Rare extreme wide-angle Nikkor lens goes on sale
Image © Tony Hurst.
A rare fisheye Nikkor 6mm f/2.8 lens, which offers the "world's most extreme wide-angle" and is worth £100,000, has gone on sale at Gray's of Westminster in London
Author: Olivier Laurent
First introduced in 1970 at the Photokina trade show in Cologne, Germany, the Fisheye-Nikkor 6mm f/2.8 lens offers an angle of view of 220º making it, at the time, the "world's most extreme wide-angle lens to cover an image area of 24x36mm.
Lens production started in March 1972, and was only made available to special order, says Gray Levett, a co-founder of Gray's of Westminster. He and Tony Hurst spend "six month on the trail of this lens and finally located it overseas," he says. "We were fortunate in securing it and it is now on sale for £100,000."
The lens is in mint condition. It uses 12 glass elements in nine groups and weighs 5.2kg. It has a minimum focussing distance of 25cm and features a slip-on front lens cap and is delivered in a rugged metal case.
For more details, visit www.graysofwestminster.co.uk.
Image © Tony Hurst.
Comments
Can we get some example shots? Would be neat to see...
Best,
David
DSP
www.davidsherjan.com
theres a picture from it on http://www.nikonweb.com/fisheye/
Maybe it wasn't that hard to track down?
Not for me thanks - I'd hate to own a lens that required that I comb my hair and wash behind my ears before using it.
Is the F2 included as well? At the asking price I would have thought it should be thrown in for free.
First they zing you on the lens purchase, then you've got to get the throw in the 250mm UV filter. Then after that they're gonna entice you to scoop up a CP filter not to mention the not-included hood. Next thing you know you're way past the budget you initial set. J/K I have no idea the diameter on this puppy but if you wanted needed cut the light you could probably use neutral density sheets designed for monos!
Not to detract from the lens, thats a Nikon F (non-Photomic model, no meter) that was manufactured around 1971. The original Nikon F had a bare metal film advance lever. That lever with the plastic came out around the same time that Nikon started making the F2. Ahh, the days when cameras were fully mechanical and photography was an art form...
...that can still see your wallet when facing the other way.
Dear Grays,
Please take it for a spin around the London Eye with a D800 on the back and post the video.
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