APERTUREAn instrument of light
000
01Aperture — an instrument of light

Everything youremember arrivedthrough glass

Eleven elements, one plane of silicon, and a shutter that decides what the world was for four thousandths of a second. Here is that machine, and here is every piece of it.

02Disassembly

Nothing hereis decoration

Every ring, every contact, every sprung washer exists to hold a piece of glass exactly where it must be — and to keep holding it through heat, rain and ten years of being put down too hard.

Exploded view — 57 assemblies
Parts
Elements
mm tolerance
03The optical group

Light does notbend willingly

Eleven elements in eight groups. Two ground from extra-low-dispersion glass, one aspherical, all of them coated to give back less than half a percent of what strikes them. The barrel exists only to stop them arguing.

Maximum
Blades
Reflectance
04The chassis

A body builtto be forgotten

Magnesium where it has to be rigid, glass where it has to be honest. Sealed at twelve points against the weather that would otherwise end the afternoon. You should never once think about it.

Flange depth — 20 mm / sealed at 12 points
05The core

Silicon holdsstill for light

A full-frame sensor, back-illuminated: forty-five million wells waiting to be filled. Behind it, a board that empties all of them in eight milliseconds and never mentions it again.

Megapixels
Readout
Stops
06The system

Then it closes,and it is simplya camera

Assembled, it disappears into the hand. Every control has already been found by the finger that needed it. The screen shows you what you asked for and nothing you didn't.