While Sony introduced a lower-cost consumer 4K camera, and Panasonic showed their own 4K solution within the GH camera line, Canon was relatively quiet at CES 2014. What they did show, however, was a fascinating look at the internals of their lenses, more specifically the new STM lenses designed to be used for both video and stills. We've also got another showing off STM technology, and a slightly dated making-of for Canon's over-$10,000 500mm lens.

Here is Popular Photography's video at Canon's CES 2014 booth:

Apparently Canon has shown similar cross-sections before, but it's still pretty amazing to see what kind of magic is going on to get seamless results. Image stabilization in particular seems like it should not produce anything usable just by looking at the internal of the element moving, but for anyone that's used any decent Canon lens with IS, it works extremely well, even in video.

And for a very in-depth on the STM lenses, check out this video:

Here's another video -- this one a bit older -- showing Image Stabilization working on one of Canon's large lenses:

While we're at it, this is Canon making the 500mm F4L IS USM (it's a bit dated, but interesting):

No this is not an advertisement for Canon, but I started with the video at the top and just kept going down the rabbit hole of YouTube videos. Lenses might seem unnecessarily expensive, but when you look at what's going on inside, take a look at the production, and understand that the most expensive lenses have the highest tolerances (with the most expensive raw materials), it starts to bring the cost into perspective.

Link: Video: This Is What Goes On Inside Canon Lenses -- Popular Photography

[via PetaPixel]

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Cinematography & Cameras