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Sony a7R II Teardown

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Is that a Force Touch trackpad? No, it's an exposed view of the a7R II's sensor-shift stabilization hardware. Sony's marketing team named this the 5-axis SteadyShot. Fancy.

The central tray of the stabilizer holds the image sensor, and is home to three electromagnets, each a component of a voice coil, an electromechanical device used for incredibly fine positioning.

Voice coils are also found in platter hard drives, controlling the read/write arm.

These coils live in the magnetic fields of their permanent magnet buddies—which means slight variations in power to the three coils generates forces in a variety of directions. Enough variety to adjust the sensor on five distinct axes. Not a small feat for a full-frame camera.

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