Our brand new Nikon Z7 full frame mirrorless camera arrived at the office this week, and we immediately got down to business. Four years ago, Sony fired the first shot of this battle with the A7 and continued to release one iteration after another, each improving on the last, and did so completely unanswered by the competition until August 23rd of this year when Nikon announced the Z7 and the Z6.
I always put a lens hood on my lenses. Except… when they fall! As I recently finished shooting at 6 AM in the Maldives with my wife, I kicked my tripod with my Sony a7R III, Sony 16-35 f/2.8 GM, and an ND-8 filter on it. The tripod fell over towards the ocean and, to my partial relief, fell on the wooden platform 7 feet (2m) below with the camera on it…
There are about 1,200 moving parts inside a Leica M rangefinder. In this 3.5-minute video, Tamarkin Camera in Chicago disassembles a Leica M give show what goes on inside the famous red dot cameras.
JerryRigEverything just published this 7-minute teardown video of the Samsung Galaxy S9, and one of the interesting things it reveals is the mechanical workings of the DxOMark-leading camera, which is the first smartphone camera to feature a variable aperture.
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.
Have you ever wondered how the shutter of a DSLR works? This oddly satisfying 1.5-minute video from Chris Marquardt examines a shutter mechanism that has been extracted from a Nikon D500.
Want to see what's inside a modern instant camera? The website All About Circuits just published a teardown of the Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 to explore the inner workings of the camera.
The iPhone has become one of the most popular cameras in the world, but the actual components that go into the iPhone's camera don't cost very much materials-wise. Apple is estimated to spend about $26 on the iPhone 7's camera module, representing just 9.5% the bill of materials for the entire phone.
Nikon claims its pro-grade D810 DSLR has "superior" and extensive weather sealing that helps keep moisture and dust out, but that doesn't mean you should treat it as being dust-proof. The camera above shows why. It's a Nikon D810 that was taken to Burning Man.
Want to see the guts of the most anticipated DSLR of the year? You're in luck. Roger Cicala over at LensRentals took the time to tear down, piece-by-piece, a brand new Canon 5D Mark IV so you can take a look inside and ... just maybe ... learn something, too.
Sony's sgnl YouTube channel published this 5-minute teardown video that offers a look at the guts of the company's high-end 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master lens, which retails for $2,200.
iFixit has published a complete teardown of the Fujifilm X100T. If you've ever wanted to see the guts of the $1,099 camera, here's your chance to have a peek without spending 2 to 4 hours and putting your camera at risk.
Today’s flash market offers a wide variety of options for anyone looking to dip a toe in the off-camera flash pool. While there are plenty of things to consider while shopping for a speedlight, one factor that doesn’t always receive the most attention is build quality.
Want to see the inner workings of a Sony E-mount lens? Engineer Dave Jones of EEVblog was having problems with his $350 Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS E-mount lens, so he decided to take it apart on camera to see what's inside. You can watch the teardown in the 26-minute video above.
Want to see what "bridge" cameras were like before the days of digital? EEVBlog got its hands on a Chinon Genesis II 35mm from 1989 and recorded the 18-minute teardown above to show us the guts. The Genesis II was marketed as a "Zoom Lens Reflex" (ZLR) bridge camera because it was more advanced than a point-and-shoot and easier-to-use than an single-lens reflex.
We're introduced to the "zero latency" viewfinder that doesn't require power, the 24- and 36-shot "memory card" compartment, and the strangely-shaped 4-blade aperture.
One camera that has generated a great deal of interest in recent days is the Sony a7R II, which packs the world's first BSI full-frame sensor, ISO 102400, and 4K video into a flagship mirrorless body.
The folks over at iFixit have just published a teardown of the a7r II, giving us a glimpse into the guts of the highly-anticipated camera body.
When my company LensRentals first got the first Canon 5Ds and 5DSR cameras in stock, we immediately started screaming that we wanted to take one apart. It turns out we received enough 5Ds cameras to let us have a day with one to do just that. Of course, we don't expect to find out anything amazing and revealing. We expect it will look pretty much like the Canon 5DIII and 7DII on the inside. But hey, you never know. Plus we'll be repairing these soon enough, so we might as well find our way around now.
After having his ex-girlfriend stab his Nikon D80 to death using a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, Jon of Prime Studios decided to "take lemons and make lemonade" by using the camera for an in-depth teardown. In the 16-minute video above, Jon takes the DSLR apart to show us what things are like on the inside and what some of the main components are.
Before Canon and Nikon became juggernauts in the world of DSLRs, Kodak actually created one of the first DSLRs by modifying the Nikon Pronea 6i film SLR. Called the Kodak DCS315, the camera was the world's first DSLR to feature an image preview LCD and JPEG processing in the camera itself. It was launched in 1998 and boasted an amazing (at the time) 1.5 megapixels.
OK, I have to admit I really like the 7D Mark II. I didn’t want to because it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to see the new Canon chip foundry that would be cranking out high-resolution sensors. But despite wanting to hate the 22-megapixel APS-C camera, after a fairly short exposure to the autofocus system, I have to admit I like it. There’s just something about getting every shot in focus every time that’s appealing to me.
Ever since we here at LensRentals first tested a Sony A7R, we were dying to take a look under the hood. Say what you will about Sony as a company, but they create some of the most elegantly-engineered camera bodies we’ve seen. Plus, the A7R is something of a groundbreaking camera, and we wanted to see how they crammed all that stuff into its little body.
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.
Goodbye old young friend. Let me give you all a piece of wisdom that I recently learned the hard way. If you go on a fishing trip called 'Hit em' Hard' and the captain tells you that you should take your bag off and put it in the 'dry container', what he really means by 'dry container' is a place that will fill up with seawater after he accidently clogs the drainage pipe, soaking you and your friends cameras, bags, wallets and cellphones for over an hour in salty seawater.
Better yet, just never go on a fishing charter with a name like 'Hit em' Hard.'
Here's a dissection video for those of you who like photography better than biology. It's a Khan Academy lesson that offers a glimpse into how digital cameras work on the inside. The camera being dissected is a Vivitar V25, a 2.1 megapixel camera that you can pick up for around $18 from places like Walmart. Although it's basically the digital equivalent of a disposable camera, the camera still shares some things in common with higher-end digital cameras. You might be able to learn an interesting thing or two about how your own camera works.
Yesterday we featured a photographer's DIY teardown of the Nikon D700, offering a peek at the camera's guts. It was interesting, but a bit outdated since the camera was released back in July 2008. iFixit and Chipworks have just finish their own teardowns of a camera that's much more recent: the Nikon D600 "entry-level" full-frame DSLR.
If you've ever wondered what a Nikon D700 looks like when completely disassembled, today's your lucky day. Czech photographer Martin Kozák recently did a complete teardown with a ruined D700, and then snapped the still life photo seen above.
Phil Wright got his hands on the Sony RX100 -- the camera David Pogue was raving about -- shortly after it was released back in June. It didn't survive very long.
Earlier this month, Wright was rushing to work in the darkness of the early morning when he placed his coffee and his black camera bag on top of his car. When he arrived at work 22 miles and 25 minutes later with coffee in hand, he suddenly realized that his camera was nowhere to be found. After panicked call to his wife back home, she made the discovery: camera roadkill 300 yards from their house.
If you think 14fps on a high end DSLR is fast, check out this video by Mike's Electric Stuff. In it, he does an extreme teardown of a cheap Panasonic Lumix compact camera and spends 30 minutes exploring and explaining the various components.
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.
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.