Hi all.
First off... the first person who can correctly guess what movie I co-opted the title of this topic from gets my Black NIB late serial F2AS for FREE!
(Yeah, right!)
Now to the subject at hand...
Recently I have met a loose cadre of advertising & PR people (if you are one and are thinking of moving to LA, please don't. You guys are like the Black Death out here, spreading mistrust, pestillance, disease...) the cool ones I have met have been courting me to do ad work in lieu of what has been my bread and butter for years. I must say, the idea is tempting on some levels: one high-end product shot would net me 4-5 times what I make per spread now; and repellent on others: working under stricter deadlines, facing the corporate firing squad ready to tell me I'll never work in this town again for the slightest miscue (I have mastered the phrase, "that will take me two seconds to fix in Photoshop" already).
To make a long story less long, I have started to buy up bellows and macro (err, MICRO) gear under the assumption that I will at least give it a try; and am brushing up on macro-photography, something which I knew next to nothing about.
In short order, I have assembled quite a product shot kit, including Nikon PB-6 Bellows and rail spacers, reversing rings, cable releases, gel filter holders; Profoto product light kits which work with my existing D4 studio packs; and finally some Nikkor Micro glass: a 60mm 2.8D Micro, the 200mm f4D Micro, an a NIB 70-180 Zoom-Micro. You may note that all my my Micro glass is D-type, as is every single lens in my entire kit is. The reason? I really still prefer using an aperture ring as opposed to my F5's sub-command dial to set stops. It's the way I learned 25 years ago, and it's what continues to feel comfortable to me. I find that to be the case even stronger in Macro. Since I am rarely using AF, it just feels right to focus with one ring and set f/stops with the other. Where-in lies my problem - since the AF-S Nikkor 105 2.8G VR has come out, I CANNOT FIND THE 105mm "D-Type" brand-new in box ANYWHERE!
No new ones on Ebay, none on Google/Yahoo shopping, none at local stores and LITERALLY NONE at any online reseller (I've gone to literally HUNDREDS of sites).
So please, please, won't some kind soul steer my in the right direction? Do you have one NIB that you want to sell? DO you know someone who does? Do you know of a small, local Ma and Pa camera shop has stock? I really need your help. I need this lens and cannot rely on a used lens with such high budgets on the line.
Maybe I would trade that F2as...
Rob
First off... the first person who can correctly guess what movie I co-opted the title of this topic from gets my Black NIB late serial F2AS for FREE!
(Yeah, right!)
Now to the subject at hand...
I AM DESPERATELY LOOKING FOR A NEW-OLD-STOCK AF-NIKKOR 105MM 2.8D MICRO!
As some of you who are getting to know me around here have gleaned, I am a constantly working, fashion spread and head-shot photog in Los Angeles. I am a
film holdout (when the client allows for it) and have been using a trio of F5s for the majority of my professional and personal work.
Recently I have met a loose cadre of advertising & PR people (if you are one and are thinking of moving to LA, please don't. You guys are like the Black Death out here, spreading mistrust, pestillance, disease...) the cool ones I have met have been courting me to do ad work in lieu of what has been my bread and butter for years. I must say, the idea is tempting on some levels: one high-end product shot would net me 4-5 times what I make per spread now; and repellent on others: working under stricter deadlines, facing the corporate firing squad ready to tell me I'll never work in this town again for the slightest miscue (I have mastered the phrase, "that will take me two seconds to fix in Photoshop" already).
To make a long story less long, I have started to buy up bellows and macro (err, MICRO) gear under the assumption that I will at least give it a try; and am brushing up on macro-photography, something which I knew next to nothing about.
In short order, I have assembled quite a product shot kit, including Nikon PB-6 Bellows and rail spacers, reversing rings, cable releases, gel filter holders; Profoto product light kits which work with my existing D4 studio packs; and finally some Nikkor Micro glass: a 60mm 2.8D Micro, the 200mm f4D Micro, an a NIB 70-180 Zoom-Micro. You may note that all my my Micro glass is D-type, as is every single lens in my entire kit is. The reason? I really still prefer using an aperture ring as opposed to my F5's sub-command dial to set stops. It's the way I learned 25 years ago, and it's what continues to feel comfortable to me. I find that to be the case even stronger in Macro. Since I am rarely using AF, it just feels right to focus with one ring and set f/stops with the other. Where-in lies my problem - since the AF-S Nikkor 105 2.8G VR has come out, I CANNOT FIND THE 105mm "D-Type" brand-new in box ANYWHERE!
No new ones on Ebay, none on Google/Yahoo shopping, none at local stores and LITERALLY NONE at any online reseller (I've gone to literally HUNDREDS of sites).
So please, please, won't some kind soul steer my in the right direction? Do you have one NIB that you want to sell? DO you know someone who does? Do you know of a small, local Ma and Pa camera shop has stock? I really need your help. I need this lens and cannot rely on a used lens with such high budgets on the line.
Maybe I would trade that F2as...
Rob
