[davidmanze]

Would be the better choice of the two nikon 50s anyway  ^_^

 

Toni-a, the term "mint condition" for a bad and then repaired lens is simply an attempt to betray and very misleading. Also, buying a lens which first has to go to a repair shop? That's opposite of "bon-marchè".

 

     My mindset when I said goodbye to the seller was.............

 

                    .......thank God I didn't end up with that lens!

 

   I think people underrate the difficulty of repairing a de-centered lens... the idea that something has come adrift inside and just needs popping back in place is the "common misconception", most times it isn't that. From the lenses that I have tried to repair, there has been  nothing visibly wrong to the eye......you hope to find a displaced/dislodged element or something simple, however, amongst the lenses I've tried to correct, so far I've not found that......and the semi bodge packing under the bayonet is the most one can achieve without having access to replacement elements.

   Often the fault is couplets poorly aligned when glued.......so you have a lens which looks fine to the eye when taken apart, but without different glass element replacements there's is little that can be done with it.  In the case of the 1.4G there is only one couplet in seven groups, normally that represents a low risk, so I was surprised to find such a poor performance.

    So maybe toni could have been right..........it could have been something simple....but if it wasn't?

   Had the "nice man" proposed the lens for half price or €50.....my bargain hunting style might have kicked in....but to buy a dud lens for the price of a good one is frankly foolish. 

 

    Correcting optical misalignments is about as difficult as it can get for the home "bricoleur".......

 

     .........it's all about light.......but you are working in the dark!