CGrindahl Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Last weekend I stumbled on a listing on craigslist for an "F4 with six lenses..." I'm not interested in a film camera, even a highly regarded one like that but I'm always curious when lenses from that era are mentioned. I opened up the ad and quickly browsed the listing... in the middle of the list was an unsold Nikon 55 f/1.2 with a very fair price. Now I'm a big fan of older lenses and the 55 f/1.2 was the first fast lens produced by Nikon. I comes in a number of different versions. The early versions were all metal with scalloped focusing rings that I very much enjoy using. Of course, these older lenses don't fit modern DSLR cameras capable of metering with them so they need to be "converted." Nikon manufactured and made available a conversion kit which was essentially a newer aperture ring for installation on the older lenses. Obviously, I was curious whether this particular lens is the one many consider the gold standard, the 55 f/1.2 S.C. AI. The C represents a new lens coating that was carried over into later lenses but was present only in this pre-AI lens. I checked the photos and sure enough it was the S.C. version. I already own one copy of that lens, but it is so rare I knew I wanted to buy this lens.
I drove twenty miles to Berkeley and met the seller in front of a coffee shop. He opened the bag to reveal a MINT condition lens, exactly the one I wanted. I slid some bills from by billfold and the deal was done. Was it cheap? No, but it was well below market in price and WAY above market in quality. I was lucky and craigslist was the only reason I found this lens...
My old one on the left, my new one on the right...
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http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-N9imllC5RHg/U0HLGxFVJbI/AAAAAAAAXNc/UylVZofXYT4/s1000/50.1.4.SC.Two55.1.2.SC.jpg |
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Shot wide open on the way home... at an open house.
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http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bSQSB2kmeNY/U0HNf-yCpUI/AAAAAAAAXN4/na8xaouI9ac/s1000/55.1.2.SC.HomeForSale.01.jpg |
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