...35mm equivalent to 920mm f/4...no price quoted...
Not to be contrary, but I didn't think anyone used "equivalents" on the lens side, just the body side with APS and smaller frames. ???
Anyways, amazing lens, would love to have one. Never going to happen :(
The lens is a Medium Format mount lens producing a much bigger image circle than 35mm SLR lenses, so in 35mm SLR mount terms it's equivalent to a 920mm f/4 :)
What this means is that on a 6x6 camera, a 1700mm lens covers the same angle of view as a 920mm lens on a 35mm camera. If you MOUNTED this lens on a 35mm camera, the lens would, of course, BE a 1700mm lens, plain and simple, if you use 35mm film size as the baseline. Further, if you mounted this puppy in a 20D, it would be the equivalent of a 2720mm lens on a 35mm camera...
The larger the film/sensor, the wider the angular coverage and the "shorter" the equivalent would be, using 35mm as base; as you make the film/sensor smaller, the equivalency flips.
I think it would be quite safe to add a zero to the end of that...
It would be interesting to see if someone could dig up a price. I was basing my guestimate on the price of high quality telescope optics (Takahashi, Televue) and high quality camera lenses of similar focal length and aperture. Zeiss is top of the top of the line, so I might go as high as 100K, but I doubt 300K. T'would be interesting to know. I'm sure somebody (who is not at work, like me) will google an answer out of this...
I think it would be quite safe to add a zero to the end of that...
It would be interesting to see if someone could dig up a price. I was basing my guestimate on the price of high quality telescope optics (Takahashi, Televue) and high quality camera lenses of similar focal length and aperture. Zeiss is top of the top of the line, so I might go as high as 100K, but I doubt 300K. T'would be interesting to know. I'm sure somebody (who is not at work, like me) will google an answer out of this...
"At 1700 mm focal length and a speed of f/4 this lens put requirements on optical glas, lens assembly and quality assurance methods, never before encountered in photo lens manufacture. This 256 kg behemoth also required Carl Zeiss to develop totally new ways of operating a telephoto lens, including servo controlled aiming and focusing."
This is a one-off lens at this point, is what we're basing our "guesstimate" on. Certainly if it ever went into limited production the price would be somewhat more realistic. As a side note, 1700mm isn't all THAT far out of line for a 35mm camera lens, length-wise, and you can build an optically superior lens for 35mm much more easily; but when you have to cover the 6x6 image circle, that's a whole other ball of wax... The thing that really makes this one especially tough, of course, is that little "f/4.0" appellation: on a 1700mm lens, an f/4 aperture is 425mm, which is roughly 16 3/4 inches!!!
Doesn't Canon's largest production lens the 1200mm go for more than $100,000? I was basing my price on that.
Thanks for asking Bear, my race is Oct 1st. I just had a 20 mile training run last weekend which went quite well...
That lens is supposedly discontinued now, and it was always a special order item; you paid for one and they built it for you. I have seen prices ranging from 65K to 111K, the lower price dating back to 2003... In any case, by "somewhat more realistic" I meant in the 150K range :-)
big lens indeed. Some more realistic monsters include...
Canon's 1200mm 5.6 (I believe while in production it cost about $60,000)
nikon's 1200-1700 5.6-8
the sigmonster 300-800mm 5.6
Thats some lens! But at 920mm (35mm equiv) f/4 I don't feel to bad about my 600mm + 1.4TC = 850mm f/4 (35mm equiv) and the best thing about it I can actualy take it somewhere to shoot wildlife (-:
