Image: Lensrentals

If you've been around the online world of cameras for any appreciable time, you've undoubtedly run across one of our favorite things on the web: a Lensrentals camera teardown on the Lensrentals Blog.

And recently, we got a happy surprise. To celebrate Lensrentals' 19th birthday, company founder Roger Cicala came out of retirement to do another one. Were we excited? To quote Lewis Carroll, "O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” He chortled in his joy."

He's joined in the teardown by his partner in crime, Lensrentals' Aaron Closz; together, the two have torn apart many a camera and lens. But before jumping into the teardown, Roger gives us a quick update on his retirement, acknowledging that, "While not working much was frustrating at first, well, with some practice, I've gotten really good at it."

This particular teardown dives into the guts of a Sony PTZ camera, which, according to Roger, breaks fairly often. While maybe a little different than the cameras we cover here on DPReview, it's still a fascinating tour inside a camera, especially for those of you who would tear one apart yourself out of sheer curiosity if you had the luxury of potentially bricking a $6000 piece of hardware. (You know who you are.)

"By the time he's done, you get a pretty good sense of why Sony's approach to repairing this particular camera is often just to replace it."

The teardown is every bit as detailed and entertaining as we would expect from Roger. You'll get to see things like an internal counterweight that weighs more than the rest of the camera combined, shims under the sensor assembly to properly align it with the lens mount, gearing for internal neutral density filters and the "Cable of Immense Cost."

By the time he's done, you get a pretty good sense of why Sony's approach to repairing this particular camera is often just to replace it.

In conclusion, he observes that he had forgotten how much fun these teardowns are, and that he might do "another one or two." Here's hoping he sticks to that prediction.

If you love a good camera teardown, we recommend heading over to the Lensrentals blog to give it a read.

See Roger Cicala's latest camera teardown