Tearing down the impressively-engineered Sony E PZ 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

posted Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at 5:05 PM EDT

You may recall an article I wrote last November where we joined Dave Jones as he humorously tore apart a 90s-era Chinon Genesis II camera, educating viewers along the way. Well, he's got another teardown that might interest photographers, and this time it is something much more modern, a Sony E PZ 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 lens.

Receiving an error message from his Sony NEX 5T camera when trying to use this lens, Dave did what he does best and decided to open up the lens and see what's going on.

As it turns out, this compact lens, which is only 2.55 x 1.18 inches (64.8 x 29.9 millimeters), packs a lot into its small form factor. As Dave points out in the video, the engineering is really quite impressive. This Russian nesting doll of a lens features a fairly complex design in order to fit all of the necessary components into such a small lens body. "Hats off to the designers," Dave says as he pours over the multi-level design of the lens' internals.

Be sure to watch the entire video above to see this disassembled lens in all its glory. If you're impressed with the lens' design and construction, you can support the site by purchasing one here.