Leica APO-Telyt-R 1:5.6/1600mm
The Leica APO-Telyt-R 1:5.6/1600mm carries the somewhat dubious honor of being the world's most expensive camera lens ever produced for civilian use. Only two copies of the Leica APO-TELYT-R 1:5.6/1600mm lens are available around the globe. The first is a working prototype on exhibit at Leica's Solms facility. The second version was created for Saud bin Muhammed Al Thani, the prince of Qarati (Syria) by a photographer. This prince once spent more than $2 million for one of just two copies of this lens, making it the most expensive camera lens in photographic history.
It has a bayonet mount for Leica's R-series manual focus SLR cameras, is roughly 1.2m long (1.55m with the lens hood attached), has a maximum lens barrel diameter of 42cm, and weighs at least 60kg. With a focal length of 1600mm, it only covers 1.5 degrees of diagonal angle of vision. The lens should work with Leica's 1.4x and 2x APO-teleconverters, resulting in optical systems of 1:8/2,240mm and 1:11/1,200mm, respectively. Sheik Al-Thani reportedly purchased the lens for wildlife photography, so the telephoto lens will be handy.
The label APO-Telyt denotes the presence of apochromatic lens elements for chromatic aberration correction. This correction should apply to the center and the whole picture circle, as per Leica tradition, to ensure that color fringing is adequately controlled. However, getting crisp shots from such a massive lens will be a big problem and will need extremely good tripod support. According to Danish Leica specialist Thorsten Overgaard, Al-Thani had commissioned a specially-equipped Mercedes four-wheel drive to hold and transport his pricey lens. However, as no photographs taken with the lens have been made accessible, it is unknown whether this configuration was successful in properly steadying the lens.
Cost: $2 million
