I don't think it's unreasonable to say that mass production would make it cheaper. However, it only reduces their cost per unit. That would mean that they could sell it for less and make more money IF that lower cost meant higher sales.


But, if they mass produce it, how much cheaper can they make it, and if they make it that much cheaper, how many more units are they going to sell?


Let's say that they REALLY make a lot of them, and they can get the sales price at the end user side down to $30k. How many people are going to buy a $30k lens that is utterly useless for the majority of photography applications due to it's physical dimensions, weight, and narrow focal length? My guess is, the same people/companies that buy the $90,000, because it's either cost-no-object application-specific purchases, or cost-no-object, affluent novelty collection purchases. It's kind of a neat unit to have, if you've got the space, and the budget, for a sliver of applications, but really, not very practical.


Seriously, i'd invest in a setup that would allow me to attach my camera to a decent telescope before i'd spend the same money on that product. I can't claim to know what others would do, but that's my opinion []