It seems the Emperor was a keen birder, and wanted the special lens for his hobby. When the Sultan of Brunei saw this lens at the Japanese Imperial palace, he wanted one too, and he reportedly paid US$1.8 million for unit number 2. The third unit was made for an anonymous buyer in the Middle East. Rumour has it that it was King Faisal of Saudi Arabia who wanted to use it to photograph his hunting falcons.
Nikon explained that the technology for achieving that incredible maximum aperture of f/5.6 was very simple. They developed a special coating which was simply applied to the inside surface of the lens barrel. This special material apparently amplified the light rays passing through the lenses in the barrel to such an extent that an incredible maximum aperture of f/5.6 was possible for this magnificent lens. It seems a derivative of this special material was also used on the high pass filter of the sensor of Neekon's new flagship DSLR, the D3. Neekon says it can now reveal that it is this same material that gives the new D3 its incredible noiseless performance at ISO as high as 25600.
Buy this lens and try to shoot football game.. :D
Ha.. ha.. ha..
