Canon's "CPS Gear Room" at the 2012 Olympics

ziggy53

(These pictures are courtesy of, and credited to, Gerard McGovern of Getty Images, and courtesy through SLRLounge: http://www.slrlounge.com/canons-drool-worthy-london-olympics-gear-room)


Supposedly, there were around 420 Canon 1D X bodies in the room at one time. Makes me kind of teary-eyed. :clap

divamum

Just.... wow.

On a practical note, does Canon just provide gear for credential-ed pros onsite? It's a great idea for them to do that - talk about building brand loyalty with the pro market! - but curious how it works.

ziggy53

I believe that to use any of the contents of "this" room you need:

Your Canon CPS identification.
Your proof of professional affiliation and accreditation.
A very deep credit card and/or charge card and/or previous financial commitment to Canon (a deposit).

divamum

I wonder if the big agencies (AP Reuters etc) and news publications make it possible for their stringers to use something like this (iow, provide the deep credit card commitment)? Or is everybody freelance now? I admit I don't know much about press photography, other than that with things moving to the internet it has changed a lot from the days when folks worked for a specific publication....

Quincy T

divamum wrote: »

I wonder if the big agencies (AP Reuters etc) and news publications make it possible for their stringers to use something like this (iow, provide the deep credit card commitment)? Or is everybody freelance now? I admit I don't know much about press photography, other than that with things moving to the internet it has changed a lot from the days when folks worked for a specific publication....

I'm not a member of the press, but I do passionately study the subject, and from what I understand, in most cases, the photographer is equipped with a typical photojournalist's trifecta, the 16-35, 24-70, and 70-200 2.8s, and can essentially "call in backup" or request for lenses like the 300 2.8, or whatever else they may need and is available for that publication.

I would imagine in the case of freelancers, they are entirely reliant on themselves, but probably have access to rooms such as this if, for example, AP specifically sent that photographer to London for Olympics coverage. AP, Reuters, USPW, Getty (or the company formerly known as now...perhaps) are obviously heavy hitting organizations, and I can't imagine it would be difficult for their specific photographers to get access to a room like that.

And if you're just Average Joe freelance...you probably don't get invited to the Olympics haha. I dunno about that though.

Tonto

Back in the early 80"s at The Wimbledon Tennis tournament Nikon used to have a 40' truck with a workshop in the back, as well as taking care of any problems the press had with their Nikon gear they also were converting Nikon cameras to take Canon glass and loaning them Canon lenses for the two week tournament, Canon had recently released their new lenses and the Nikon users were upset that Nikon could not supply anything that would even come close, I was shooting with a Hassleblad so I didn't qualify.

ziggy53

Nikon NPS is well represented at major events throughout the world:

http://nps.nikonimaging.com/event_support/

pathfinder

ziggy53 wrote: »

(These pictures are courtesy of, and credited to, Gerard McGovern of Getty Images, and courtesy through SLRLounge: http://www.slrlounge.com/canons-drool-worthy-london-olympics-gear-room)


Supposedly, there were around 420 Canon 1D X bodies in the room at one time. Makes me kind of teary-eyed.

Wow, whata lotta glass!!