The Crazy Zoom of a 1700mm Nikon Lens

Back in 2010, we shared a video showing Canon’s 1200mm lens — a giant piece of glass that has been called “The Mother of All Telephotos”. If you thought that focal length was long, check out Nikon’s 1200-1700mm f/5.6-8P lens. Nikon launched a prototype of the lens in 1990 for newspaper photographers covering baseball in Japan. The sample photos above show the lens’ ridiculous reach. A standard 50mm FoV can be seen on the left, while the right photo shows what the same scene looks like at 1700mm.

Nikon Zoom-Nikkor 1200-1700mm f/5.6-8P IF-ED (via Photography Bay)