Thursday, July 29, 2021

EXCLUSIVE Behind the Scenes: Here is a rare look into Canon's back room at the Olympics

I have been here at the Olympics in Tokyo for more than a week now and I have been to the Canon CPS booth numerous times for assistance. 

Every time I am at the front, I have wondered how much loaner equipment was behind those walls. I have seen their stash at past Olympics (which was awesome), but wondered how much they brought to this Olympics. You may recall that I was told that their loaner pool would be scaled back due to Covid. 

I have also been barraged by photographers asking me to find a way to get behind those walls to see what is back there. Well folks, after a week of asking, I was allowed into the inner sanctum of the CPS booth yesterday.

And now you all get to see this as well!


The first thing I saw when I entered the back area was the service area. They had a whole bunch of technicians servicing equipment. 


This is the wall with photographer's equipment waiting to be serviced.


These technicians work around the clock to support all of us photographers here at the Olympics. I have yet to borrow any equipment this time around (well..except for a camera body), but it is so nice to know that these techs are here in case we need them. And yes, I have dropped a camera and lens at past Olympics. 


I saw this Canon 70-200mm lens open and being serviced. This is my favorite lens of all time, but this is the first time I have seen one partially open.


This big zoom lens was getting some work done.


I am not sure if they were replacing the rubber or just putting it back on after servicing the lens.


I was walking around the service area when I spotted this machine. I asked the Canon people what the heck this machine was. They told me that this is the machine that cleans the sensor of the camera.


The machine has a lens mount on the surface.


They connect the camera to this mount and the machine cleans the sensor. I need one of these at home!!!

And then...I was escorted into "The Room".


For those of us photographers, this is better than any candy shop. This is the holy grail of camera equipment! 


There were endless Canon 1DX Mark III bodies.


Even if you are not a professional photographer, this probably still makes you drool.


They had racks and racks of Canon 600mm L series lenses. These things cost $13,000 each. I can not even imagine what the equipment in these photos is worth!


It was hard to photograph the room while salivating. 




They didn't just have the big glass, they had everything including a bunch of 1.4x tele adaptors...


As I mentioned earlier, the Canon 70-200mm 2.8IS lens is my all-time favorite lens of all time. I have used and abused mine for more than 14 years and it still rocks. I have the new Canon RF70-200mm lens but I refuse to sell my trusty original old friend. To see this many of these lenses is just awesome.


They were calling out to me.


They had plenty of shorter lenses as well, including 24-70mm, 16-35mm, and others.  They may not be as impressive as their bigger brothers, but they are every bit as necessary to us here at the Olympics. 

Well folks, there you go. Another chance for me to take you behind the scenes, to see how us photographers are supported (OK- spoiled) here at the Games.

And in case you are wondering,  I was not allowed to take anything home with me.  Darn it!

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16 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you SO Much for showing us this. DROOL!!!!

Blondemare said...

Speechless!!! drooling!!

OnlyInCA said...

OMG, Jeff! If you get that sensor cleaning machine, I'll be down right away with all my cameras! Your blog is the BEST part of the Olympics! Thanks for doing it.
Catherine D.

Dave Bowles said...

That's incredable! Thanks for sharing. I'll just join the droolers. :-)

Aki said...

Wow! What an amazing BTS! Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for showing these behind scenes to us! Love you!

Lance Krueger said...

Very interesting. Thanks for that view of the lenses and bodies. Quite Incredible! I was rather surprised to see this, because I thought I remembered that you said that Canon wasn't sending any staff to the Olympics. But maybe you only meant Canon USA staff. In the equipment room, it looked like everything they had there was EF Glass and DSLR Bodies. At least in the photos you showed on the blog. Did they have any of the new RF lenses? Especially the RF 400 2.8 and 600 f/4, or maybe RF 70-200's and 100-500's? Also, did they have any R3's, R5's, and R6's there? What other long glass did they have besides 600 f/4's? It looked like behind the 1DX3's, there were a couple of 200-400 f/4's, and maybe some 400 2.8's on the racks along the back wall. Interested to find out what other glass they had that weren't shown in your photos.

Unknown said...

Amazing

Unknown said...

Another great blog Jeff, keep it up, love reading them .

Marc453 said...

Liked the showing of all the cameras and lenses, but where were the R3’s?

JCusack said...

“ Heaven , I am in heaven “ so glad and very thankful you were able to get those shots . Would love to just say I will just take one of each please . Thanks my friend πŸ˜ŠπŸ“ΈπŸ˜Š

JCusack said...

Thank you so very much πŸ˜ŠπŸ“Έ

PK said...

That's awesome! Thank you. But where are all those mirrorless cameras?

iZonogsports.com said...

Thanks so much for the exhibitions grateful

John Schneyer, Boca Consultants said...

Amazing amount of equipment! Thanks for sharing. You are bringing so much extra value to the Olympics. I appreciate all you are doing Jeff.

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