Yes, I Bought It. The Canon CN20x50

Chris left a comment on the other post where I mentioned this lens and asked if i pulled the trigger. Thought it deserved a proper, longer answer—so here it is.

Before I ever thought about moving into filmmaking—before I even knew what cinema glass really meant—I saw the Canon CN20x50 in Epic Adventures with Bertie Gregory as i blogged about in a previous text.

Back then, I was only into stills. I had owned most of the big superteles. The Canon 600mm f/4 felt like a rocket launcher. Then this lens shows up on screen—50–1000mm, and with the 1.5x extender, a ridiculous 75–1500mm. It looked unreal. But more than that, it felt like something else entirely. My first thought was for real, can i use this on my Canon 1DX DSLR camera?

That was the first time I saw a lens and thought, this isn’t photography anymore. This is something larger than life. And I knew right then: one day, I’d find a way to justify it. I wanted to become wildlife filmmaker from this day.

2022 – Clicking the Button

Late 2022, I gave in to curiosity. CVP had the lens listed like everyone else: “Contact Us for pricing.” So I clicked out of curiosity.

The quote came back a lot lower than the prices you read online, almost half (when it was new, the price was crazy high, the price you see online today is a lot lower than what they used to advertise it for). Still very expensive, but not unattainable. I paused. Tempting… but I didn’t buy it. That price lingered in the back of my mind for almost a year, i was at the same time getting deeper into wildlife filmmaking.

2023 – A Year Later…

Eventually, In 2023 I circled back. Same email thread. “Hey, is that quote still valid?”

Hurray, they still give me the 127mm filter for free. Well, Now the price had crossed back into that red zone—the internal line of 50K+ EUR I’d drawn where “wants” and “needs” start to split apart. I figured that was the end. But then in 2024—like so many times before—the universe conspired to help me.

2024 – A Unit, With Provenance

The BBC Natural History Unit was offloading gear.
And there it was—a used Canon CN20x50. Not shiny. Dusty. Well-worn. The case looked like it had been through a war zone (none of that from me—I treat it like fine porcelain, my precious).

Still a monster. Still not cheap. But this time… manageable without breaking the bank.

This lens had history. It had been out in the field. Used on real wildlife productions.
Maybe even one of the shows that pulled me in to begin with. Did Bertie cuddle with it?, Did it capture some of the action on Planet Earth?

I have no idea what exact productions it was used on—epic shots, B-roll, maybe even nothing special. But just knowing it had been part of those legendary series gave it weight. The only data I have is that the servo unit had 216 hours of use on the clock when I purchased it. Even today, when I opened the case to grab a few snapshots for this blog post, the smell of the lens told its own story. It smells like adventure. I wish it could tell me those stories.

Was It a Smart Buy?

Absolutely not. I have made many dumb purchases in my life, this is one of them. But you only live once they say. Do I regret buying it? Sure sometimes, but not really, I can afford stupid purchases, what this gives me beyond the gear, is the feeling of being a real wildlife filmmaker, I want to go the extra mile when I have this legendary lens, fake it until you make it the youngsters say.

Sure. It’s massive. Heavy. Brutal to travel with. It demands a large tripod, a proper head, and a commitment. You don’t casually bring this lens anywhere. When you pack it—you know exactly why.

But the first time I took it out in the field, everything clicked. This wasn’t just a piece of gear. It was the thing that started the whole journey. And now, it’s part of my journey as an evolving wildlife filmmaker, who knows where we will end up, me and my precious lens.

Side note: this is one of the very few pieces of equipment I’ve bought where my wife didn’t ask what it cost. I just said I got a heck of a deal on a well-used piece from the BBC. That was it, gotta love her.