In late December I visited Canon Burbank, an 11,000 square foot, purpose-built facility where you can see Canon’s stills,  video, and cine cameras; take classes; test equipment; and drop gear off for service. It includes a showroom, camera-testing set, dual prep bay, service operation, classroom, editing suite, and 4K grading theater / screening room. Canon designed it to be a community resource: various groups like the Digital Cinema Society use it for meetings; Canon and others teach classes and hold seminars; DPs and ACs bring cameras — not all of them Canon’s — into the prep bays for testing and evaluation. 

You can walk in and spend some quality time with Canon equipment in a no-pressure environment — no one will try to sell you anything, they’ll just show you how it works and answer your questions. (When I asked Canon’s Michael Bravin about “walking in”, he said, “Canon Burbank is open from 9-5 M-F. Our service counter is open for walk-ins. The facility offers a comfortable public space for a meetings, a cup of coffee and great WiFi. If you want to meet with our staff about Canon cameras, lenses and displays please let us know what time works best for you.” So give ‘em a call before you rock up, unless you’re just dropping off gear.)

When I strolled in on a Tuesday afternoon, Canon’s Charles Zablan was explaining the finer points of the Canon EOS R to an interested young woman. There were two C200s and a C700 aimed at the pretty-pictures set; two more C200s, one rigged on a gimbal, sat on a table. Two cabinets held a wide selection of EOS cameras and lenses, XF-series video cameras, and cine lenses. A massive, roll-fed, wide-format inkjet printer stood proudly between the cabinets while one of its smaller brethren rested beside it on a counter.

I was at Canon to give a presentation on camera testing and to run tests on the C700 FF, Canon’s most expensive mirrorless full-frame still camera. I also got to see the EOS R, Canon’s least expensive mirrorless full-frame cine camera (grin).

How to get there

3400 West Olive Avenue, Suite 250, Burbank, CA 91505

Phone: 949-788-2296

Hours of Operation: Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm

Walk in the lobby beneath the iHeart Media sign, go to the back, take the elevator to the 2nd floor, turn left, and there it is.

There’s underground parking and Canon will validate your parking ticket. Easiest access (whether driving or taking a ride-share) is from South California Street.

Oh, if you’re taking Lyft from downtown Burbank, Lyft’s directions may terminate on the Ventura freeway at the Hollywood Way off-ramp with the helpful guidance, “your destination is on the right”. Tell your driver to continue on the off-ramp, hang a right on Alameda, take the second right onto West Olive, then left on S. California. There, Lyft, FTFY.

Disclosure: I was visiting Canon Burbank to test the C700 FF EF for my review and to give a presentation to Canon on my camera testing process. Canon covered my travel and hotel costs and provided a small honorarium for the presentation, none of which was conditional on my giving the camera a good review or on shooting a photo tour of the Burbank facility (which I did using my Panasonic GH5 and 7–14mm lens, despite being told that doing so prevents Canon from reposting any such pix on their social-media feeds). That aside, there is no material relationship between me and Canon, and Canon offered no payment or other blandishments to encourage favorable coverage.