Back in the day, when digital cameras were still relatively new, we all used a new acronym to distinguish a digital SLR camera from a traditional, film-based SLR. These days, digital is the norm, and there are relatively few companies even producing film cameras. Isn’t it time that we drop the “D” and just refer to the “DSLR” as the “SLR”? Perhaps it makes more sense to refer to the film SLRs as “FSLRs”.
Furthermore, and I feel less invested in this idea, but several of the new cameras on the market have the shape and generally fit the expectation of an SLR camera (size, performance, interchangable lenses), but don’t actually have a reflex mirror. Perhaps we need an all-new way to describe this class of cameras. More likely, we’d end up with ten ways, none of which anyone used with any consistency, confusing the issue even more. Maybe we should just decide that “SLR” no longer is a real acronym for “single-lens reflex” and just use it to generically refer to the class of cameras which traditionally had that reflex mirror. At least people are generally used to that already, and probably wouldn’t know to not refer to, say, a Sony A99 as anything but an SLR.