What Is Inside a Sony NEX-3?

Roger Cicala over at Lens Rentals has taken a water-damaged Sony NEX-3, and stripped it for parts, in the process showing off the incredible design that went into making this tiny ILC. Reading over his description of taking it apart piece by piece, you’re really struck by how much Sony did to make it simple to disassemble, and how elegant the construction is.

For example, Cicala notes how the buttons on the rear are all mounted on a single board, rather than separately, so it only takes a few minutes to take out and replace, rather than hours like on many other cameras. Or how the memory card circuit is separate from the main circuit, so the entire circuit board doesn’t need to be replaced if only part of it fails. He even emphasizes how cleanly laid out the circuitry is, with no wasted space.

Even more incredible? A photograph like the one above of all the pieces in a standard SLR would have to be four times the size — the NEX-3 has a fraction of the number of components as larger cameras. Hopefully that means that it’s easy enough to repair, and people will keep them going for years.

[via Reddit]