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Tearing down the Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.7-7.1L IS USM reveals a very complex design

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This is probably one of the most in-depth lens teardowns I’ve seen from Lensrentals. Their efforts weren’t by choice, though. The lens lied to them. The team recently posted a teardown of the Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM lens that had a broken element inside it. It appeared as though the element might reside inside the stabilization system, which is relatively easy to remove.

It turned out, though, that the IS system of the lens was simply masking the true location of the broken element. This resulted in the need to pretty much completely dismantle the entire lens, down to almost its core constituent parts, in order to track down exactly where in the optical makeup it was.

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iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro camera modules revealed in this iFixit teardown

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No matter what brand of phone you choose to use yourself, the biggest spectacle in the smartphone world each year is undoubtedly the new iPhone releases. This year, that meant the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro (well, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max, but that’s not available yet). And, following on from that announcement is the obligatory teardown from iFixit.

In an hour and a half live stream, Taylor Dixon, iFixit’s Teardown Engineer, took apart both the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro to see how easy it is to dismantle and to take a look at the components inside – including the camera modules (the camera talk is around the 44-minute mark).

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Tearing down the Sigma fp – the world’s smallest and lightest full-frame mirrorless camera

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Since making is debut in July of 2019, the Sigma fp has gained notoriety as a very capable camera among its mixed reviews. The decidedly lowercase ‘fp’ is Sigma’s first full-frame sensor. The fp was released the same year that all other major camera manufacturers that aren’t Sony were releasing their first or second full-frame mirrorless cameras, and in typical Sigma fashion, the fp stood out from the crowd.

It’s certainly doing its part now to popularize the sensor-in-box style form factor that makes so much sense for video shooters. This design also makes it a great candidate for conversion to Infrared!

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Thermal vision tests suggest Canon may not be able to “fix” the EOS R5’s heat issues

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LensRentals just recently posted their teardown of the Canon EOS R5 and noticed that it has some pretty hefty seals to help protect it from the elements when shooting outdoors in harsh conditions. But they theorised that those seals and the tightly packed components might hamper the EOS R5’s heat dissipation abilities.

Well, now, Roger and the team at LensRentals have pointed a FLIR thermal IR camera at it to see exactly how hot the Canon EOS R5 gets after it’s been on for a while at different parts of the camera body. And some of it… Well, it gets extremely hot!

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Canon EOS R5 teardown shows great weather sealing but few escape routes for heat

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Well, Kolari Vision might’ve been the first to tear apart the Canon EOS R6 and get a good look at the chip that seems to keep time for “overheating” issues, but it looks like Roger and the gang at Lensrentals has beaten them to the punch on cracking open the Canon EOS R5.

They’ve published a complete EOS R5 teardown which offers some good insights into its weather sealing, which looks very impressive. But those seals might be the EOS R5’s downfall when it comes to letting heat escape.

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EOS R6 teardown reveals the timer chip that’s holding the camera back

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Here at Kolari Vision, we love tearing into the newest camera gears to learn how they work and if they can be modded for infrared photography, full spectrum photography, or other things. We’ve been really excited about the R5/R6 release, and had plans to add some cooling mods and overhaul it into a proper video camera.

Reports from EOSHD that Canon uses an overheat timer rather than actual temperature readings left us a bit disappointed and calls into question whether physically cooling down the camera can actually give any more shooting time. Andrew Reid was able to bypass this timer by using a screw to override the safety shutoff switch in the battery door compartment and do a hard shutdown during recording, but this seems to corrupt video files.

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Take a peek inside the Canon EOS R6 mirrorless camera in this disassembly and teardown

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Here at Kolari Vision, we love tearing into the newest camera gears to learn how they work and if they can be modded for infrared photography, full spectrum photography, or other things. We’ve been really excited about the Canon EOS R5 & EOS R6 release and had plans to add some cooling mods and overhaul it into a proper video camera.

Reports that Canon uses a clock rather than temperature readings left us a bit disappointed and calls into question whether physically cooling down the camera can actually give any more shooting time. While we don’t have an R5 yet, we did get an R6 this week and tore it down to see what’s inside. Here we’ll go over the basics that we found inside, how the thermals are handled, and later share some insights we learned about how the Canon clock circuit works.

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Teardown reveals the $749 DJI Mavic Air 2 is made from around $135 worth of parts

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This isn’t the first Mavic Air 2 teardown we’ve seen, that honour goes to the folks at iFixit, but a new teardown by Tokyo-based research specialist Fomalhaut Techno Solutions in partnership with Nikkei Asian Review certainly seems to be the most in-depth.

The complete teardown doesn’t appear to have been published publicly, but the Nikkei Asian Review has reported on some of its details. Details like the fact that it is comprised of around 80% off-the-shelf parts, and coming in at a total material cost of around $135.

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The $10,000 teardown – Fuji GFX 100 vs saltwater

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Setting the whole DSLR vs mirrorless argument aside for a minute, there’s one thing that’s remained constant amongst all of them. Don’t let it get in contact with saltwater. And if you are going to head out into the ocean with it, make sure to check that you’ve got a reliable dive housing with no leaks!

Lensrentals recently had a Fuji GFX 100 out, which they were told was used in a dive housing and “suddenly died for no reason”. It turns out that there was a reason. Not wanting to risk killing a $10K camera themselves, they spoke to Fuji, who gave them the “repair not possible” line. Well, if Fuji’s told you it can’t be repaired, and the insurance has already paid for a replacement, why not tear it apart and take a peek inside?

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Tearing down Canon’s new 600mm f/11 telephoto lens

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Canon’s RF 600mm f/11 IS STM lens is tiny. At least, it is when you compare it to the typical 600mm lenses that wildlife and sports shooters use. It’s also super lightweight, coming in at around 2lb (930g) and costs a mere $699. Sure, its f/11 max aperture is hitting “diffraction territory” but for social media, it’s plenty good enough.

At least, that’s the thought that convinced Roger Cicala at LensRentals to buy the RF 600mm f/11 IS STM lens. It’s not a lens he needs often, but he regularly spends time near a lot of wildlife and wanted a lightweight lens to take with him. Naturally, after all, he’s Roger Cicala, the lens was dismantled pretty much as soon as it arrived.

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