"William Graham" wrote:

Oh, sometimes there is a third alternative....If you watch the used market
and do a little research....I picked up a beautiful 75-150mm Nikkor "E" lens
for only $100, and it is beautifully sharp throughout its range, and seems
to have very little if any distortion. It's a little large by today's
standards, but it has come to be a lens that I use very often......


The 75-150mm f/3.5 Nikon Series E is one of the finest lenses Nikon
ever produced. It has a constant f/3.5 maximum aperture, is superbly
sharp and has just about the best bokeh of any Nikon portrait lens -
certainly at least on a par with the legendary 105mm f/2.5 AI(S).

The downside is that, being a Series E lens, it is less well made than
contemporary AIS Nikkors, suffering from serious zoom creep, and it
also suffers from significant light fall-off towards the corners.

A great many Nikon pros pleaded with Nikon to make this lens in a
Nikkor version with less light fall-off and better build quality, alas
Nikon never took up the challenge.

Look after this lens and it will serve you well. The zoom creep
cannot be cured, except for a short time after repair, but it soon
gets loose again. I used a tubular elastic bandage (from a drugstore)
to counter the zoom creep problem on one of mine - I have owned three
examples of this lens and they were all great performers.

There are very few better portrait lenses than this one, light
fall-off notwithstanding.