A Rare Look Inside Canon’s Incredible Winter Olympics Gear Room in Milan

Feb 17, 2026

Jeremy Gray

Shelves filled with Canon cameras and lenses, many wrapped in plastic, are organized neatly. White price tags are visible on the shelves. The floor is wooden and a Canon sign is partly visible in the background.

Photographer Jeff Cable is in Milan, Italy, for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games and has been detailing his adventures on his blog. One of Cable’s recent posts takes a deep dive into one of Canon’s four different gear rooms in Italy.

Since Cable is based in Milan for the Olympics, he visited the Canon Professional Services (CPS) at the Main Press Center (MPC). However, Canon has three other locations to support photographers at the Winter Olympics in Cortina, Levigno, and Tesero. As the European Space Agency recently showed with great satellite shots, there are a lot of venues for these somewhat decentralized Olympic Games.

“It must have been a logistical nightmare for [Canon] (and the other camera companies), trying to figure out what gear to provide and determining the proper staff levels at each location,” Cable writes.

At the Milan location, despite having already loaned a lot of camera gear to photographers, CPS still had a ton of equipment in its storage room. One of Cable’s photos shows an array of super-telephoto primes, some of which are nearly $20,000 each, like the Canon RF 800mm f/5.6 L IS USM.

A row of large white telephoto camera lenses, some covered in plastic, arranged on a hard case with backpacks nearby. A copyright watermark reads "© Jeff Cable Photography 2026". — “Heck, this is like looking at a fleet of cars lined up,” Cable says. “I was told that the container below had even more of these big boys.”

Several large white Canon telephoto camera lenses, each wrapped in plastic, are lined up on a metal case. Black camera bags are placed behind the lenses. The setup appears organized and ready for use.

As Cable’s blog shows, Canon Professional Services has a ton of exotic glass in Italy beyond 800mm primes. Canon has a “whole bunch” of its popular RF 100-300mm f/2.8 zooms, RF 400mm f/2.8 primes, tons of batteries and chargers, and many dozens of professional camera bodies, all ready to roll.

Canon even has some of its newest lenses in Italy, including the RF 7-14mm f/2.8-3.5L Fisheye STM announced this month, which Cable used to photograph the United States women’s hockey team in its 5-0 victory over Sweden in yesterday’s semifinal matchup.

Shelves filled with various Canon camera lenses, each labeled with model names such as EF 16-35, EF 70-200, EF 400, and EF 600. Many lenses are in plastic bags, organized by type and size.

Cable brought a lot of his own gear with him to Italy, of course, including Canon EOS R1 bodies and L-series lenses, including the RF 100-300mm f/2.8. While he uses mirrorless gear, some professionals still use DSLRs, so Canon has that gear ready as well, so people with any gear issues won’t need to use unfamiliar equipment.

“Although I don’t think I’ve seen anyone here not using the new mirrorless camera bodies,” Cable notes.

“This would be my ultimate candy store!” Cable says of his time in the Canon gear room in Milan.

Several rows of black Canon cameras with red straps and various lenses are organized on dark shelves, each labeled with white tags. Some camera equipment is in plastic bags on the right side.

Rows of Canon camera batteries with yellow accents are neatly lined up on a black surface. More batteries are stacked in the background. Photo credit: Jeff Cable Photography 2026.

Large black shelves filled with Canon cameras, camera bodies, and various camera lenses, many labeled and some wrapped in plastic, displayed in an indoor setting with a "Canon" banner in the center.

“Can you imagine how much money is sitting in this room? It must be millions of dollars of cameras and lenses, with most of the value in the endless expensive lenses,” Cable concludes.

The photographer notes that Canon has a lot of repair technicians on-site, too, who were working on cameras and lenses behind the scenes, but he wasn’t allowed to photograph that area.

There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that photographers can capture all the jaw-dropping photos from the Winter Olympics, and Canon’s gear room in Milan is only a small part of the massive equipment network that forms the backbone of Olympics coverage.

Jeff Cable has already shared a lot of incredible images and information from his time in Milan, and there is plenty more to come, so photographers should follow along with Cable’s Olympics adventures on his blog.

Image credits Jeff Cable (website, Facebook, Instagram, blog)