Nikon AF Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED Lens

I was probably one of the first to buy this lens, having ordered it as soon as it was announced sight unseen. At the time I was shooting film exclusivly and needed a zoom in the 80-200 range to complete my travel shooting outfit. For some time I had been considering Nikon's legendary 80-200 f2.8 but had hesitated for two reasons: one was the physical size and weight of the lens and the second was the fact that I would have had to invest in a whole new filter size. My travel kit was standardized on 62mm and the 80-200 took 77mm. When Nikon announced the 70-180mm used a 62mm filter size I felt it was a sign. The fact that it could also replace my 105mm Micro in my bag was a bonus. The modest working apertures of f4.5-5.6 I thought I could work around.
Unpacking the lens was no disappointment. The 70-180 has the robust metal construction Nikon reserves for it's professional lenses. There's a certain solidity to the lens that users of professional Nikon equipment will find familiar and have come to expect. So far so good, especially as the lens was, as expected, smaller than the 80-200 I had been looking at.
In use, the lens performed as specified. Autofocus was slow on my F100 and, if the user forgets to limit the range, the lens takes a long time to rack all the way through it's focus range when "hunting". The attached tripod socket was unobtrusive when hand held but strudy enough to actually use and support the weight of camera and lens.
Optically, slides shot at "normal" distances were contrasty and sharp. The lens performs very well with minimal distortion. As a Macro lens (Nikon calls these "Micro") performance was good enough for all but the most critical applications. The lens focuses to 1:3@70mm and almost 1:1@180mm.
For the digital user who has to deal with the multiplication factor of his smaller sensor, it effectivly becomes a 105-270mm zoom that focuses to 14inches which raises interesting possibilities.
I finally traded the lens. As good as it was optically I could not get past the slow maximum apertures - especially for non-macro shooting. Remember, at the time I was shooting film and had a fondness for ISO 50 and 100 fine grained slide films. The maximum aperture of f4.5 could not be overcome just by dialing up the sensitivity of my digital sensor. Had I still had the lens at the time I got my first digital SLR perhaps I would have kept it.