A Request for Wings

Nikon

As a lot of you know, Wings upgraded his camera some years back. It was way past time for him to move to a higher-end digital model. to allow him to continue to do his work. [And this, of course, is how his old model was passed down to me.] He spent a lot of time researching it, weighing offers and options, and eventually found a good deal on his current one.

There was one hitch: The lenses are all manual-focus. And he's accustomed to that, but there are times (particularly with some of his really precarious shots) when he needs the auto-focus option again. At the time, doing without it was a decent trade-off, but he's now at the point where he really needs to add the auto lens. It's the one pictured up above, a Nikon VR 80-400mm. You can see specs at the link.

Now comes the BIG hitch: Purchased new, the thing is well over $1,200 (which is, for the love of all that's holy, more than the cost of the camera itself). Even used (forget "refurbished"), we're looking at $500-600.

That's a non-starter; we simply don't have that kind of scratch, and even if we did, we couldn't afford to dump it all into one lens, much as I might wish we could.

So here's my question: Do any of you know of a photographer, professional or amateur, who has upgraded past this point (or retired from the art) and has one of these lying around unneeded? More to the point, do you know anyone who would be willing to part with one for a price lower than $500? If so, hit me up via the Web site Contact form.

Thanks, y'all.

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