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We tore down the Panasonic Lumix S1R to see what makes it tick

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We really didn’t know what to expect going into this. Panasonic hasn’t even made an APS-C body before, nevermind a full-frame flagship mirrorless camera. Though, it seems they realized the S1 series needed to make a splash if its release was going to trail behind Canon and Nikon’s first foray into professional-grade mirrorless cameras because the Panasonic S1R is massive.

This body is titanic compared to its competitors: the A7R III, Z7, and EOS R. Panasonic has decisively abandoned the notion that photographers want mirrorless cameras because of their reduced size and weight. The Panasonic S1R weighs in at 1.98 pounds. That’s about half a pound heavier than the Z7, or less than an ounce shy of the medium format Fuji GFX 50S! This camera is a beast!

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Dismantling the new Canon EOS RP in this extreme teardown

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I’d think most people were pleasantly surprised with the release of the EOS RP. Full-frame mirrorless cameras were getting increasingly sophisticated, which is a good thing, but they were getting increasingly expensive along the way. After all, it’s the enthusiast and prosumer crowd that wants mirrorless cameras more than anyone else.

Top tier professional photographers are still largely sticking with traditional DSLRs, for now. The only full-frame mirrorless options for that growing crowd of serious but not seriously paid photographers were the now-5-year-old (time is really flying) Sony A7 II or the even older and clunkier A7. Anything with current tech would run you $2,000 minimum, namely the A7 III. I’m not saying this camera wasn’t an absolute steal considering what it can do, but $2,000 is still a lot of money for most people who do not shoot full-time for a living and leaves little room for modern, mount-native glass. If only there was something to fill that gap.

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This 4.9mm Hyperfisheye prototype lens is so wide it can see behind itself

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LensRentals has posted some fantastic teardowns with impressive regularity over the years, but it’s rare that we see them put something together. They thought that it was about time to show off building a lens, after shooting timelapse of tearing down the massive C-4 Optics 4.9mm f/3.5 Hyperfisheye prototype lens from scratch, LensRentals founder, Roger Cicala posted a detailed write up of the lens being reconstructed from scratch.

Unlike most of the lenses today, this lens is all mechanical. There’s no fancy autofocus, image stabilisation or electronics to deal with. And that short 4.9mm focal length offers an insane 270° field of view. Yes, it can see behind itself!

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Nikon Z6 teardown shows that it’s just as solid and well-built as the Z7

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Nearly two months ago, we dove into the Nikon Z7 and showed you what was happing inside all the way down to the sensor. Today, we did the same with the Z7’s standard resolution counterpart, the Nikon Z6. At 25 megapixels and just under $2000 MSRP, the Z6 is encroaching on the Sony A7 III’s turf. The A7 III has proven itself to be a high-performing, tuned down version of the A7R III, “the basic model”, delivering beyond what the market is accustomed to at that price point. So, does the Z6 meet this new standard for the $2000 camera body? The specs certainly check out, but what about the build? Is the Z6 as well built as the Z7, or did Nikon cut corners to meet the lower price point?

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The ultimate Fujifilm X-T3 disassembly and teardown

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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. Not only that, but the X-T3 even outperforms the X-H1 in many areas as far as their spec sheets are concerned. Fujifilm’s approach to the mirrorless camera war of 2018-20?? is a two-pronged assault on the flanks. They’re releasing powerful cameras with APS-C and medium format sensors in multiple iterations while skipping full-frame entirely. Fuji’s alternative strategy is a very interesting pincer attack on the market, and we definitely shouldn’t count them out just because they’ve officially rejected full-frame.

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The unbiased Canon EOS R disassembly and teardown

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The Canon EOS R was cause for some internal controversy here at Kolari Vision. After all, we’re in the middle of The Great Mirrorless Camera War. Tensions are bound to rise, turning brother against brother, 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.

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Nikon Z7 disassembly and teardown

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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. Based on the popularity of our last teardown where we took the A7R III all the way down to its sensor, we’ve decided to provide model-by-model coverage of the full-frame mirrorless wars by showing you what’s under the hood.

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Huawei P20 Pro teardown shows that all three cameras have optical image stabilisation

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The Huawei P20 Pro, the world’s first smartphone with three rear cameras, has been torn apart by the folks at iFixit to reveal a nice surprise. Above and beyond the published specs, it seems that all three of the phone’s rear cameras feature optical image stabilisation. According to iFixit’s report, only the 8MP telephoto camera in the P20 Pro is supposed to have hardware optical image stabilisation. But they’re not quite convinced.

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This is what a $6,000 DSLR looks like with its guts spilled out

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Oh, that crazy Peter McKinnon. At it again with his wacky adventures. This time, though, even by his own standards, he’s gone a little overboard, I think. Of course, when somebody like Peter McKinnon decides to have a go at doing his own teardown video, I’m not going to object.

This all began with an ATV mishap that destroyed the microphone socket on his beloved Canon 1DX Mark II. After calling Canon to see what could be done about it, they shipped him out a temporary replacement unit and told him to send his back in to be fixed. But between receiving that and actually sending his to Canon, though, Peter got curious and decided to open it up (his old one, not the new loaner).

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About Getting Your Camera Wet… Teardown of a Salty Sony A7sII

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People think that because I expect the worst and try to prepare for it, that I’m negative. That’s not it at all. I’m not a negative person; I’m cheerfully cynical. If I expect the worst and it doesn’t happen, I’m happy because things went better than I expected. If I expect the worst and it does happen, I’m happy, because I can tell everyone, “See, I told you this would happen.” So I expect the worst because that keeps me happy.

This post is a superb example of why expecting the worst is reasonable. There are all kinds of badness in this one post. There’s nothing good here at all. Well, except for Aaron’s disassembly. That’s very good. Everything else here is about mistakes.

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