Canon EF 1200mm Lens

[Rachel]

This article may be of interest to some of you Canon EF 1200mm Lens

[belgiumreporter]

I remember my uncle had ,back in the seventies, an fd mount 1000mm (black) canon lens in his camera store. It was mainly used as an eye catcher in the shop window as nobody wanted it (but everybody looked at it in awe).It was an absolute monster. Strangely i can't seem to find any reference on the net to this lens.I also can't remember what happened with the lens after my uncle died and the shop was sold out. I never gave the lens much attention as i was (and still am) a nikon photographer and was quite happy with the 500mm nikkor i bought in his shop (with some discount ;-)) and wich is after all these years still in my collection.
Maybe i am mistaking the focal lenght as canon does not seem to have 1000mm focal lenghts. It could have been the 800mm FL lens but i still remember it as being a 1000mm. Maybe someone can refresh my memory?
On remembering things, i remember my uncle's credo, he allways said "you can't sell what you haven't got in your store" how times have changed !

[Stephen]

I have an old Wray WW2 aerial reconnaissance lens of 1270(50 inch), but it's max aperture is F10! it is small, only about 6 inch of casing, as the body tube it fitted was part of the camera! I did rig it on a tube years ago and tried it on my Olympus OMI, and the reults were vey sharp indeed, but to use it stopped down needed higher ASA film. It's coverage seems to have been for 10x8 plates, although they were used with 70mm and 90mm rolls, according to the owner of the camera repair company, who had worked on Aerial Cameras in the war.

As mentioned in the posting about using the Canon 1200, Canon seem bad at recording exactly what they have made in the past. There cannot have been more than about 12 made, the cost must have been astronomic, and they may have sold them at a loss for the publicity. Also these exotic lenses were often a cover for making military use lenses, only a few got conveted to sales.

The front element in fluorite glass would have to be ground on it's own, taking weeks and tying up production machinery. The Lens makers that I worked for made 8 inch elements, and they took about 7 days to grind and finish.

Stephen.

[cooltouch]

Stephen, you might be right that the Canon lens was 1000mm, the only thing is Canon didn't make an FD 1000mm lens, nor did Canon make a 1000mm FL lens. Although Canon did build 1200mm lenses in both mounts -- but the FD was supposedly a very limited edition, designed only for Olympics use, none of which were sold, and they were all later converted to EF mount.

But when it comes to a 1000mm telephoto, Canon did produce one. It is in the R-mount, which is the breechlock mount that preceded FL. It is interchangeable with FL and FD, but those R lenses with linkage for the camera won't interface correctly with an FL or FD camera. However the 1000mm f/11 R lens was preset, with no linkage between lens and camera. In fact, rather than using a focusing helical, it used a detachable bellows at the rear of the lens (the bellows is also used on the 800mm R). Optically, it is a very simple designed. An achromatic doublet -- two elements in one group. But as an owner of two telephoto lenses of similar construction (a 500mm f/5.6 and a 650mm f/6.3), I can tell you that such a design can achieve remarkably sharp and well-corrected results.

The 1000 R is quite rare and worth a bundle these days. There is some information on it at the Canon Museum. See:

www.canon.com/camera-museum/lens/r/data/35-2000/r_1000_11.html