Nikon Patent Application: F-mount "mirrorless" camera?
In this interesting patent, Nikon looks to patent a camera with a pellicle mirror and two image sensors.
The smaller image sensor above the mirror is used for auto focus and exposure calculations. The main image sensor is used for imaging only.
While not certainly fully mirrorless it adds an EVF and advanced AF/AE operations to the existing F-mount. Of course, you still have calibration then, because your auto focus is done on a separate sensor than your main imaging, so there are some downsides to this approach.
Why would you do this?
It's really hard to say why Nikon would do this in actual reality because the mirrorless sensors today, are fast and quick for AE/AF calcuations already. The need for a seperate sensor, and the loss of light through the pellicle mirror, seems like an antiquated solution.
Japan Patent Application 2019-161663
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