When size matters – Shooting portraits with the $2,000,000 Leica 1600mm f/5.6 lens

When it comes to rare massive lenses, there are a handful. We recently saw one of them, the Sigma 200-500mm f/2.8, being used for street photography. We’ve also seen it used for portraits. Unusual uses for this $26,000 monster.

But what if we bump the focal length up to 1600mm? And the price up to $2,000,000? Well, then you get the Leica 1600mm f/5.6. This one is extremely rare, with only one being sold and only a few prototypes in existence. But how well does it shoot portraits?

Leica 1600mm f/5.6 – One of a kind

The Leica 1600mm f/5.6 was made for Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Thani, the former Minister of Culture of Qatar, at a cost of just over $2 million. It’s the only lens of its kind, in the sense that only one of this lens was ever sold.

In 2000, the Shiekh created the Al-Thani Awards, which grew to become the biggest photography competition in the Middle East, and still is to this day. It’s reported that he had a special Mercedes 4×4 SUV created to lug this one-off commissioned lens around, looking for desert hawks.

I mean, after you’ve spent two mil on a lens, what’s another hundred grand or two for a custom vehicle for it?

Shooting Portraits at 1600mm

Leica itself has prototypes of the lens, with one on display in the Leica store in Wetzlar, Germany. Occasionally, they take it out of the cabinet to let some lucky Leica owner have a bit of a play.

That was the case with Kristian Dowling in the video above, who recently used the lens to shoot portraits inside the Leica store at 1600mm. And as you can see, even with the maximum range they could get in the shop, you’re still seeing barely more than a headshot.

Last month, Marwan El Mozayen, editor-in-chief of the analogue photography magazine and website Silvergrain Classics got his chance to play with it, too. He also shot portraits, but he shot them on film.

Big lenses like these are absolutely ludicrous. Yes, there is a definite demand for them – they wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t – but they’re just so insane that most of us can barely even begin to imagine shooting with one.

Even if the focal lengths of these things aren’t pushing sensor stabilisation to its limits, the size and weight make them pretty unmaneagable for most people. Just impractical in every sense of the word.

They sure look like they’d be fun to play with. The ideal wedding photography lens for someone like me, though. Especially with a 2x teleconverter on there.

[via Sony Alpha Rumors]