16 megapixels

Last week Canon celebrated the production of its 60-millionth lens, an EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM.

Since Canon began production of their interchangeable EF SLR lenses in 1987 at their Utsnomiya Plant located in Japan they have expanded production to four more facilities including: Canon Inc., Taiwan, Canon Opto (Malaysia) and Oita Canon Inc. in Japan.

EF (Electro-Focus) is Canon’s version of auto focusing that is built into the lens and after eight and a half years of production EF lenses reached the 10-million mark. Then in April of 2008 they achieved 40-million units produced. Then in December 2009, EF lenses reached 50-million units, leading up to the 60-million mark in just 13 months.

(via Canon)

National Geographic photographer, Jim Richardson, recently spent 22 days flying around the globe to nine different countries to document what he described as an editorial narrative. His destinations included: Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, the Taj Mahal and the Serengeti.

What does this have to do with “fast glass” and what does that even mean.

“Glass” is photographer jargon for lenses. “Fast glass” refers to lenses that have a very wide aperture such as f/2.8 or f/1.4. Wider aperture allows for more light to enter the camera allowing the photographer to use a faster shutter speed in low light situations without having to push the ISO up. ISO is how sensitive the sensor is to light. The higher the ISO the more sensitive the sensor is and the faster your shutter speed. However, using a high ISO will pump a lot of digital noise into your images, which can lower image quality.

Another benefit of using “fast glass” is that the wide aperture will allow for some pleasing shallow depth of field.

Back to Richardson now. Those 22 days had him shooting in a different style than he usually does. Instead of casing out a good location, then returning for the shot when the conditions are optimal he more or less raised his camera, clicked the shutter, and moved on.

From night shots of elephant polo to an Indian boatman. “Fast glass” helped Richardson make the most out of his 22 days by helping Richardson be ready no matter what the lighting conditions were.

Link to the photos

(via Nikon)