Talk:Canon EF 1200mm lens

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[edit] Availability

The Canon Australia[1] and Great Britain[2] web-pages still list this lens, and the Canon USA site[3] still currently says this lens is available by special order, as of 6/17/06. Are they definitely discontinued? Is there any source for that? If they're nearly $90,000 each and only 10 have been made, and they're all made by special order, perhaps they just haven't had an order since 2005, but haven't specifically discontinued them either? Anyone else have any info on this? I'd just change it, but I don't know the basis for the original claim. Could be a Canon employee who knows more about this than I do, but something seems weird if it's discontinued, yet still on their websites. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ingling (talk • contribs).

An IP added that was it discontinued in 2006, later another IP changed that to 2005 and provided this link in the edit summary. Tnikkel 03:56, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

It's an odd case. I had extensive discussions with a sales rep at one of the largest Canon suppliers in Australia. Only anecdotal, I guess - however: "The lens was always considered to not be a mass market product, for obvious reasons. It was added into the product line for the 'wow' factor. If you can go to CPS, and say you want this lens, and /prepay/ the price, they (Canon, not CPS) will handbuild you one, new." The lenses are apparently handmilled. I'd also question the number of lenses claimed to be in existence. In reference to some smartass who claimed to own one, said Canon rep remarked that "I know of all the 1200 lenses in Australia, and who has them" and implied that there were perhaps a small number (under 6). That being said, an anecdote does not a cite make, so I will edit. Achromatic 13:25, 25 September 2006 (UTC)