smaller lenses required would be a fraction of the size than would be needed for APS-C sized mirrorless cameras like the Sony NEX series, to avoid this kind of thing happening:
I can’t wait for this one. It should be worth the rather long wait over the competition. Nikon are extremely late, but not as late as Canon I should add!!
