Since I recently declared what I thought was World's Most Beautiful Lens, I thought that it would only be fitting to share what I thought was the world's ugliest lens. Problem is ... I find all lenses beautiful, so singling out a lens for this award was challenging for me. To quickly narrow down the candidate field, I limited this award to only lenses currently available for retail purchase in new, unopened box condition.
Looking completely past performance and functionality, I'm going to pick the Nikon 16mm Fisheye Lens. There were some Tokina lenses that had my attention, but ... sorry Nikon.
The 16's gnarly (not in the good way) design elements include a short, built-in lens hood, crinkle paint finish, coarsely patterned focus and aperture rings, a part sticking out, lots of white paint (with a little yellow and orange thrown in) and an aperture ring marked in two different font sizes. The nearly $1,000 price tag really sets off this homely (by the North American definition) looking lens.
Your turn. Which lens do you think is most in need of a design modernization?