Interested to see how Canon lenses are made? You might want to visit the Canon Virtual Lens Plant, a new section to Canon Camera Museum website that demonstrates how lenses are made and explains some of the underlying technologies used in lens design. The website contains graphics and video clips that illustrate the production processes used in lens manufacture.

Warning: This is a heavy website, you will require high-speed Internet connections such as ADSL, optical cable or CATV plus Adobe Flash Player version 8 or later.

This article by Scott Bourne gives great tips on what to look out for !

Everyone makes mistakes. Even Ansel Adams through some of his negatives away. But what causes those mistakes? They are usually caused by lack of concentration. So here's a list of mistakes that many photographers make. By studying them, you can avoid them.

1) Blurry Pictures

Blurry photos are usually the result of camera shake. The simplest way to remedy this problem is to buy and use a good, sturdy tripod. If you can't shoot with a tripod, remember to use a faster ISO on digital cameras or faster film on film cameras. This allows you to increase your shutter speed. The faster the shutter speed, the less likely you are to suffer from camera shake.

A rule of thumb for handholding is to use a shutter speed that is 1/lens focal length or faster. In other words, if you're shooting a 200mm lens, you need 1/200th second or faster. Don't forget to compensate if you shoot digitally. If you use a 200mm lens on a Nikon D100, it is the equivalent focal length of 300mm, so you will need to shoot at 1/ 300th of a second if you want to handhold.

2) Contrasty Pictures

These come from high contrast lighting situations. Learn to recognize them. Photographing in the forest on a sunny day is an example of a high contrast situation. Photographing at Noon on a bright, sunny...