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Nikon Strikes Back At Sony With First Full-Frame Mirrorless Cameras (theverge.com)
After weeks of teases, Nikon has unveiled its first brand new full-frame mirrorless cameras to challenge Sony in the mirrorless market. As The Verge notes, the Z7 and Z6 are "basically a tit-for-tat response to Sony's A7III and A7RIII, and Nikon is aggressively going several steps beyond what Canon has attempted with mirrorless cameras." From the report: The Z7, coming on September 27th, has a 45.7-megapixel sensor, 493 focus points, and 64-25600 ISO. The Z6 will follow in "late November" with a 24.5-megapixel sensor, 273 focus points, and 100-51200 ISO. The cameras bring with them an all-new Z mount system that will debut with a 24-70mm f/4 "kit" lens. With the lens bundled, the Z7 will run $3,999.95, with the Z6 at $2,599.95. The lens runs $999.95 on its own and has a minimum focus distance of under 12 inches across its zoom range. A 35mm f/1.8 prime ($845.95) will be available at launch as well. There's also a 50mm f/1.8 prime ($599.95) coming in October that Nikon tells me has astounded some of its engineers with sharpness and edge-to-edge clarity. The company is releasing a $250 FTZ adapter that will allow these cameras to support Nikon's F-mount lenses. The adapter offers "full compatibility" (support for autofocus and auto exposure) with over 90 lenses. "Nikon is promising basic compatibility with approximately 360 existing F lenses for those that don't mind handling focus and exposure," reports The Verge.
You don't really need that, with current-day levels of ISO performance, you can literally take hand-held pictures of stars at night with a F3.5 lens, and little degradation of the quality.
You may have needed F-.95 lenses in 1960, when Tri-X was as fast as it got, but not when you can easily operated at 5- and even 6-digit ASA levels.
I realize this is an attempt at a funny. But the mirror was only used for the viewfinder. The light path to the film/sensor was always straight from the lens. And if you really wanted a SLR without a mirror which needed to flip up, you could always get a rangefinder even back in the film days. (Actually, the B&H article on rangefinders is a lot more informative and interesting than the wiki article.)
Those use a small mirror or prism in the light path to generate the image in the viewscreen. Contrary to most people's concept of how light works, blocking the light path in an out-of-focus plane does not create a hard shadow at the in-focus plane. It creates a soft shadow (look at the edge of the shadow of your head vs your leg in sunlight). And if the obstruction is small enough, the soft shadow only appears as a slight dimming of the overall image.