For the last month or so I've been testing out and old lens I found in my basement. I mean really old, I don't even remember ever buying it. It's so ancient it's the first auto focus lens of that class that Nikon ever made. (The focus limiter switch isn't even a switch at all, like on all the other later models. It's a fidgety ring that you have to lift and twist, that's cumbersome to use in practise).
Heavy as a ton of bricks, no image stabilization, and slow to focus I was skeptical of it's ability to join my group of active lenses on my day to day shoots. But it had a maximum aperture of f2.8 throughout it's entire focal length range, which allows me to do things that no other zoom that I currently own can. So I decided to send it to be cleaned at Focal Point Inc. then give it a chance, and it has performed better than I expected. Plus it's image quality has been extremely good.
I was hoping for a chance to test my ability to hold this non VR behemoth steady in a low light situation when I came upon this scene. With the quality of the sensor's in a modern DSLR this turned out to be a very easy test to pass, as with the ISO at 640 I could still get superb image quality and a shutter speed easily high enough to hold even this lens steady. But I'm sure tougher test are coming.
