Zeiss APO Sonnar 1700mm f/4
Zeiss APO Sonnar 1700mm f/4, is a one-of-a-kind telephoto lens designed for the only guy, a Qatari player who enjoys photographing storks. You may also engage Carl Zeiss to create a "one-of-a-kind" lens if you have a lot of money. Its price has never been revealed, but given its massive size and all of the unique technology packed in, as well as its incredibly complicated lens formula of 15 elements in 13 groups, you must be the lucky one can own it at the level of millions of dollars.
A lens like this has never been seen before in the history of photography. Carl Zeiss designed the ZEISS Apo Sonnar T* 4/1700 for a consumer with high expectations and a particular interest in long-distance wildlife photography. The customer chose the Hasselblad 203FE 6x6cm medium format camera and ZEISS lenses as the optimum combo for his specific needs to attain the finest possible image quality. Zeiss even created a focus servo control system comparable to those used in astronomical telescopes.
With a focal length of 1700mm and an aperture of f/4, this project even put optical glass manufacturing to the test. The fragile, rare glass kinds required for this one-of-a-kind design have never been cast in such massive proportions before. Some of the lens blanks produced weighed over 256 kg and were worth more than a luxury vehicle! Making these blanks into completed lens elements increased their value even more. So this lens is at the top of the most expensive lenses.
Cost: $100,000+
