disassembly

Hasselblad X1D II 50C Teardown: Look Inside a $5,750 Medium Format Camera

It’s not often that you get your hands on a Hasselblad, so when we received the $5,750 Hasselblad X1D II 50C in the office, to say we were excited would be an understatement. According to Hasselblad, the medium format camera is described as compact, powerful, and enhanced, and we can attest to it.

Canon EOS R7 Teardown: Inside the Prosumer APS-C Mirrorless Camera

Canon pushes for the APS-C market by with the new Canon EOS R7 and EOS R10. It’s no surprise that camera giant Canon is continuing with the massively popular mirrorless camera trend. This time around, they’ve decided to shake things up by introducing mirrorless to the smaller, more budget-friendly crop sensor market with these two new camera models.

Nikon Z9 Teardown: A Look Inside the Monster Flagship Mirrorless Camera

The Nikon Z9 is here and ready to take on the Sony A1 and Canon R3 for the title of ‘Mirrorless Flagship.’ We can argue all day about which camera is the best, but there’s no question that this one is the biggest. Mirrorless cameras have all been lighter and more compact than their DSLR counterparts, but with Z9 and the R3, Nikon and Canon have changed that.

Sony Alpha 1 Teardown: The Inside of a Flagship Mirrorless Camera

The Sony flagship camera is here, the first of the mirrorless full-frame "holy trinity" of Sony, Canon, and Nikon to be released. Sony announced this beautiful beast back in January 2021, and today we’re going to take it apart, modify it into a full spectrum camera, and (hopefully) put it back together again.

A Teardown of the Sigma fp Mirrorless Camera

Since making is debut in July of 2019, the Sigma fp has gained notoriety as a very capable camera despite its mixed reviews. The decidedly lowercase ‘fp’ is Sigma’s first full-frame sensor.

This Dead $10,000 Camera Shows the Danger of Salt Water

LensRentals recently got back a $10,000 Fujinon GFX100 medium format mirrorless camera from a customer who used it in dive housing and reported that it "suddenly died for no reason." After Fuji declared repair impossible and insurance claims were paid, LensRentals decided to take the camera apart and look inside.

A Teardown of the $5,500 Fujifilm GFX 50S Medium Format Mirrorless Camera

I want to take you back to a simpler time. It’s September of 2016. Everybody is running around outside taking beautiful photos with their new cameras. The full-frame mirrorless camera showdown has yet to turn into a hot war. It has officially become cool to shoot with Sony.

Sony a7R IV Full Disassembly and Teardown: Improved in Every Way

2020 is just around the corner, and if there is one thing we can be sure of, it’s that Sony probably isn’t going to be slowing down. While every iteration of the different a7 and a6000 camera lines launch with significant improvements over their predecessors, the most recent a7R took leaps and bounds in both capability and design progress.

Fujifilm X-T3 Teardown: A Look Inside Fuji’s Latest APS-C Masterpiece

You might have thought the Fujifilm X-T series was finished with the release of the X-H1, that Fujifilm was digging into the competition and leaving their love of style behind as was evident with that monstrosity. (We mean that lovingly.) But, the X-T3 is here, and it’s as beautiful as ever.

Canon EOS R Teardown: A Look Inside Canon’s First Full-Frame Mirrorless

The Canon EOS R is cause for controversy. After all, we’re in the middle of The Great Mirrorless Camera War. Tensions are bound to rise, turning sibling against sibling, camera tech against camera tech, and photographer against photographer. Despite this, I will do my best to describe the form factor and internal construction of the EOS R in a fair and unbiased manner.

Blindly Taking Apart a $6,000 Camera to See What’s Inside

While riding an ATV through snowy trails, photographer Peter McKinnon accidentally broke the mic input jack on his $6,000 Canon 1D X Mark II. Before sending the DSLR in to Canon for repairs, McKinnon decided to try his hand at blindly opening up the camera to see what's inside.

A Teardown of the New Sony a7R III

Our pre-ordered Sony a7R III finally arrived this weekend, and we couldn’t wait to crack it open and see what’s inside. The a7R III has been receiving a lot of positive reviews and I can see why.

Silent Changes: The Subtle Modifications Made to Camera Gear Over Time

Every so often I get an email asking me to jump in on some forum argument or other. I rarely do that because of the language barrier.

Two of the common languages spoken on forums are CAKWAF (Complete, Absolute Knowledge Without Any Facts) and AFIDAWAB (Any Facts I Don’t Agree With Are Bullstuff). Since I am not fluent in those languages, I tend not to get involved in the more, uhm, enthusiastic online discussions. But sometimes I can’t help myself, repeating the behavior of adding facts to a ‘vigorous’ discussion and always expecting a different result.

Teardown In Touit: Taking Apart the New Zeiss 32mm Touit Lens

Electronic autofocus and aperture control are new features introduced by Zeiss' new Touit lenses into the company's consumer lens lineup. After the lenses were announced, I couldn’t wait to take a look inside and see how things were put together.

How to Do DIY Dust Cleaning Surgery on 6 Popular Canon and Nikon Lenses

Here's a question I get asked about 15 times a week: “How can I get the dust out of my lens?” The right answer is you don’t. All lenses have dust in them and it doesn’t affect the images at all 99% of the time. Even if you clean it all out, it will be back after you use the lens a few times.

What Pancake Lenses Look Like On the Inside

I’ve always been fascinated by pancake lenses. It just amazes me that something that small can actually function. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we’ve been taking things apart to determine where and how (and sometimes if) the lenses can be adjusted optically. So, I decided to do two pancake lenses for mirrorless cameras side-by-side to see how they differed (the Sony 16mm f/2.8 E mount and the Olympus 17mm f/2.8 micro 4/3 mount). I wasn’t sure there would be much we could do with pancakes (and there wasn’t), but I still found the look inside rather interesting.

Undressing a Sony NEX Camera

I have to say I have one of the better jobs on the planet, at least for a photography gear-head. The part I like best — well, really there’s a lot of parts I like best — but one fun part is that my job description includes: Take things apart. See how they work. Learn how to fix them.