The Most Expensive Lenses in the World

Monday 6 December 2021, 16:32 by Nando Harmsen | 10,624 views | 12 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

A high-quality lens is expensive. Three thousand euros is not unusual these days. Most hobby photographers can barely afford such amounts, if at all.

It can always be even more expensive, but then you have something truly unique. At least, if you can find one for sale.

Most of the lenses at the top of the quality range are expensive. Prices between 2,000 and 4,000 euros are not unusual. Then you have an ordinary lens, with no unusual focal length.

Modern lenses are frighteningly expensive. This Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM costs just under 3,000 euros.
Would you like a super-telephoto lens with a large aperture? Then prices rise to more than ten thousand euros.

These are highly specialised lenses that not every photographer needs. Bird and wildlife photographers use them a lot, as do sports photographers.


Highly specialised lenses such as this Nikon AF-S 800mm f/5.6E VR ED FL cost no less than 20,450 euros. It is one of the most expensive normally available super-telephoto lenses.
Of course, it can always be even more extreme. There are lenses that are unaffordable. These are often extreme lenses that are made, or were made, in small numbers. Sometimes at the special request of a particular customer, sometimes to explore the limits. Simply to see what is possible.

I went searching and listed eight of the most expensive lenses.

1. Sigma 200-500mm f/2,8 APO EX DG

A well-known lens is the Sigma 200-500mm f/2.8. It is a modern lens with an LCD screen showing the focal length and focusing distance. You can get this lens in Nikon, Canon and Sigma mounts.

It weighs 15.7 kilograms and is only 72.6 centimetres long.
The price of this lens is around 32,000 dollars.

2. Canon 5200mm f/14 mirror lens

Canon developed a 5200mm lens especially for astrophotography. The lens weighs only 100 kilograms, and the minimum focusing distance is 120 metres.

It has a fixed aperture of f/14, but with the built-in ND filter system it is possible to go up to f/32. In the image above, the small attachment on the right is a camera. That gives you a good idea of its size.

A few years ago, one was put up for sale on eBay for 45,000 dollars. Nobody knows what it would fetch today.

3. Nikkor 1200-1700mm f/5.6-8.0s P ED IF

This is the zoom lens with the longest focal length in the world. The lens dates from 1990 and has a Nikon F-mount.

It is 88 centimetres long and 23.7 centimetres in diameter. It weighs no less than 16 kilograms. Your subject must not be closer than 10 metres, otherwise it cannot focus.

The price of this lens is somewhere between 60,000 and 75,000 dollars.

4. Zeiss Apo Sonnar T 1700mm f/4

This lens is the result of an attempt to make the best lens in the world. That was in 2006, and this lens is intended for the Hasselblad 6x6 camera. It weighs no less than 256 kilograms.

The price is estimated at more than 100,000 dollars.

5. Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM

This is perhaps the best-known extreme telephoto lens. The lens first appeared during the 1984 Olympic Games. It weighs no less than 16.5 kilograms, and the minimum focusing distance is 14 metres.

The lens occasionally appears on the market. Recently, a used example was for sale for no less than 120,000 dollars.

6. Nikkor 6mm f/2,8 Fisheye Lens

This is the most extreme wide-angle lens in the world. With an angle of view of 220 degrees, you can photograph as far as 'behind' the lens.

At 5.2 kilograms, it is not a light lens. Its diameter is no less than 23.6 cm. It was built in 1970 for scientific and industrial purposes.

The price of this lens is somewhere around 160,000 dollars.

7. Leica APO-Telit-R 1600mm f/5,6

This lens was specially developed and built for Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Thani from Qatar. As far as is known, this is the only existing example of this 1.2-metre-long lens.

Its diameter is no less than 42 centimetres and it weighs 60 kilograms. The sheikh had a Mercedes converted so that he could drive around and take photographs with this lens.

The amount the sheikh spent on this lens is no secret. It was exactly 2 million dollars.

8. Carl Zeiss 50mm Planar f/0,7

This lens has the largest aperture in the history of photography. It was developed for NASA's Apollo programme, so that photographs could be taken on the dark side of the Moon. The lens was made in 1960 and no more than 10 examples exist.

Standley Kubrick used this lens for the film Barry Lyndon so that he could film by the light of a single candle.

The value of this lens is estimated at a minimum of 23 million dollars. That makes it the most expensive lens in existence.

Lenses for ordinary mortals

Of course, the lenses mentioned above are not for ordinary mortals. They are not lenses you would normally use either. These are showpieces with very little practical use.

Although the prices of these lenses reach extreme heights, ordinary lenses in the best possible quality are still very expensive.

Fortunately, affordable lenses are also available for us to work with. And rest assured, you can take excellent photographs with those too.

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