B&H in New York is selling a rare, used Canon 1200mm f/5.6L USM EF Super Telephoto Lens for $99,000. It can shoot clear photos from over a mile away. Here’s B&H’s write-up and test images on the “The Mother of all Telephotos”.
As for image quality, even wide open it’s quite lovely. Stopped down to f/8 and f/11 it’s actually quite remarkable. How remarkable? From midtown Manhattan we were able to read the street signs on the corner of JFK Boulevard East and 43rd St. in Weehawkin New Jersey when viewing image files at pixel resolution. It’s important to keep in mind when you are shooting images of objects literally a mile away or further you start contending with haze, smog, and heat radiation that can greatly diminish the image quality of the best optics, especially during warmer months. Even on a cold, clear winter day we were able to detect heat distortions in some of the photos.
See Previously: The World’s Largest Telephoto Lens
photo via B&H