Zeiss lens used for Apollo moon missions sells for $453K at auction

If you think that 400mm f/2.8 is looking expensive in your B&H cart, you might want to think again. Earlier this week, a 50mm f/8 lens used by NASA in its Apollo moon missions sold for just under half a million dollars.

NASA has always had access to some of the best camera gear on (and off) the market. Nowadays, NASA opts for the latest and greatest Nikon DSLRs and glass. But it wasn’t too long ago when they relied on medium format Hasselblad cameras and Zeiss glass.

One of the lenses used during NASA’s Apolllos missions was a 500mm f/8 Zeiss Tele-Tessar lens. At an auction earlier this week, this particular lens, which is said to have taken almost 300 photos on the surface of the moon over four missions, sold for $453,000.

Custom-designed to be operational even with pressurized gloves used in a space suit, this lens was used and given to astronaut Dave Scott as a momento from NASA.

RR Auction, the Boston-based auction house that sold the lens said it ‘one of the largest pieces of space hardware used on the lunar surface to have ever been sold at auction.’

[via Amateur Photographer]