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
23 Apr 2012Tags:LensesNikon
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.

220 degrees! I'd love to see the photos from that.

You could point it straight up and get a single shot panorama. Lol!

Two shots would get you a full 360 very quickly. A North and South aimed shot and you’re done. You just need the right rig to ensure the lens rotates correctly around its nodal point.