It looks like my bid of $1500 and a case of Loads of Ketchup chips wasn’t the winning bid for the Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM at the Wezlar Camera Auction that took place this past Saturday.
The Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM sold for a camera lens record €500,000 ($575,000USD) once the hammer hit. Previous copies of this lens have tended to sell in the $100,000 – $120,000 range.
From Wetzlar Camera Auctions:
A Canon telephoto lens EF 1200 mm f/5.6 from the 1990s achieved a particularly spectacular result. Only around 20 specimens of this lens were originally produced on special order only at the time. The then original list price was already U.S. $ 90,000. Two customers who were connected by telephone engaged in an exciting bidding war, so that the lens was finally hammered for fabulous EUR 500,000. It is the highest price ever achieved at auction for a camera lens in the world.
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