After years of struggling to get her small business off the ground, my wife finally turned a bit of a profit last year. It had absolutely tortured her that in previous years she was never actually able to give me much more than warm socks for Christmas (which granted, I really REALLY wanted up here in our sometimes snow covered abode). So this year for Christmas she finally got to make a splash.
I now own the Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6 AND the 16-80 f/2.8-4.
She didn't pick them out herself, of course. She knew I wanted some better lenses, but that was all she knew. So a week before Christmas she took me down to the camera store where I purchased my D500 (Unique Photo, in Fairfield, NJ), told me her budget, and let me loose.
As it turns out, that very morning I'd gotten an email from Unique Photo with a subscriber's 1-week only code for 15% off any purchase in the store. Plus they had a general Christmas sale going on. PLUS I had rewards points on my account from the D500 purchase. And to top it off, they feature an extensive Used selection, in-store.
The upshot was a 200-500mm that was basically new, but they couldn't sell it as such because they'd scratched the lens hood while demo-ing it (I can see why - the thing has already fallen off twice on me out in my yard!). With all my discounts, it came to just a tick over 700 dollars! That left enough for a really nice used example of the 16-80, which didn't have a lens hood so it was discounted even more. My price: about 300, even. I went in thinking I'd have just enough for the 200-500 alone, maybe, and walked out with two lenses at well under my wife's budget.
BTW, they also had the Tamron 150-600mm there, which I'd also been considering. But after comparing both in-store (the store is huge, and they have all sorts of things placed around the floor, up the walls, etc., specifically for buyers like me to focus on. Plus I had my wife walk briskly up and down an aisle while I tracked her in Continuous with each lens on my D500) I far preferred the Nikkor. It was definitely heavier, and considering I'll be mostly hand holding that really was something I had to think hard about. And I like that the Tamron is weather sealed. But the Nikkor pictures looked so much better in my test shots, and the auto focus seemed so much faster, that the decision ultimately was made in its favor.
Now to find a lens hood for that 16-80, lol....
(I've been away from the forum for a bit, as the holidays are always hectic for me at work covering for announcers who take off. Hope to get back to a bit more involvement here in the New Year as things simmer down. Hope you all had great celebrations, whatever it is you celebrated!)
