Stay away from Ebay!

This photo of Jiulia was shot with the Nikon 105mm f1.8 AI-s, another great lens, but unfortunately I had bought the wrong copy in 2020 from an Ebay auction, albeit for a very good price.
This lens presents 2 huge problems:
- the grease inside the focusing ring has dried up and focus is VERY hard to turn.
- the lenses inside are fogged by small droplets of condensation that left circular traces of limescale. The photos do not appear to be affected too much by this dirt inside, not even the backlighted ones, but I always wondered what a good copy of the lens might be like.

I also tried to get it fixed by a photo repairer, but it must have not been a good one.
He didn't clean the lenses inside, and the focus stiffness was just momentarily mitigated, but it is now completely stuck.

One day, I was browsing Ebay and, purely out of curiosity, I checked also this Nikon 105mm f1.8 AI-s, found plenty of examples, and started observing some.
Ebay also induced me to download the app, with a discount of 10€ for the first purchase, and that was a HUGE mistake!
Now I get notifications all the time about sellers that want to give me discounts about tasty lenses, and I find it difficult to resist temptations.

Fortunately, I get to use them for my nude photography, but arguably I don't need all of them.
But I did need the Nikon 105mm f1.8 AI-s, because it is a gem!
I tried it on the daughter of my nephew on Sunday (probably my best model in 2025 so far) and, even if I can't show you her pictures, I can still show you this 100% detail of her eyes, to exemplify the beautiful bokeh at 2.8 (last bonus picture of today).

Some day I will have to try fixing myself the older, faulty copy of this lens (on the left in the first bonus picture of today), because it deserves to be saved from oblivion, and get back to make the miraculous pictures it is capable of.

To fix myself, instead, the only cure is to stay away from Ebay!

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