plastic flaps that open and close. A small disc with 6 slots rotates to move the 6 f-stop flaps. A solenoid actuates the 4 shutter flaps. If you shine a light into the lens and look in you will see that the shutter does not open/close properly or that the f-stop opening is no longer approx round. This happens when the plastic flaps fall out of position due to impact. This can be fixed but requires most of the camera to be disassembled to get to these delicate parts. It is very difficult to reassemble the lense assembly which includes the zoom lense, the image stabilizer, and the shutter assembly all of which ride on different cam tracks within two concentric plastic tubes. I do NOT recommend repairing this yourself unless you are crazy like me. Better off to buy a new one.