Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM

EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM is a super telephoto prime lens with a fixed focal length. The lens has an EF mount and is compatible with a range of Canon EOS cameras. The lens has a focal length of 1200 mm and thus offers a 35 mm field of view equivalent to a 1920 mm lens on a digital body with a 22.5 mm × 15 mm image chip (1.6× crop), such as the Canon EOS 7D or 70D. With a 28.8 mm × 19.2 mm image sensor body, or 1.3× crop, such as the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, the field of view is equivalent to a 1560 mm lens.

The lens was designed for sports and wildlife photographers and is a relatively expensive and very rare lens. Canon describes it as the world's largest interchangeable AF lens for SLR cameras, both in terms of focal length and aperture.

EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM is a professional L-series lens and is no longer in general sale today. The lens was first built with an FD bayonet with manual focusing, but was never marketed in this version. It was only sold in a version on the then new EF bayonet with AF for the Canon EOS system. The lens was publicly introduced to the world at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where it was also used in the built-in 1.4x converter version. Here, Canon supplied five of these lenses for media use during the Olympics games. All of the lenses had the old FD mount just mentioned, and after the games were over, they were eventually shipped back to Canon Japan and the lenses were converted to the EF mount. At the time, Canon's competitor Nikon responded to this feat by introducing a lens in 1994 with a built-in 1.4x Zoom-Nikkor 1200-1700mm f/5.6-8P IF-ED teleconverter, which was used by photographers to shoot baseball at the very popular college tournaments at Japan's Hansin Koshien Stadium. Nowhere else has this Nikon pearl shown up.

EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM is constructed with a metal body with plastic switches. The lens has a wide rubberized focus ring with a dumping mechanism, a focus distance index window, focus range limiting, a focus-preset mechanism and the ability to adjust AF speed. The f/5.6 aperture gives this lens the ability to produce perfectly out-of-focus photos. The optical construction of the lens has 13 lenses, including two large fluorite elements in 10 groups. The lens uses an internal focusing system, driven by a circular USM motor. Manual focusing is not done directly by mechanical linkage with the lens group providing focus, but uses an AF focus drive adjustable in three steps. The first is for precise focusing at half the speed of standard focus speed, the second standard speed and the third step 2x faster than standard for fast moving subjects. The front of the lens does not rotate or change build length during focusing. The lens does not have a typical tripod collar like other telephoto lenses. The tripod collar is fixed, but the bayonet can be rotated to lock it in the desired position for horizontal and vertical use. The EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM lens is compatible with Canon EF teleconverters. The filters are Drop in, which you know from the usual super telephoto lens design where there is a small "drawer" at the back of the lens with a 48mm filter.

The lens comes with a sturdy tripod and case. The lens was only available by special pre-order and was never put on sale. The production volume was about two lenses per year, with the lens taking over a year to build. Why such a long lead time? For a simple reason, it takes almost a year to grow a fluorite crystal to a size where it is large enough to grind and polish for the size of lens used in this lens.</p

There are very few of these lenses in existence, Canon has never published the actual numbers, but it is almost certain that there are less than 100, but the real number is more likely to be closer to 20. The list of owners is also unknown, but known owners include Sports Illustrated magazine (two pieces), Canon Professional Services (two pieces), Jacob Jannard, the billionaire founder of Oakley and RED Digital Cinema (two pieces), and the National Geographic Society (at least one).

Focus Limiter - the focus range can be controlled over the full range of the shortest focusing distance of 14 meters to infinity. In the second position, the focus range is 14 to 30 meters and the extreme position is 30 meters to infinity. The Focus Limiter splits the path of the internal focusing element approximately in half, reducing the focusing time to less than half the time.

AF/MF - Classic button to switch between auto and manual focus. When switching to manual focus, focusing is controlled by a black rubber ring, which is also visible in the picture.

Focus Preset - a function that can store the focus distance in memory. In the OFF position the function is disabled, in the second position the preset focus distance is recalled. Switching to the third reverse position in the extreme position will store the currently set focus distance.

Button for switching off the audible alarm

M. Focus Speed - Manual Focus Speed. As the manual focus ring is not fixed to the focusing mechanism but is connected by a servo called focus on wire, the focus speed control dial is handy in three speed levels.

A "drawer" for rear filters can be seen behind the bayonet, where filters with a diameter of 48 mm can be screwed in, the wheel behind the first stage is used to unlock the position to rotate the mounted camera in portrait or any rotation.

Are you interested in the Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM lens? There's an auction going on ...

A used Canon EF 1200mm F5.6 L USM lens will be up for auction by German company Wetzlar Camera Auctions GmbH on October 6. Wetzlar Camera Auctions GmbH are dedicated to the valuation and description of high quality classic photographic collectors' items and marketing them through special auctions.

This extremely rare lens, originally priced at 9.8 million yen ($90,000 USD), and as we have been able to ascertain the actual quantity that was produced is well below the originally stated value of 20 pieces, there were only 12 of them!Each lens took a year to produce, mainly due to the crystallization of the blank for the main optical elements. Each of the specimens was made to order.

Today, it can be said that this is an extraordinary investment opportunity and this is also the reason why the auction is being handled by the renowned Wetzlar Camera Auctions GmbH.