A movable mechanical mirror system (2) is switched down (to precisely a 45-degree angle) to direct light from the lens over a matte focusing screen (5) via a condenser lens (6) and a pentaprism/ pentamirror (7) to an optical viewfinder eyepiece (8). Like SLRs, DSLRs typically use interchangeable lenses (1) with a proprietary lens mount. Major camera manufacturers began to transition their product lines away from DSLR cameras to mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras (MILCs) beginning in the 2010s. The viewfinder of a DSLR presents an image that will not differ substantially from what is captured by the camera's sensor as it presents it as a direct optical view through the main camera lens, rather than showing an image through a separate secondary lens.ĭSLRs largely replaced film-based SLRs during the 2000s. In the reflex design, light travels through the lens and then to a mirror that alternates to send the image to either a prism, which shows the image in the optical viewfinder, or the image sensor when the shutter release button is pressed.
The reflex design scheme is the primary difference between a DSLR and other digital cameras. A digital single-lens reflex camera ( digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that combines the optics and the mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a solid-state image sensor and digitally records the images from the sensor.
