Pellicle

A pellicle mirror is a piece of glass covered with a very thin film, making it semi-transparent. It is used as a fixed mirror in some SLR models, the first one being the Canon Pellix in 1965. This system helps reducing vibrations, and the finder is not blackened during the exposure. But the amount of light going to the viewfinder is less than with the traditional mobile mirror. Later the pellicle mirror was mainly used on special high speed cameras that could take many pictures per second (usually more than 5), on which the moving mirror meant a significant time waste, and a continuous vision of the subject while firing was appreciable.

A list of reflex cameras with a fixed pellicle mirror:

• Canon Pellix
• Canon F-1 High Speed
• Nikon F High Speed, some variants
• Nikon F2 High Speed
• Nikon F3 High Speed
• Canon EOS 1n RS

Links

• At Cameraquest:
  • The Canon F-1 High Speed
  • The Nikon F High Speed
  • The Nikon F2 High Speed
  • The Nikon F3 High Speed
• Canon Pellix Cameras at Photography in Malaysia