© By Jeff Meyer
1. Smaller and lighter
Digital SLRs use a mirror to bounce light up into a pentaprism (or penta-mirror) viewfinder, but compact system cameras don’t have a mirror or a pentaprism, so this enables them to be made smaller and lighter.
The benefits of this a pretty obvious, your camera takes up less space in your bag and it’s lighter and easier to carry. This is in turn means that you are more likely to take your CSC with you wherever you go, so you’ll get more shots.
Further good news about CSCs is that their small size doesn’t have to mean a compromise in image quality because many have the same size sensor as you find inside an SLR.
There are now full-frame, APS-C and Four Thirds format CSCs.
2. Quiet and discrete
Because there’s no mirror that needs to move out of the way when you’re taking a shot, compact system cameras are usually quieter and more discrete than an SLR.
This makes them ideal for shooting street and documentary photographs when you want to go unnoticed.
They are also useful for shooting portraits of camera-shy subjects.
Many people also assume that smaller cameras are ‘less serious’ so they pay less attention to you while you are using one and it’s easier to get the shots that you want.
3. Responsive Live View
In Live View mode SLRs show the image from the sensor on their main screen, but screen refresh rates and autofocus times are usually quite poor so it’s hard to compose images of moving subjects.
Compact system cameras only show a live view image but their manufacturers have invested heavily in making sure that the screen and autofocus performance is good.
Micro Four Thirds cameras from Olympus and Panasonic are especially good in this respect and you can shoot moving subjects while composing on the main screen.
4. What you see is what you get
Because CSCs always use a live view feed from the sensor, the screen or electronic viewfinder (EVF) shows the impact or camera setting selections.
Switch to black and white mode, for instance, and you’re able to preview the monochrome image in the EVF or on the screen. And if you reduce the exposure you also see the preview get darker.
As well as making life easier because you don’t need to guess how the image will appear like you do with an SLR and composing in the optical viewfinder, this ability to preview an image can make you more creative.
For example, if you look through the viewfinder of an SLR you will see the scene more or less as it appears to your eye and you have to imagine how the image will appear with the selected settings applied.
Your only guide to exposure is your experience and the scale in the viewfinder.
With a compact system camera, however, you may look in the viewfinder and see that the image looks good when it’s very bright, using settings that the camera’s scale considers will over-expose the scene.
You may also decide that you like the slight warmth (or whatever) that the scene has and enhance it by changing white balance or applying a filter effect.
5. More features
The constant live view design of compact system cameras has enabled their manufacturers to include novel features that can be very helpful for photography.
Olympus’s Live Bulb mode, for example, allows you to see a long exposure image build up on the screen on the back of the camera during the exposure.
This means that rather than having to calculate or guess the length of the exposure you can assess it visually and close the shutter when the image looks right.
Panasonic also has a system that enables the impact of shutter speed to be seen so you can decide how blurred or sharp you want any movement to be in the final image.
Compact system camera manufacturers have also been quick to embrace technology such as WiFi and NFC (Near Field Communication) connectivity, as well as allowing images to be shared on Facebook and Twitter etc., quickly.
A WiFi connection also enables a camera to be controlled remotely via a smartphone.
This is very useful for avoiding camera-shake and when shooting timid subjects.
6. No mirror-slap
That lack of a mirror has another advantage; you don’t need to worry about engaging mirror lock-up mode when shooting long exposure shots to reduce vibration.
It’s still a good idea to use a remote release, but because more compact system cameras have WiFi connectivity built-in you often don’t need to buy a dedicated unit, a smartphone can be used instead.