Given the lighting and subject matter, you could probably get away with a cheap crop sensor DSLR and a low end telephoto.
That said, here's my breakdown of their pictures:
1. Looks like a pair of Canon 7Ds with 70-300mm F4-5.6. The strap on the right suggests this. Even if we take the possibility of strap trolling into account, the labeling gives them away as Canon. The labeling also suggest that they aren't Rebel-series, given the all-white text. The side-ports also appear to be too large to be from Canon's full frame lines- although this is somewhat ambiguous. However, the pop-up flash button on the pentaprism hump firmly places these cameras as crop-sensor. The lenses match the Canon 70-300 non-L series. Sub-model distinction solely through cosmetics is difficult.
2. In the second picture the body is obscured by the owner's hand. However, the paint job of the lens clearly marks it as a Canon L-series telephoto. Judging from the size and twin focus/zoom rings, this lens is likely a Canon 70-200 F2.8. Sub-model distinction is again difficult at this resolution.
3. This camera is difficult, although clearly a Nikon. The label placement and lack of sync ports suggest a crop sensor model, but the left-side dial contradicts this. The high label disqualifies most options. The only seemingly plausible option is the rather old D200 (from 2005). The lens is also difficult, as the gold ring and dual control rings suggest a typical telephoto (70-200), but the lack of internal zooming contraindicates this. It could be an 80-400, but the size is a bit off. Hard to say.
While cost in certainly an interesting -and perhaps dire- discussion, I'm equally curious about what this will do to the work environment in Boulder.
A have a good deal of my friends in tech here in Boulder, many of who work for big names such at Twitter and Google. However, nearly all of them agree- they wouldn't work at those places if they had to work Silicon Valley Hours.
Boulder has long had a culture of not working 80 hours weeks like the Valley. But if Google massively increases their presence in Boulder, I wonder if that will change the normal work habits here? Or perhaps they will lose the workers that refuse to prioritize work over lifestyle?
I really don't know which way that will go, although I personally hope the latter.
I would like to think that 1100 people isn't enough of a critical mass for other companies in Boulder to start "requesting" the devotion of 80 hour weeks. As long as it's only one(Google) then employees who move to Google Boulder with the hopes of a non-Silicon Valley lifestyle can find hopefully equally gainful employees at one of the other companies.
If the general world culture here were to become more similar to that of the Valley then I'd leave. Part of the reason I live in Boulder is because of the lifestyle perks (being able to go skiing in 90 minutes). As soon as I don't have time to enjoy that there's much less reason to stay.
It's unlikely because most people move to Colorado to enjoy the outdoors. If you're working 80 hours a week, good luck enjoying the mountain biking, hiking, snowboarding, etc that Colorado has to offer.
It never changed the culture in the 90s when Sun, IBM, and Qualcomm all opened offices in the area. And it's unlikely to change now.
However, the big downside is that if/when the tech sector has a crash, the Colorado offices are some of the most affected because it's tough for them to match the output of the Bay Area HQ.
The early 2000s were really rough on the area and many people left because of all the layoffs. I was living in Denver until 2003 when my company J.D. Edwards got acquired by Oracle (after our stock took a beating) and they reduced the workforce by around 70% through layoffs and attrition.
Googlers don't work 80-hour weeks. At least, not in New York. You can pull 40 and you'll be fine; 50 if you're going for promotion. That may be an artifact of everyone willing to work insane hours going to hedge funds.
Unfortunately, the upper class of the town think the former.
I know a prominent member of the local government personally, and we've discussed this problem at some length. The fundamental trouble- and hypocrisy IMO- is that many of the people in the town bitch and moan when prices go up and interesting local businesses/artists/features have to leave. But these same people refuse to allow greater density and constantly try to also push the students out.
I'm fine with Google moving in to town if we can get smaller, more affordable units in greater number. However, due to the planning decisions being pushed by various groups, there aren't any studio sized apartments being allow to develop in the city, and the affordable neighborhoods are often 'historic', turning into student ghettos.
Most of my friends are high payed tech folk and don't have trouble with rent. But many others, like myself, are designers, photographers, writers and so forth. We don't have the money to rent a 2 bedroom apartment for ourselves, or buy a condo to sublet. The only other option at this point is to live with 3-5 roommates in a house, for 600+ a month.
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have an reasonable, clean, modern 1 bedroom studio like I had in Copenhagen. But that just doesn't exist in Boulder, and most attempts to make such things are blocked.
In the end, I think Boulder could address the housing and cultural concerns while still preserving the Open Space around the town. But we'll HAVE to accept greater density, better transit (which needs density) and the fact that sometimes in a city you'll see things you dislike. Without change on these fronts, I suspect we'll quickly go the unfortunate way of Silicon Valley...
I remember living in Boulder (now in SF) in the late 80's. They had laws banning more than 2 unrelated people living together - making roommates kind of impossible.
literally unreadable!