Canon has added a new section to its Canon Camera Museum website that demonstrates how lenses are made and explains some of the underlying technologies used in lens design.

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February 2, 2007: Canon has added a new section to its Canon Camera Museum website that demonstrates how lenses are made and explains some of the underlying technologies used in lens design.
The new Virtual Lens Plant contains graphics and video clips that illustrate the production processes used in lens manufacture. It also includes information on the machining processes used to shape and polish the lenses and tracks the assembly of an EF 500mm f/4L IS lens. A special Lens Gallery section shows the different materials used in modern lenses and demonstrates the effects different types of glass have in correcting common aberrations.
Interviews with expert staff who work on-site in Canon’s lens plants are also provided. Some video clips also show the polishing, testing and assembly areas at Canon’s Utsunomiya plant. We’ve provided several screen grabs from the Virtual Lens Plant website to show you the high quality of the content on this site.

To view the content on the website, users require high-speed Internet connections such as ADSL, optical cable or CATV plus Adobe Flash Player version 8 or later. Go to http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/ and click on the Virtual Lens Plant icon.

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The Lens Gallery page explains the different types of glass used in camera lenses.

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Visitors to the site can view video clips that explain how optical glass is produced.

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Video is also used to demonstrate the lens machining and polishing processes.

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Step-by-step assembly of a high-quality 500mm lens is also demonstrated.