First. I know how critical the reviews are of this lens. After a thousand or so “what to take” posts.i decided one lens/one body. Where I’m going - Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia an FX body and a bag full of fast primes/zoom is going to get noticed like real fast. No time to be changing lenses for candid street. Body - D80 and I may add a D40X or D60 for backup. Shooting ISO 400 or lower - bright sunlight.
Now, how did they sell it for $324 when their own website and just about everyone else says $646? They have a special clearance section to which only they have access. I had the sales girl double check and sure enough she found it. They did this once before for me selling an 18-35 (newest version) for $250 (for my D700).
OK, I know this lens is controversial -I’ll put it through the paces and report back. At that price I could not pass.