An engineer’s version of a shopping spree.
All these are stuff needed for a design project I’m working on in the summer. Hopefully everything works after I’m done with it!
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
- John 1:4-5
Since I’m too lazy to do proper blog posts, I’ll just try to update my blog with a photo each day.
This picture is taken at the Singapore Garden Festival using my D200 with a Tamron 90mm Macro lens and a SB-800 flash.
So its the time of the year again, where we bid our seniors farewell and watch as they plunge headfirst into the rat race of life. Everything that they’ve worked for up to this point in their life culminates in this one day. I managed to take some nice pictures of the McGill school grounds as everything is spruced up to look perfect for this week-long convocation. It helped that the weather was perfect and summer is slowly creeping up upon Montreal.
The huge tents set up for the convocation ceremonies.
View when walking in from Roddick Gates.
Red carpet treatment for the graduates.
Even Sir James McGill wants to get in on the celebrations!
Sunlight reflected off the buildings in downtown Montreal makes the Redpath Museum on the McGill campus seem like its glowing. The Redpath Museum is the oldest building in Canada built as a museum.
Graduates mingling around in front of the Arts building.
Photo-taking in front of the giant McGill crest made up of red and white tulips.
More mingling in front of the Arts building.
This gigantic school crest, made up of red and white tulips, is actually planted in commemoration of all the brave staff and students who sacrificed their lives during WWII.
Decorations around school congratulating the graduates.
And of course, lest we forget, the francophone students.
Panorama of downtown Montreal just before the sun peeked out over the horizon.
Panorama of downtown Montreal as the first rays of sunlight hit the city.
Click on the pictures to view them at larger size.
Barry was kind enough to leave me his broken Canon Powershot A75 and i decided to take it apart and have a look at what is inside a typical point-and-shoot camera. Below is some photographs i took documenting the process, together with some comments and descriptions of the parts pictured.
This is the camera before i started to take it apart.
Just managed to pry it open.
This is how the back of the camera looks without its cover.
The LCD screen is made by Sony. Sony owns most of the camera LCD market…
The capacitor that stores energy to power the flash.
Viewfinder lens and the two LEDs next to it that show camera status.
Shutter button assembly.
The underside…
The front of the camera minus its cover.
The plastic cover. Notice the rubber ring that provides a seal against the lens assembly to keep dust out.
The mode dial for the different modes of the camera.
The underside of the mode dial. It’s surprisingly simple. Only 4 contact points to allow for switching to the whole myraid of modes.
The patterned contact point where the mode dial meets the circuit board on the camera. Each turn of the mode dial provides a unique combination of contacts with it so the camera knows what mode you want it to be in without using some tricky mechanism. Such wonderful simplicity…
Prying deeper into the insides…
The two status light LEDs (red and green).
The Sony LCD screen. All the information required for the LCD to display an image is sent through just that tiny flat piece of plastic with embedded wires.
Flash assembly: Bulb, capacitor and microcontroller. I accidentally shorted out the contacts of the capacitor and created a huge spark. Forgot that there might be remaining charge in the capacitor. Should have discharged it before I touched it…
The main circuit board of the camera, with a protective metal shield over it. Still trying to figure out what they’re shield that bit from (EM interference?). It’s soldered onto the board so i cant remove it yet until actually get the motivation to whip out my soldering iron…haha…
A dark piece of plastic used to shield the sensor of the camera from light leakage.
The dark piece of plastic removed from the camera. Notice how it completely absorbed all the light from my flash. Quite cool eh? I haven’t seen such a thin piece of plastic that’s completely opaque before.
Various bits removed from the main chasis of the camera. Left is the viewfinder + lens assembly. Battery compartment on the right.
Front of the lens assembly with the viewfinder. I couldn’t open the lens assembly. The tiny screws were screwed on so tightly! I guess they didn’t really one anyone peeking in on their secrets…and they wanted to keep dust and dirt out from the inside of the lens assembly.
Battery compartment and flash assembly. The battery is directly linked to the flash assembly.
The lens auto-focus motor. Sticky tape is used here. Not sure why but it goes to prove that sticky tape holds the world together…haha…
Interesting screw-assembly used to turn something (auto-focus?). More sticky tape too.
Viewfinder assembly. It has a bend in the middle so there are probably two mirrors inside to direct the light just like a periscope. Probably done so that the input side is placed directly centered over the lens while still allowing a more natural positioning of our eye on the viewfinder.
Lens assembly with the spring stretched out. I think it’s used to hold the lens cover in place.
A microchip made by NEC.
Microchip made by Sony.
Okay that’s all I have for now…If possible, I’ll try to take apart the lens assembly and look inside in the near future. I really enjoyed taking apart the camera and taking pictures of its insides. Hope you guys enjoyed finding out what the inside of a camera looks like as much as I did. In 2 years’ time, i’ll probably be able to figure out what most of the components do…haha…
Sidenote: If anyone has any broken electronics lying around, I would love to get the opportunity to take it apart and post pictures of it up here. Drop me a note if you’re interested in donating anything. Thanks!
Coming up next: I’ll be taking apart a Discman and checking out how it works inside…
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