When most photographers discuss excessive lenses, they’re enthusiastic about a quick 85mm f/1.4 or perhaps an extra-wide 11mm rectilinear lens. However there’s an entire different universe of optical insanity the place lenses weigh a whole lot of kilos, value greater than homes, and push the boundaries of physics so laborious they make regular images look quaint.
Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM: The Lens That Broke Public sale Information
Image this: a lens so huge it makes your digital camera appear to be an adjunct connected to it fairly than the opposite manner round. The Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM stretches practically 3 ft in size, suggestions the scales at 36 lb, and represents what occurred when Canon’s engineers determined to construct probably the most excessive autofocus telephoto lens bodily doable.
This is not simply large glass for the sake of being large. The optical components consists of 13 components organized in 11 teams, with two of these components made out of artificially grown fluorite crystals. The manufacturing course of reads like science fiction. Every lens required roughly 18 months to finish, with practically a 12 months of that point spent simply rising these fluorite crystals to the required measurement and optical high quality. We’re speaking about crystals that must be completely good throughout their whole diameters, which strategy dinner plate proportions.
Canon produced someplace between 20 and 30 of those monsters in the course of the lens’s manufacturing run from the early Nineties to round 2006. Each was basically hand-built by grasp craftsmen, as a result of there is not any meeting line on the planet set as much as deal with optics of this magnitude. The unique retail value hovered round $90,000, which appeared astronomical on the time.
Immediately, that $90,000 appears like pocket change. In 2021, one among these lenses bought at public sale for $580,000, setting the world file for the most costly digital camera lens ever bought. The astronomical value displays each the lens’ unbelievable rarity and its standing as a practical piece of optical artwork that represents absolutely the pinnacle of what was doable in its period.
Utilizing this lens requires planning that goes far past regular images, notably as a consequence of its weight. A spotlight preset perform permits you to return immediately to a predetermined distance, which turns into important whenever you’re working with magnifications so excessive that shedding your topic within the viewfinder means a number of minutes of looking to search out it once more. Nonetheless, the optical efficiency is genuinely spectacular, however atmospheric situations change into your greatest limitation fairly than lens high quality. Warmth distortion, haze, and atmospheric turbulence have an effect on 1200mm pictures way over any optical imperfections within the lens design. Skilled photographers who used these lenses discovered to work round environmental elements by selecting optimum capturing situations and occasions of day.
Zeiss Apo Sonnar T* 1700mm f/4: When Cash Is No Object
For those who thought the Canon 1200mm was excessive, the Zeiss Apo Sonnar T* 1700mm f/4 exists in a wholly completely different universe of optical extra. This one-off creation weighs 564 lbs (sure, over a quarter-ton), stretches to telescope-like proportions, and required Zeiss to develop fully new manufacturing and meeting strategies simply to construct it.
Commissioned by a rich buyer in Qatar with very particular necessities for long-distance wildlife images, this lens pushed each facet of optical engineering to unprecedented extremes. The 15 components organized in 13 teams embody some items of glass that individually weigh greater than most full digital camera techniques. The sheer mass of the optical components made conventional focusing mechanisms unimaginable.
Zeiss solved the focusing problem by growing a servo-controlled system just like these utilized in astronomical observatories. Guide focusing would have been bodily unimaginable given the burden of the weather that want to maneuver throughout focus changes. Your entire lens requires a yoke mounting system with assist factors on reverse sides of the barrel, similar to a big telescope.
The engineering challenges prolonged past simply making large glass. Creating optical components of this measurement required growing new strategies for casting, grinding, and sprucing glass blanks that pushed the boundaries of what was doable in optical manufacturing. Particular person lens blanks value greater than luxurious cars earlier than any optical work even begins.
This lens represents what occurs when engineering constraints are eliminated and value turns into irrelevant. The client needed the final word software for photographing wildlife at distances that may require binoculars simply to see the topics with the bare eye. The 1700mm focal size mixed with the f/4 most aperture creates a software that is extra telescope than digital camera lens.
No pattern photographs from this lens have ever been made public, including to its mystique. The lens exists primarily as a technological showcase demonstrating what turns into doable when budgets are limitless and engineering groups are given free rein to push optical design to its absolute theoretical limits.
Laowa 24mm f/14 Probe: The Lens That Appears to be like Like Medical Tools
Most excessive lenses push boundaries by sheer measurement or velocity, however the Laowa 24mm f/14 2X Macro Probe revolutionizes what a digital camera lens can truly be. Stretching 40 cm lengthy however solely 2 cm in diameter on the entrance, this lens appears extra like a surgical instrument than photographic tools.
The breakthrough comes from rethinking macro images’s elementary limitations. Conventional macro lenses drive you to get uncomfortably near topics, usually disturbing bugs or casting shadows that smash the shot. The probe design locations the precise optical components on the tip of an prolonged barrel, letting you keep comfy working distance whereas nonetheless reaching excessive close-up magnifications.
The optical components packs a whopping 27 components into 19 teams inside that slender barrel, together with specialised low-dispersion and high-refractive-index components to regulate aberrations throughout the acute shut focusing vary. The entrance part is totally waterproof, that means you’ll be able to actually stick this lens into water, mud, or different environments that may destroy standard tools.
What makes this lens genuinely revolutionary is its 2:1 magnification ratio mixed with a 24mm extensive angle discipline of view. Most macro lenses isolate topics in opposition to blurred backgrounds, however the probe lens maintains environmental context whereas revealing microscopic particulars. The extensive angle design supplies a lot better depth of discipline than telephoto macros, retaining extra of the scene acceptably sharp.
The lens incorporates an LED ring gentle on the very tip, powered by a USB connection on the barrel. Because you’re usually capturing in cramped or darkish areas, having gentle precisely the place you want it turns into important. The waterproof design means you need to use this lighting system even in moist situations.
Initially funded by a extremely profitable Kickstarter marketing campaign, the lens discovered purposes far past its supposed macro images function. Documentary filmmakers found it may seize distinctive views in impossibly tight areas. Business photographers use it for product pictures that may be bodily unimaginable with standard lenses.
At round $1,500, the probe lens makes excessive close-up images accessible to photographers who beforehand may solely dream of such specialised capabilities. It spawned a complete class of probe-style lenses from different producers, although the unique Laowa stays probably the most versatile and extensively obtainable possibility.
Sigma 200-500mm f/2.8 APO EX DG: The Lens They Known as Sigmasaurus
Images boards nicknamed it “The Bigma,” “Sigmasaurus,” and fewer printable variations, however the official identify tells the entire story: Sigma 200-500mm f/2.8 APO EX DG. This lens holds the excellence of being the one manufacturing zoom lens ever manufactured that maintains a continuing f/2.8 most aperture throughout a 200mm to 500mm focal size vary.
The achievement required revolutionary engineering options that pushed zoom lens design far past standard limits. The lens weighs 34 lbs and measures accordingly, completed in Sigma’s unmistakable vibrant inexperienced paint scheme that made it unimaginable to make use of discreetly. The sheer mass of glass required to take care of f/2.8 at 500mm created a lens that challenges photographers’ bodily endurance as a lot as their technical abilities.
Conventional zoom mechanisms could not deal with the large optical components required for this design, so Sigma developed an inner battery system to energy each zoom and autofocus operations. The lens options an LCD panel displaying present focal size and focusing distance, treating photographers to technical readouts that rival scientific devices.
The optical design incorporates a number of particular low-dispersion glass varieties to regulate chromatic aberrations throughout the zoom vary, which turns into notably difficult on the lengthy finish with such a big most aperture. A custom-designed teleconverter successfully creates a 400-1000mm f/5.6 zoom when engaged, offering much more excessive attain when wanted. Skilled sports activities and wildlife photographers who used this lens describe the expertise as each exhilarating and exhausting, because the bodily calls for restricted its sensible purposes.
The lens was discontinued after a number of years of restricted manufacturing, with used examples now commanding costs between $20,000 and $30,000. Its legacy lives on in redesigned tools circumstances, quite a few again accidents, and the information that zoom lenses actually may obtain fixed f/2.8 apertures at excessive focal lengths when you had been keen to just accept the bodily penalties.
Nikon Nikkor 6mm f/2.8 Fisheye: The Lens That Sees Behind Itself
The Nikon Fisheye-Nikkor 6mm f/2.8 represents maybe probably the most radical strategy to extensive angle images ever tried in a manufacturing lens. Its huge entrance factor measures 20 cm in diameter, making a convex floor that captures a 220-degree discipline of view. This lens can actually see behind itself. The entrance factor’s dimensions are genuinely staggering: 7 mm thick on the middle, increasing to 60 mm on the edge. This creates a optical system so excessive that standard photographic ideas like “discipline of view” and “extensive angle” change into insufficient to explain what this lens truly does. Whenever you look by the viewfinder, you’ll be able to see your personal arms prolonged to the perimeters.
Launched in 1972 and obtainable solely by particular order, fewer than 200 examples had been manufactured throughout all variants throughout its manufacturing life. The lens incorporates 5 built-in filters accessible by an exterior dial, since standard filters clearly cannot be connected to that protruding entrance factor. The focusing system makes use of a lever mechanism fairly than a conventional ring, and shut focusing reaches down to simply 10 inches from the entrance factor.
The lens weighs 5 kg and creates a round picture roughly 23 mm in diameter on the movie body, leaving the corners of the body black. This round format turned a part of the lens’s distinctive aesthetic, creating photographs that look extra like trying by a porthole than conventional images. When stopped all the way down to f/22, depth of discipline extends from 17 cm to infinity.
Skilled purposes had been primarily scientific and industrial, although some architectural photographers used it for inside documentation the place even the widest standard lenses could not seize sufficient environmental context. The acute distortion and round format made it unsuitable for many business purposes, however good for specialised documentation wants.
Present market costs for examples in good situation vary from $30,000 to over $100,000, with one distinctive instance promoting for $160,000. The extensive value variation displays variations in situation, included equipment, and the pure rarity of discovering any instance obtainable for buy. Trendy digital cameras cannot use this lens as a consequence of incompatible metering techniques, making it completely a software for movie images.
Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7: From NASA to Kubrick
The Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 carries extra mystique than maybe another lens in photographic historical past. Solely ten examples had been ever manufactured, with six going to NASA, one retained by Zeiss, and three bought by director Stanley Kubrick for filming the candlelit scenes in Barry Lyndon.
The f/0.7 most aperture represents one of many quickest relative apertures ever achieved in a photographic lens, gathering 4 occasions extra gentle than an f/1.4 lens. This excessive velocity got here with equally excessive limitations in depth of discipline and focusing precision. At typical working distances, depth of discipline measured in fractions of inches.
Kubrick’s use of those lenses required intensive modifications by cinema tools specialists. The rear factor got here inside simply 4 mm of the movie aircraft, necessitating important alterations to his Mitchell BNC cameras. The focusing mechanisms had been utterly re-engineered, with focus rings requiring two full rotations to journey from infinity to shut focus, offering the precision crucial for such shallow depth of discipline work.
The optical design builds on a double-Gauss basis optimized for optimum gentle transmission whereas sustaining acceptable sharpness throughout the body. Creating components massive sufficient and exact sufficient for f/0.7 efficiency pushed Carl Zeiss’s manufacturing capabilities to their absolute limits. The precision required in grinding and sprucing these components represented the top of Sixties optical manufacturing.
Whereas initially designed for scientific purposes requiring excessive low-light efficiency, the lenses achieved their best fame by Kubrick’s use in Barry Lyndon. The flexibility to shoot inside scenes lit solely by candlelight created among the most visually placing cinematography in movie historical past, reaching natural-light aesthetics that had by no means been doable earlier than.
The connection to NASA’s lunar missions has change into considerably legendary, although current analysis suggests this can be extra fable than documented reality. No matter their authentic supposed function, these lenses signify the acute finish of what was doable in quick lens design throughout their period.
Two of Kubrick’s lenses stay obtainable for infrequent rental by specialised cinema tools firms, giving a lucky few the chance to expertise firsthand the distinctive traits and challenges of f/0.7 images.
Canon PE 300mm f/1.8: The Racing Secret
Hidden within the footnotes of Canon’s lens historical past lies maybe their rarest creation: the PE 300mm f/1.8. Solely 4 examples are believed to exist, making this lens probably rarer than even the well-known 1200mm f/5.6. Designed particularly for photo-finish images at horse racing venues, this lens represents Canon’s most excessive mixture of lengthy focal size with most aperture.
The appliance required specialised “strip images” strategies that seize shifting topics by recording them as they cross by a slender vertical slit. This technique can file 1000’s of particular person strips per second, creating the exact timing documentation required for official race outcomes. The huge f/1.8 aperture at 300mm focal size supplies the light-gathering skill crucial for these high-speed seize charges.
The entrance factor dimensions required to attain f/1.8 at 300mm create a lens that dwarfs standard telephoto designs. Not like shopper lenses which may weigh just a few kilos, this specialised software requires devoted mounting techniques and cautious dealing with procedures. Regardless of its excessive specs, the lens options full autofocus functionality with focus limiters optimized for the predictable motion patterns of racing horses.
Details about this lens stays remarkably scarce, with Canon by no means publicly documenting its specs or manufacturing numbers. The lens does not seem in Canon’s official museum or technical literature, present primarily within the specialised world of racing images tools. The few photographers who’ve labored with these lenses describe picture high quality that surpasses standard telephoto designs whereas offering the acute velocity crucial for vital timing purposes.
The PE designation possible refers to specialised photograph tools classifications, distinguishing these industrial purposes from Canon’s shopper {and professional} images markets. For racing photographers, these lenses represented the top of optical know-how utilized to extremely particular technical challenges, creating instruments that exist nowhere else within the photographic ecosystem.
Nikkor 300mm f/2 IF-ED: The Surveillance Legend
Lengthy earlier than digital sensors made high-ISO images routine, the Nikkor 300mm f/2 IF-ED represented the final word answer for long-distance images in difficult gentle situations. Weighing 16.6 lbs and that includes one of many largest most apertures ever achieved in a 300mm focal size, this uncommon lens was designed primarily for specialised photojournalism and surveillance purposes.
The f/2 most aperture at 300mm required optical engineering that pushed the boundaries of what was doable with Nineteen Seventies supplies and manufacturing strategies. The lens incorporates inner focusing and extra-low dispersion glass components to regulate the chromatic aberrations that may in any other case plague such an excessive optical design. The interior focusing system maintains fixed general size whereas minimizing the motion of heavy glass components throughout focus changes.
Skilled photojournalists who used this lens describe it as revolutionary for masking nighttime occasions the place flash images was prohibited or impractical. The mixture of 300mm attain with f/2 velocity allowed photographs of distant topics in obtainable gentle situations that may problem even fashionable digital cameras. Indoor sports activities photographers notably valued the lens for marginal lighting conditions the place telephoto attain remained important.
The lens included Nikon’s early ED glass know-how, representing a major advance in controlling secondary chromatic aberrations. The optical components required cautious balancing of spherical aberration correction with coma and astigmatism management throughout the total aperture vary, leading to a lens that maintained wonderful middle sharpness even extensive open.
Manufacturing numbers had been extra substantial than initially believed, with serial data suggesting round 450 examples had been manufactured in the course of the lens’s manufacturing life. Present costs for examples in good situation sometimes exceed $30,000, reflecting each their rarity and persevering with relevance for specialised purposes. Trendy autofocus variations of 300mm f/2.8 lenses are extra frequent, however none obtain the acute f/2 velocity of this manual-focus predecessor.
Nikon 1200-1700mm f/5.6-8P IF-ED: The Zoom That Should not Exist
Nikon’s response to Canon’s 1200mm prime took the type of probably the most bold zoom lens ever supplied to the general public: the 1200-1700mm f/5.6-8P IF-ED. With roughly 20 examples made to order in the course of the Nineties, this lens pushed zoom know-how into territory that has by no means been tried once more.
The variable aperture design opens at f/5.6 at 1200mm and closes to f/8 at most 1700mm focal size. This compromise allowed Nikon’s engineers to create a zoom mechanism able to dealing with huge optical components whereas sustaining acceptable picture high quality all through the vary. The interior focusing system minimizes bodily size modifications throughout focus changes, although the lens nonetheless measures over 3 ft lengthy and weighs 36 lbs.
Skilled photographers who used this lens describe the expertise as each technically spectacular and virtually difficult. The zoom mechanism required appreciable drive to function, and weight distribution made handheld operation unimaginable even momentarily. Nevertheless, the power to regulate focal size from 1200mm to 1700mm with out altering lenses supplied unprecedented flexibility for wildlife and sports activities photographers working at excessive distances.
The optical design incorporates inner focusing and extra-low dispersion components to take care of acceptable sharpness throughout the zoom vary. Creating zoom optics for such excessive focal lengths required fully new approaches to mechanical precision and optical compensation. The lens barrel incorporates a number of focusing teams shifting in exactly calculated relationships to take care of focus all through the zoom vary.
Like different excessive telephotos, atmospheric situations change into extra limiting than optical efficiency. Warmth distortion, haze, and atmospheric turbulence have an effect on 1700mm photographs way over lens aberrations or mechanical precision. Skilled customers discovered to work round environmental limitations by selecting optimum capturing situations and occasions.
Leica APO-Telyt-R 1600mm f/5.6: A Loopy Customized Creation
Maybe no lens higher represents the intersection of limitless budgets with excessive engineering than the Leica APO-Telyt-R 1600mm f/5.6. Commissioned by Prince Al-Thani of Qatar, this one-of-a-kind creation weighs over 132 lbs and is rumored to be the most costly SLR lens ever manufactured, with value estimates exceeding $2 million.
The lens represents Leica’s final expression of telephoto know-how, incorporating the corporate’s most superior apochromatic shade correction techniques. The apochromatic design brings three wavelengths of sunshine to equivalent focus factors, just about eliminating chromatic aberrations that may in any other case plague such excessive focal lengths. This degree of shade correction requires unique glass components and manufacturing tolerances that push even Leica’s appreciable experience to absolute limits.
Not like different excessive telephotos that had been at the least theoretically obtainable by particular order, the Leica 1600mm exists as a real one-off creation. The lens was reportedly designed for wildlife images from the Prince’s personal property, the place excessive focal size may {photograph} animals at distances that would not disturb pure habits. The lens requires devoted mounting techniques and assist buildings as a consequence of excessive weight and measurement. Skilled digital camera helps designed for standard lenses show insufficient for managing bodily stresses imposed by such huge optical techniques. The Prince reportedly acquired a {custom} Mercedes car particularly modified to move the lens and related assist tools.
The Legacy of Pushing Limits
The applied sciences developed for these excessive lenses influenced digital camera growth far past their rapid purposes. Fluorite crystal rising strategies developed for the Canon 1200mm discovered purposes in quite a few different lenses. Servo focusing techniques created for the large Zeiss telephoto influenced telescope and scientific instrument design. Even the probe lens idea spawned whole classes of specialised macro tools.
Immediately’s photographers work with lenses routinely reaching picture high quality surpassing many of those excessive examples whereas weighing fractions as a lot. Trendy autofocus techniques, picture stabilization, and digital sensors have eradicated many compromises these lenses required. But they continue to be fascinating as monuments to ingenuity and craftsmanship required for pushing optical design to absolute theoretical limits.
These lenses remind us that images’s best improvements usually emerge from fixing seemingly unimaginable technical challenges. Whether or not capturing lunar surfaces, filming by candlelight, or documenting split-second racing finishes, every lens represents moments when photographers demanded greater than present know-how may present, inspiring engineers to redefine prospects.
