PBS Aperture Priority launches as photography-themed custom keycaps with curious new design blending ergonomics and customisation

CannonKeys recently revealed its latest peculiar mechanical keyboard keycap set, the PBS Aperture Priority, which is aimed squarely at photographers and camera enthusiasts. The keycaps are dye-sublimated PBT, meaning they will likely be more durable than traditional ABS keycaps (an issue highlighted in our recent Lofree Flow Lite review) and they feature some unique attention to detail.

The keycap set not only contributes something unique on the design front, but it introduces an entirely new keycap profile, called PBS (Penguin Belly Slide). Aperture Priority has a striking black and mustard yellow colour scheme, with a very readable retro font on the main alphas and bright yellow accents and camera-centric designs on the modifier keycaps. The modifiers also have cutesy callouts to camera settings, like ISO, exposure compensation, white balance modes, F-stop numbers, and shutter speed settings. 

PBS Aperture Priority is also the first set to use the unique PBS keycap profile, the brainchild of matt3o (a common name in the custom mechanical keyboard space), and the new profile features a uniform height across all key rows and a concave top, across the alpha keys. Some modifiers and the bottom row are slightly less concave, and there are optional convex bottom row keycaps for improved thumb comfort. PBS is seemingly meant to offer the same sort of typing comfort as an SA-like profile with improved compatibility for things like international languages or alternative layouts, like DVORAK and COLEMAK. 

On the topic of compatibility, Aperture Priority is being made available as both a standard Staggered Base kit and an Orto/40s kit, which has narrower modifier keys. Both kits will come with support for a variety off odd-sized keycaps, including split spaces (with multiple 2u, 2.25u, and 2.75u modifiers in the base kits), and ISO Enter and Shift keys for EU users. 

PBS Aperture Priority is available as a group buy only, for now, at a price of $79 for the staggered base kit, $74 for the Ortho/40s base kit. There is also a $64 artisan keycap called the Salvun REC artisan keycap that was styled after vintage shutter buttons. PBS Aperture Priority is only available from CannonKeys.