adi arifin

As always happened in my life, the best product available in the marketplace is not the one my pocket could afford. So obviously I am talking about the best product my pocket can afford - even with some extra sacrifice.

I had three things to work on:
1. My colletion of manual focus lenses has been all sold out.
2. I have decided to go Nikon pro way with combination of ultra-wide (14-24mm), portraiture (24-70mm), and telephoto (70-200mm) respectively with modification to fit my pockets. This strategy includes keeping my ultra-wide Sigma 10-20mm to fill the ultra wide, getting the portraiture but can temporarily keep the slow 18-55 kit lens, and getting a telephoto lens.
3. Budget ceilling should not exceed the money I got from selling the MF lenses.
So it is quite obvious that telephoto is at the first priority. Why did I want to change from primes to zooms? Here are the reasons. Why did I choose this configuration? Here are the reasons.

Brandwise, I now had an experience with my Sigma 10-20. I would personally say that the performance is rather so so. Not bad enough for me to throw it way, but not good enough to put another Sigma in my bag. Tamron was quite appealing - by price and specification - but a friend who uses Tamron (at different focal length) seemed to feel the same as I feel about my Sigma. So, even knowing my budget constrain my eyes were seeing toward Nikkor as (almost) the only choice.

Nikkor had the following fast-telephoto lenses in their history:
1.) 1982 - 1988: AI-s manual focus, 1,900g, 231mm long.
2.) 1988 - 1992: AF, 1,280g, 176mm long, push-pull zoom, no tripod collar.
3.) 1993 - 1997: AF-D, 1,300g, 187mm, push-pull zoom, no tripod collar.
4.) 1997 - now: AF-D, 1,300g, 188mm, twisted zoom, tripod collar.
5.) 1999 - 2004: AF-S, 1,550g, 207mm, twisted zoom, tripod collar.
6.) 2003 - now: AF-S, 70-200mm, VR, 1,430g, 215mm, twisted zoom, tripod collar.
My online resouce show that these lenses have very strong reputation for quality and performance. Almost all professionals using Nikon cameras recommended these and few books I read featured them as well. So now it comes to choosing the one to take.

Financially I prefer #2 which was quite cheap in 2nd hand market. But I found that all of them available on sale were in severe optical condition. It is about fungus, fog, dust, scratch, and other defects. As long as everything work well, did not mind about physical condition (i.e. body scratch, lost paint, etc.) but expected good optical condition.

When I shifted to #3 I found one with acceptable condition. However I started to think about the tripod collar. Whilst in sufficient light handhold seemed to be OK, I believe that sometime I would need tripod shoot. Imagine if a tiny plastic-bodied D40x on a tripod has to hold a 1,300g lens. I tried to look for 3rd party universal collar and found that some options were available abroad. But the price, international shipping cost, and custom fee on top of the lens price got to a lot more than #4 coming with decent built-in collar.

So I went up to #4. Reviews respected this type quite significantly, including Ken Rockwell who said “This is the best buy in 80-200 f/2.8 zooms going. It offers fantastic performance at about the same price as some people pay for used or garbage like Sigma. This sort of lens has been the most popular pro lens for 35mm shooters for over a decade. Just buy one and don’t worry. You don’t need the AF-S unless you prefer a light wallet and a heavy camera bag. It is compatible with every Nikon camera ever made.” His opinion confirmed by Nikon themself which actually still keeps this type in their catalog until now even when its predecessor - the AF-S type has been discontinued. I do need AF-S as I am using D40x, but the 50% price difference between the two was a lot more than what I would have to spend for trading my D40x with higher types which allow non AF-S lenses.

So, I passed the #5 AF-S for financial reasons. If I could not afford this one, there is nothing I need to say about the latest version, #6, the latest 70-200 version with VR. I did keen to have the VR version. I did believe in what VR can do. I did believe that telephoto range needs it even more. But on top of all, I also did believe that I could not afford to pay the price which is more than double #4.

As I made up my mind, I started to hunt it in the used market. Yes, used. Whilst it was very eazy to get a brand new one (as it is still available in Nikon’s cataogue until now), getting used one cut my expense significantly. It was quite a challenge, really. I think first because it was a pro lens, so there were not that many people bought one. And secondly it was a good performer and therefore users preferred to keep it rather than selling it to get a newer version.

Luck came when a rich hobbyist decided to sell his after buying rare collectible items, Nikon’s new professional trio - all white. Owned by a rich busy hobbyist who gave the best care to his gears whilst rarely had chance to use them, its condition was just next to brand new. The owner confirmed that it was rather old as he bought it only a few months after the release. The funny thing he said was “I have to get rid of this one as I kept on prefering to use this instead of the new one which is a lot heavier.” Damn lukcy guy. Well, no jealous. I feel lucky enough to take over his pretty old lens. I feel a bit regret with my lie. When he asked “Do you have to a proper dry-cabinet to keep it“. I said “Yep“.

I got it shipped over in insured overnight epedition. Delivered to my office, it was a bit hard to break the wooden shell. Came out after a few layers of waterproof layers was two Nikon golden boxes for the lens and the hood. I knew that hoods for this type were sold separately, and we did not talk about one. Quite a nice bonus. Inside every pieces were in their original plastic. The hard case was definitely mint with a strap which was still decently rolled, signing that it has never been used. The manual was just like a brand new paper coming out from a printing machine. Well, it might mean the previous owner was real Indonesian who hate to read. And the last but most important … the lens itself, came out just like brand new.

Review … nope, I do not have that capacity. Experience will come later after I have chance to take it out.

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