Re: Fujifilm Unveils the New X-T2, the Ultimate Mirrorless Camera with New Autofocus System and 4K V
You seem to have some apprehension about the die casting process. While crappy die cast parts can certainly be made, with due care it is capable of extracting the full potential of cast magnesium. Which, by the way isn't much. It is more than typical high end plastics, and the low density helps reduce the energy from dropping a camera. Although anything can be broken.
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Very interesting. Is investment casting the modern form of the centuries old "lost wax" method?
I will not. I will say, as a Metallurgist with 20 years of industrial experience, that the combination of detail, section depth, and production volume guarantees that die casting is used by Canon. A few final machining steps are included, undoubtedly. As a hexagonal close packed crystal, magnesium is a limited slip system metal, thus exhibiting poor formability. Therefore these parts are not stamped or forged. As a high cost metal, it makes no sense to machine these parts from billets and deliver less than 10% of the raw material into finished parts. An investment casting could be used, but substantial waste streams from the wax and investment material would add to the cost. Since the wax pattern would have to be injection molded to meet these volume and precise dimensional targets, and the melting point of magnesium isn't that much greater than wax, die casting is basically the same, just more straightforward.retroreflection said:Please provide a link verifying that Canon is using die-cast.
You seem to have some apprehension about the die casting process. While crappy die cast parts can certainly be made, with due care it is capable of extracting the full potential of cast magnesium. Which, by the way isn't much. It is more than typical high end plastics, and the low density helps reduce the energy from dropping a camera. Although anything can be broken.
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Very interesting. Is investment casting the modern form of the centuries old "lost wax" method?
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