So, here’s one of the more common sentiments among those unfamiliar with the camera industry: man, those lenses are ridiculously expensive. Heck, I can remember a time when I couldn’t conceive paying more than a couple hundred for a lens (and now my favorite one is valued at around 800-1000 bucks.)

So, to help put things in perspective, I stumbled across this video which I’ve encountered a couple times in my stint here, and thought I’d share it with everyone. It’s a short segment on how lenses are made (in the general, so it applies no matter if we’re talking Canon lenses, Nikon lenses, Sony lenses, Oly lenses, Sigma lenses, Tamron, Tokina, blah-de-blah-de-blah). Seriously, basically any camera lens going these days is a flat-out marvel of engineering. Just check this cut-out version of Olympus’ revised “standard” zoom, the 14-54:

Impressed? I sure am. I certainly couldn’t have engineered something like that, and yet hundreds of people take that lens for granted every day. And it doesn’t even have any fancy tricks like ED glass.

And, if that’s not enough, here’s that video to show us just what it takes to make each of those actual glass lenses inside that sucker: