I have read about and seen many lenses that are very expensive; upwards of 8-10 thousand (US) dollars. I ran across this lens and it was priced at an incredible 26,000 dollars. And this one at 102,000! Why do you really need a lens that costs that much? And what makes it so special that it costs that much?
Bottom Line - Is a lens of that price really worth the money vs a 4-8 thousand dollar lens for most applicable uses?
I am not even talking about the 2,000,000 USD Lens!
Answer
This article on the super-expensive lens you mention, the Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6, has has some details that might put the price into perspective:
The new EF 1200 was then marketed by Canon in July, 1993 with an annual production volume of around 2 (that's right - "two") lenses. The EF 1200 L was available by special order with lead times running about 18 months.
Why such a long lead time? For one reason, it takes nearly a year to grow fluorite crystals large enough to be ground and polished for use in this lens. In addition, the lens is "virtually hand-made".
A very niche market, expensive materials, and hand-made. The price is starting to sound completely justified to me after all.
And also from the article, who owns copies of this lens? Sports Illustrated (for the Olympics), National Geographic, and, basically, spy agencies. The expense isn't a big deal when it fills a need.
The relatively less-expensive Sigma lens, and in-production $10k Canon and Nikon lenses, are basically the same story on a smaller scale. Hard to make, expensive materials, not much demand — and there you go.
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