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My old Olympus D-535 camera stopped working after years of operation. This was the first digital camera I bought and replaced an Olympus Stylus film camera I had previously. The camera worked well and took good photos, even though it was just 3.2 MP.

Olympus D-535 camera.
I gave the camera to my kids to play with and recently noticed that the battery door wouldn’t close fully anymore. With fully charged batteries, the camera wouldn’t power up, so it was time to throw it away. But, being the curious person that I am, I wanted to take the camera apart and look inside.
Opening the Case
The capacitor for the flash is quite large and you need to be careful around it. They can still hold a large even though the camera is off. I removed the lens and lifted the capacitor to reveal the circuit board below.
Looking inside an Olympus D-535. The lens removed and capacitor lifted on an Olympus D-535.
The lens and circuit board at the bottom of it.
 Top view of the lens of an Olympus D-535. Bottom view of the lens of an Olympus D-535.
The LCD screen and circuit board. I took apart the LCD it consisted of several layers of transparent sheets which is what makes up the twisted nematic display. The nematic liquid crystal display works in between two plates of glass.
The LCD circuit board of an Olympus D-535.  An LCD disassembled.
The CCD
This is the most important part of a digital camera: the CCD. It was a real surprise to see this circuit and the photo below doesn’t do it justice. The CCD looks like a shiny jewel. The lens send optical images to this devices and the image is translated into 1’s and 0’s before being stored in xD card. DSLR’s have a much bigger CCD which gives better quality photographs.
The CCD of an Olympus D-535.
The Olympus D-535 is a low end digital camera, but it always worked well and it would have continued operating  for years more if it wasn’t physically broken. I highly recommend Olympus products and I’m currently using a digital Stylus camera. I’m planning on buying a DSLR, but I will continue using a small point and shoot camera because this they are portable and are easy to take anywhere.

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