There is a certain timeless grace
to real world, photo journalistic style imagery. In a produced image
models would be well posed next to an immaculate (or just perfectly
dirty but not too dirty) van parked at just the right angle and the
lighting would be better, yet the feel would just not be the same.
In all manufacturing there are degrees of sample variation. Lenses are
certainly no differeent, and old ones even tougher to judge because
they may have been through a lot. I loved up close images from the
venerable
Nikkor 25-50mm f/4 AIS enough that
it's time to give a second copy a try, hoping this one does better at
infinity. Buying lenses this old can be surprising. Often the more used
and beat up lenses produce better results because they were good copies
that saw a lot of use, and immaculate, well preserved lenses are just
that way because they were a poor copy that didn't see much use. Then
again, people using high end equipment for personal use tend to take
good care of it. I am curious to see how this immaculate copy stacks
up, this lens is the predecessor to the
Nikkor
AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G and today would sell for $1,657 new adjusted
for inflation.
