The 5% Solution

[brianj]

I have taken the lens out of my faulty lens error SX260 and had a look at the sensor, although I did not measure it. The thing that struck me immediately was how big it was, we are used to hearing how small the 1/2.3 sensor is, but it didn't look small at all. At the time I was more interested in getting the 260 going again, but unfortunately I was sent a second hand faulty lens from ebay, and at one time tried to combine the working parts from two different lens assemblies to make one good one, but the interwoven fine ribbon cables makes that almost impossible.

Thanks for your comments, Brian.

The description of your camera innards makes me wonder whether or not you could control the focal length and focus of a PowerShot lens once you remove it from the camera.

You could, if you created a bench jig with the correct cable interfaces and driving hardware, I suspect that would be how they make and test the assembly at the factory. The lens assembly only has two external cables, one for the picture data and one for the control lines so it would be possible for an electronics trained person to make an interface. Once the control cable gets to the lens assembly it splits into many minor cables and goes to different areas based on function, like focus, IS, zoom, etc.

Brian