# DPReview Tours Canon's Utsunomiya Factory, Where the L is Made



## Canon Rumors Guy (Mar 20, 2017)

```
DPReview had the priviledge of touring Canon’s Utsunomiya factory during their time at CP+ in Yokohama, Japan.</p>
<p><strong>From DPReview:</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>Recently, following the CP+ 2017 show in Yokohama, we were granted the enormous honor of a guided tour through Canon’s Utsunomiya lens factory. Canon has been making lenses in Utsunomiya since 1977, and we were the first journalists ever to be allowed to see the L-series assembly line. <a href="https://www.dpreview.com/articles/4996495413/the-home-of-the-l-series-we-tour-canon-utsunomiya-factory">View the full tour</a></p></blockquote>
<p>The best part? Robots that deliver various components around the factory on pre-programmed routes.</p>
<p><em>image credit // <a href="https://www.dpreview.com/articles/4996495413/the-home-of-the-l-series-we-tour-canon-utsunomiya-factory">DPReview</a></em></p>
<span id="pty_trigger"></span>
```


----------



## BeenThere (Mar 20, 2017)

Interesting that the Canon plant had some Pentax and Nikon cut in half or display products. I guess they do get ideas from each other.


----------



## rrcphoto (Mar 20, 2017)

BeenThere said:


> Interesting that the Canon plant had some Pentax and Nikon cut in half or display products. I guess they do get ideas from each other.



where did you see that?


----------



## BeenThere (Mar 20, 2017)

rrcphoto said:


> BeenThere said:
> 
> 
> > Interesting that the Canon plant had some Pentax and Nikon cut in half or display products. I guess they do get ideas from each other.
> ...


Saw a Pentax camera cut in half and a Nikon tele lens display in the series of photos called something like "what we saw that was cut in half". There were abut 15 images in the folder.

Correction. I looked again and these images were from CP+ Show.


----------



## Chaitanya (Mar 20, 2017)

Damn, I missed that article. These lens factory tours never cease to amaze.


----------



## LordofTackle (Mar 20, 2017)

Very interesting article. Nice to see how one's lenses are actually produced.
And very funny that they use our german word "Meister" for their most experienced technicians 

- Sebastian


----------



## IglooEater (Mar 20, 2017)

Waaaaiiiit... the 16-35 takes 24 hours to make and costs $2000. If production cost is $1500 and if materials are a third of the cost, that leaves $42/hr for the workers and machinery. suddenly that lens looks dirt cheap.


----------



## Crosswind (Mar 20, 2017)

LordofTackle said:


> And very funny that they use our german word "Meister" for their most experienced technicians



Hi Sebastian - yeah I was surprised about that too  I'm kinda curious why! 

The factory seems to be not far off of Fukushima. Hope that doesn't mean anything


----------



## privatebydesign (Mar 20, 2017)

Crosswind said:


> LordofTackle said:
> 
> 
> > And very funny that they use our german word "Meister" for their most experienced technicians
> ...



Several possibilities come to mind:
1/ It is a misunderstanding/mistranslation by the people leading the tour. After all the masters are also referred to as 'Takumi'.
2/ It is a throw down from the origins of the camera business where they copied German cameras and lenses, maybe they 'borrowed'some other terminology too.

The way I read it they are called Takumi, which means master craftsman or meister.


----------



## LordofTackle (Mar 20, 2017)

privatebydesign said:


> Crosswind said:
> 
> 
> > LordofTackle said:
> ...



I've recently seen some documentary about a Japanese moving company and they also hat three "Master Movers" that they called "Meister". The explanation was that their boss was in germany decades ago and there he learned about the term and its meaning (expert craftsman) and decided to use it for his own company. 

-Sebastian


----------



## rrcphoto (Mar 20, 2017)

I find it incredible how much experience some of these people have that are creating the lenses we whine about all the time


----------



## Sharlin (Mar 20, 2017)

Crosswind said:


> The factory seems to be not far off of Fukushima. Hope that doesn't mean anything



The related interview article mentioned that the 2011 event caused some roof segments to collapse and some equipment were damaged. The repairs (and hardening things to better withstand future quakes) took a few months.


----------



## unfocused (Mar 20, 2017)

privatebydesign said:


> Several possibilities come to mind:
> 1/ It is a misunderstanding/mistranslation by the people leading the tour. After all the masters are also referred to as 'Takumi'.
> 2/ It is a throw down from the origins of the camera business where they copied German cameras and lenses, maybe they 'borrowed'some other terminology too.
> 
> The way I read it they are called Takumi, which means master craftsman or meister.



Or a third possibility. The terms are interchangeable, so they used the Western term, figuring that their visitors would understand the meaning of meister more readily.


----------



## privatebydesign (Mar 20, 2017)

unfocused said:


> privatebydesign said:
> 
> 
> > Several possibilities come to mind:
> ...



Very true. For sure the word Meister, in our Latin alphabet, is not written on the badge referred to, so there is an element of translation in it.

Having said all that, lets not get too concerned with minutiae, rather lets revel in the levels of skill, quality, and commitment Canon as a company are dedicating to getting us such competent gear.


----------



## magarity (Mar 20, 2017)

I hope they have an upcoming generation of craftsmen(craftpersons?) who can accumulate that experience. I read an article a while back about how Patek Phillippe couldn't hire young people to learn watchmaking because it takes 30 years of apprentice work to get good enough to be a master and that was too long of a haul for modern attention spans.


----------



## capital1956 (Mar 20, 2017)

Sharlin said:


> Crosswind said:
> 
> 
> > The factory seems to be not far off of Fukushima. Hope that doesn't mean anything
> ...



I assume when he mentioned fukushima he means the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster which is classified as a Level 7 event of the International Nuclear Event Scale (highest/worst level possible on the scale).

At this point this is an ongoing event where ground water mixing with the highly radioactive water inside the Three wracked reactors/buildings. 

In another word, he is probably hoping that our highly prized L lens won't glow in the dark or set off radiation detector at the TSA checking point


----------



## IglooEater (Mar 20, 2017)

magarity said:


> I hope they have an upcoming generation of craftsmen(craftpersons?) who can accumulate that experience. I read an article a while back about how Patek Phillippe couldn't hire young people to learn watchmaking because it takes 30 years of apprentice work to get good enough to be a master and that was too long of a haul for modern attention spans.



I found two ideas were dominant: the skill of the workers, and an increasing automation.


> Canon is at pains to point out that machines like this can only be created as a result of the Master Craftsmen's decades of experience.



It would seem that Canon goes out of the way to honour these masters, but is working hard at eventually automating everything. I'm guessing by the time all there current Meisters retire, they will have found a way to automate even that.


----------



## Rampuri (Mar 20, 2017)

IglooEater said:


> Waaaaiiiit... the 16-35 takes 24 hours to make and costs $2000. If production cost is $1500 and if materials are a third of the cost, that leaves $42/hr for the workers and machinery. suddenly that lens looks dirt cheap.



It might take 24 hours to make the 16-35, but it doesn't mean they produce just one per day. Each machine in the production line produces parts continuously. So it takes one lens 24 hours to proceed from the beginning of the line to the end, but at the same time there are many other lenses produced.


----------



## magarity (Mar 21, 2017)

IglooEater said:


> It would seem that Canon goes out of the way to honour these masters, but is working hard at eventually automating everything. I'm guessing by the time all there current Meisters retire, they will have found a way to automate even that.


Unfortunately the logical extension of that path is total automation of the existing process with no changes or improvement.


----------



## goldenhusky (Mar 21, 2017)

It is quite exciting to hear about Canon's automation. For those who are interested here is a video on the making of a Canon 500mm f/4 L Lens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovxtgj4SsiI obviously this does not show everything involved but a high level demo.


----------



## rrcphoto (Mar 21, 2017)

capital1956 said:


> I assume when he mentioned fukushima he means the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster which is classified as a Level 7 event of the International Nuclear Event Scale (highest/worst level possible on the scale).
> 
> At this point this is an ongoing event where ground water mixing with the highly radioactive water inside the Three wracked reactors/buildings.
> 
> In another word, he is probably hoping that our highly prized L lens won't glow in the dark or set off radiation detector at the TSA checking point



the earthquake that caused everything caused alot of damage to canon facilities.


----------



## IglooEater (Mar 21, 2017)

Rampuri said:


> IglooEater said:
> 
> 
> > Waaaaiiiit... the 16-35 takes 24 hours to make and costs $2000. If production cost is $1500 and if materials are a third of the cost, that leaves $42/hr for the workers and machinery. suddenly that lens looks dirt cheap.
> ...



Lol! Of course they're making more than one lens at a time! I made zero reference to that. I was referring to the lens as a unit, not the factory. :


----------



## Rampuri (Mar 21, 2017)

IglooEater said:


> Rampuri said:
> 
> 
> > IglooEater said:
> ...



There was a hidden reference - "that leaves $42/hr for the workers and machinery". Because hour rate per unit on a production line producing many units at the same time makes no sense. So I thought you got it wrong .


----------



## IglooEater (Mar 23, 2017)

Rampuri said:


> IglooEater said:
> 
> 
> > Rampuri said:
> ...



Yeeeaaa... that wasn't very clear. That leaves $42/hr for the workers and machinery *for that lens*. it wouldn't make sense to analyze the whole plant that way. But it really does give a monetary value of sorts on the individual product as a unit. Not in the sense that this is what it costs, but in the sense that If they're not making one, they're making another. Thus they will assumably be expecting a similar $/hr/unit on whatever other lenses they make on the same line. It means they're charging the client $42/hr on there product, irregardless of their end revenu or how many units they produce.

I really shouldn't be on line when I'm tired... i'm no good at communicating even when I'm awake....


----------

