SLR Camera

The SLR camera uses one lens for both viewing and taking the picture. It has a slanted mirror positioned between the shutter and the lens, with a piece of translucent glass and a prism positioned above it. This results in the real image bouncing off the lower mirror on to the translucent glass, which serves as a projection screen. The prism flips the image appearing on the screen so that it is the right way up and then redirects it on to the viewfinder window.

When the shutter button is clicked, the camera switches the mirror out of the way so that the image is directed at the exposed film.