O.K. After chomping on the bit and envying Fstr my 200 f2 vr finally arrived. There is a catch however. The lens had to get shipped to my old duty station and then get forwarded to my present location in Kabul. Long story short, the postal clerk at the old post said that the box was open. He re-taped it and sent it to me. The lens appears fine except for where the lens hood mates to the meniscus filter. The metal ring on the meniscus filter is a little scratched. Also the lens strap is also missing. Ritz camera has been contacted and since they have them in stock right now my plan is to have the lens replaced and sent to my home address in the states and in three weeks when I go home on leave I'll do the swap.

Even with that I still had to try it out and here are some of the results. I think this lens is razor sharp. All are straight out of camera and if anything done it was cropping and re-sizing except for the card player where I used a little d-lighting.

The 2d picture is the blurry guy in the 1st.

Cheers,

David

and the last one

Yay!! Congrats, David. Man, you sure had a long wait!
Nice 1st takes, looking forward to more as you two become better acquainted.

just read the "damage assessment" part of your thread. Crap! Hope it all ends well, David.

Bummer on the damage, hope Ritz hangs onto one for you after all that waiting. Hopefully the 500 arrives in better shape!

Update. Just got off the phone with Ritzcameragov.com. They will send me a new lens. This time only to my U.S. address instead of Afghanistan because I'll be home on leave. That means it should be at my house in a couple of days because I'm getting the one that they have in stock, and I won't have to wait on another special order. The only problem is that I had to buy the lens again and then I'll get a credit when they receive the suspect lens. In a way that's good because i'll only have to carry through the airport one way. Man that sucker is heavey. So I think I'll shoot it tomorrow and then pack it up and send it on it's way. Sounds like it'll be a happy ending.

Cheers,

David

David, big congratulations on the new 200. Heavy huh ? But very much worth it. Too bad about the damage but you will be a busy man when you get the next one, I know you already love it. Looking forward to seeing some of your shots, have fun with it, now excuse me, mine wants to go outside

aargh.. pushing the "hide me" button on any post with "200 f2 VR" in it.

congrats on the lens.. --Lars

That lens just obliterates everything except your focus point. I likey!

As said, not much room for error with the FP. These posts bring back some memories, smoking, blood shot eyes and playing cards. Though I didn't do it at war tme.

Watch your six, thanks for sharing.

why is that lt's rank where a chaplain puts his religious symbol?

Oh, you mean in the 1st picture. That uniform is part the Generation III cold weather system for the Advanced Combat Uniform, and that's just where they put the rank.

David

Oh, you mean in the 1st picture. That uniform is part the Generation III cold weather system for the Advanced Combat Uniform, and that's just where they put the rank.

David

I have a story about mine. I arranged to pick mine up as soon as it came into the Fedex facility. I arrived and gave the young lady my tracking info, when she returned with a smallish really beaten up box, I picked it up and it felt kinda light. Just as I started to wonder how such an expensive item could ship in such a crappy package, I noticed the name was close but not mine. She took it back and returned with a much bigger, better looking package which had MY name on it. I was relieved, and when I picked it up I said man there is some weight in there! It was quite an experience when I got it home and opened it up. Thanks to you David, Trenchmonkey and a host of other folks for all the images, reviews and raves that helped me join the 200 VR 2.0 club. Who's next?

Easy Fstr. You keep talking like that our names will get put on a hit list, for coercing photographers into buying really nice glass.

Congratulations on the lens David.

The 200vr that I ordered from Ritz was completely mint with all packaging, plastic wrapping and accessories. Just wanted to let you know so that you aren't wondering if they are all pre-opened ahead of time. It was double boxed as well.

Enjoy your new lens.

LABRIEDL wrote:
Easy Fstr. You keep talking like that our names will get put on a hit list, for coercing photographers into buying really nice glass.

LABRIEDL wrote:
Easy Fstr. You keep talking like that our names will get put on a hit list, for coercing photographers into buying really nice glass.


Congrats on the lens and hope everything works out for you on resolving the damage issues.

As for coercing photographers into buying really nice glass...well, I look at it as we're just showing them the errors of their ways....

Best wishes and thanks for your service.

And now, some airplane images!!!

Congrats on the lens. It's in good hands.