Canon's 80th anniversary

dpreview has an article on Canon's upcoming 80th anniversary. Some interesting reading. My favorite part was when the founder Goro Yoshida took apart a Leica to see how it worked. From the article, and quoted in Canon's history, he observed,

I just disassembled the camera without any specific plan, but simply to take a look at each part. I found there were no special items like diamonds inside the camera. The parts were made from brass, aluminum, iron and rubber. I was surprised that when these inexpensive materials were put together into a camera, it demanded an exorbitant price. This made me angry.

Sort of conjures up images of emperors and clothing.

I wonder if Canon has any special plans to celebrate their 80th.

They'll keep same tradition.
Current Canon CEO will perform same act of Leica M disassembly.
To realize how and why such simple camera still more desirable comparing to their top and advanced DSLR.

I also disassembled the 5DII without any specific plan, but simply to take a look at each part. I found there were no special items like diamonds inside the camera. The parts were made from plastic, magnesium alloy, rubber and circuit boards. I was surprised that when these inexpensive materials were put together into a camera, it demanded an exorbitant price. This made me angry. Very angry.

I don't think that the canon would be doing much to celebrate the 80th. No special editions of cameras or gold plated limited run of 5Dmk3's or anything like that.

I'm sure tho that canon still take apart cameras from the like of Sony, Nikon and have a look at the way they are doing things. I'm sure there are meetings about that camera and what canon would do differently.