Olympus called it an SLR. Steves'digicams called it an SLR. Wikipedia defines a DSLR as: "A digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that uses an automatic mirror system and pentaprism to direct light from the lens through the viewfinder." Nowhere does it mention interchangable lenses. I still regard the C2500L as an SLR, albeit a rather early digital model. You may call it whatever you like!
Heck, if it has only one lens, that really makes it an SLR, right? Not a MLR -- multiple lens reflex, or ILR -- interchangable lens reflex. It may be the only true digital single lens reflex!
(snip)
Well there ya go! It's so hard to be correct...
If you put a zoom lens on your SLR, is it not then a ZLR? Maybe an SLR(Z) or an IZLR?
Perhaps the parlance has evolved among the cognoscenti in the 8 years since the C2500L was a current model.
Olympus is guilty of "advertising-speak", just like we know that those "titanium" drill bits are really (hopefully) HSS coated with Titanium Nitride.
I know that you know better than to want a drill bit made of titanium. And I usually consider your optical information to be good, too. But I do have to disagree with you on this one thing.
Steves' is probably taking the maker's advertising-speak as gospel. And they may be getting an advertising kickback from the manufacturer, or may have been doing so at the time that was written. This is something which some web based camera testers are accused of these days. In any case, this would make Steve -- or anyone else in a similar position -- a bit less likely to argue the point.
At which precise time did it say that? You know how likely to change Wikipedia's definitions (especially those which may be controversial) can be. :-)
Note that the collection of newsgroups aimed at digital cameras is currently:
rec.photo.digital 0001456307 0001435796 y rec.photo.digital.point+shoot 0000002230 0000002082 y rec.photo.digital.rangefinder 0000000356 0000000341 y rec.photo.digital.slr-systems 0000118052 0000109228 y rec.photo.digital.zlr 0000003880 0000003516 y
Note that the ZLR cameras have their own separate newsgroup.
The "Single lens" is in contrast to a rangefinder (which had separate optics for the viewfinder) or a TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) such as the Rolli which had two lenses of identical focal length one above the other. Sometimes the two were also the same maximum aperture, other times the taking lens would be a bit faster than the viewfinding lens (e.g. f:2.8 for the taking lens and f:3.5 for the viewfinder lens. The benefit of this is that you had a better idea of what you were getting in terms of depth of field.
There were even some interchangeable lens TLRs -- such as the Mamyia -- aimed for professional photographers. There was a manual cover plate inside to protect the film while the lens pair was being changed. This, of course, made the ability to change lenses cost more, since you had to change two at once.
No. A ZLR has *no* choice of lenses. It has *only* the single zoom lens, with no provisions for changing to another lens which might be faster, or longer focal length, or shorter focal length. You are stuck with the range of the zoom (3:1 IIRC in this one). Not that this matters for the planned use which triggered this discussion.
And don't claim more by "digital" or "electronic" zoom. That gains you nothing which you cannot get by using a computer program to crop the image and blow it up -- and loses a bit of flexibility in fixing framing errors.
Or the cognoscenti were not willing to accept advertiser-speak from the start. :-)
I would not want something which *claimed* to be an SLR which did not offer interchangeable lenses. I like to be able to use the older lenses from the same maker, and to mount the camera on a Catadioptric telescope for a really serious telephoto lens. (And yes, I do know that is a mis-use of "telephoto", as it really refers to a long focal length lens combined with a secondary cluster of lens elements near the back to allow the lens to be physically shorter than its nominal focal length. :-)
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