I apologize if this link has been posted, but I have not seen it posted here.

An individual on another group posted this link to a "behind the scenes" look at Canon manufacturing of lenses. In particular, they follow a 500mm f4 lens through the process. The video covers raw materials to finished product. It is a nice look for those of us who don't have much experience in these things. I hope you enjoy it if you get a chance to check it out.

http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/tech/l_plant/index.html

Jeff

"Don't try this at home!"

Seeing the whole process certainly helps me appreciate my L lenses. Thanks for sharing this link.

Makes you wonder how they made superb lenses in the 30s without modern tecknology....
thanks for sharing the link

Well, first off, the production volumes of the 30s were much, much smaller than they are today.

Second, given enough time and meticulous effort, you can get pretty far with manual labour.

Third, were the lenses of the 30s as good as those in this lens?

I was surprised to see the amount of manual labour used in the production of the lens; I'd have thought there would be more automation and additional semi-automated quality control checks earlier in the process.