In case you've ever wondered how crazy lenses can get on the ultra high-end, here it is. The "small" lens in this picture is a Canon 800mm beast that would normally stand out in a crowd like Andre The Giant at daycare. It's almost twice the size of the lenses they use at football games.
But seen here dwarfing the 800 is the granddaddy of all SLR lenses, the world's largest autofocus lens, a fire-breathing 1200mm monster that can make out distinct facial features at one mile away and weighs 36 pounds.
The Canon 1200mm lens shown here is no longer in production, but even when it was there were only two of these bad boys made per year, and no more than 20 were ever made. The price tag? A cool $120,000. Used. Even when they were in production the thing was difficult to get, there was an 18 month wait because it took at least a year to "grow" a single-crystal fluorite lens blank that large, and griding it was very slow. And to top it off, the lenses were all made and assembled entirely by hand.
Handholding this lens in actual use is impossible of course, it requires a solid tripod (or two) and it's not for indoor use because the closest distance it can focus is 50 feet away. Notice that the big Canon 1Ds Mark III camera attached to it looks like a child's toy.
So what would a lens like this be used for? Generally it's used in sports photography for scenes that are inaccessible to the photographer, such as horse racing from the far side of the track, and certain Olympic events like ski jumping. I imagine it would be good for surfing photography too.
It's price puts it beyond most amateurs, one source at Canon said most customers had "Agency" in their names. It is known that two are owned by Sports Illustrated, Canon Professional Services owns two, several governments have them, and National Geographic owns one. Oh, and a couple of "wealthy individuals" decided to plunk down their milk money for the bragging rights.
I showed this to Heather and the first thing she said was "No, you can't have one."
