I Always Get My.....Lens

As you guys probably have already figured out. If I decide I have a use for something, I'll probably get it. It might not be immediately, but I'll snag it eventually....at my price. Now if I could just make this work for a Porsche..... Anyway, you've probably also figured out that I'm talking about the Nikon "E Series" 28mm/f2.8 lens. Yes, I'm aware that it's a 5 element optical formula that's decidedly inferior to the 6 or 7 element Nikkors, but hey; I'm not looking for perfection. It's as close as I could get with the list of compromises that I'm working with on this project.

You remember. It all goes back to my pancake obsession. I wanted a compact camera with a pancake lens for just about forever. Which over time has led me over a convoluted trail starting with an Olympus Evolt E-330, to the Micro 4/3rds Panasonic GF-1, to the Nikon D50, and finally now to the Nikon D40. The size and performance of which, I've decided makes a good solution for me.

And that landed me here; the Tamron Adaptall-2 28-50mm/f3.5-4 "Muffin", which is the "walk-around" lens that's normally mounted on to the D40. That doesn't mean that I've stopped coveting a smaller, lighter and faster lens for a "street-shooter" role. Yesterday, I snagged one of the "E" Spec, 28mm/f2.8s on eBay. I fully intend to attach a Dandelion chip on it and make it electronically compatible to the digital Nikons. That's to make it faster handling exposure-wise when it's used in that role, but also to give myself experience in mounting the Dandelion CPU on a cheap ($60) lens.

Is there anything else, that my scheming little brain has locked on to? Of course. It is me you know, the Dr. Gru of technology. Early this year, along with the D3300, Nikon released the 18-55mm VRII. This a smaller, lighter, collapsing version of their long-running "kit" lens. They've not only shrunken it, but also revised it's optics for better performance as well. Only issue? Brand-new, MSRP of $250, and research is showing that, that's what retailers are selling it at right now. So yeah, despite it's almost perfect feature set and size for the intended purpose, it'll be awhile before I'll be able to get my grubby mitts on one.

In the meantime, I might turn myself into a collector of Nikon "E Series" lenses. Why not, now that I've already snagged the worse performer of the line! It can only go up from here, right!?!