What Does $6,500 in camera equipment look like cut in half?

There's a small museum on the bottom floor of one of the buildings in Canon's Japanese headquarters. It's full of interesting stuff for camera nerds (like the 50mm f/.95 lens pictured after the break), but nothing was so striking as the cut-in-half camera you see above. That lens is the beautiful and lust-worthy 400MM f/4 DO IS USM that lists for $8,900 and usually goes for about $5,500 in the store. A Canon rep told me that the body is a 1Ds, which, while old, still fetches about $1,000 on eBay. But, the result reallly is incredible. All of those elements and the intricate bends in the casing are a little reminder of why this stuff costs as much as it does. Another photo after the jump, plus one of a huge copier that also looks like it was part of a magic act gone bad.

Comments

[runescape powerleveling]

Have you ever seen anything so wonderful? She not only brought us a wonderful, but also give us a better outside! Just do not believe me. . . .

[joe]

Interesting, now we know why these gadgets are so expensive.

[jim]

man no wonder those things are so heavy..look at the amount of glass that's in it..and this is the 400DO which is supposed to be lighter and more compact..i sure would like to see the 600 f4 cut in half

[David Hardwick Photography]

Now I know why my photo gear cost so much. I will not be cutting any of my equipment in half just yet