sprocket i/o

Nikon 80-400mm VR f/4.5-5.6D

If there is one recommendation I have heard from multiple married men, it is thus:

It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission

This quote is actually attributed to Grace Hopper, a famous early computer scientist. I’m not sure she knew it at the time, but it’s been used by many men who have surprised their wives when they buy something expensive, like a motorcycle.

My wife hates spending money more than anyone I know. It’s sometimes painful to go shopping with her, as she must fight the demons of frugality each time. It’s a great balance to me, as I’m somewhat of a free spender. If I want to buy anything over $200, my reasoning must be well thought out, researched, and documented. I must hint at it before hand so as not to surprise her too much, and have a convincing reason as to why this purchase is in her best interest.

So, when I told her today that I won an auction at $965 for a Nikkor ED 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D VR, I was surprised that things went so smoothly. She took the news much better than my ‘surprise’ purchase of the Nikon D300 last month. Dallas and I have both been birding a lot recently, and are tentatively planning to attend the Galveston Feather Fest for our anniversary. Until now, we have only had one lens with enough reach for birding, so only one of us can take photos at a time.

Today we happened to do some birding, and had to keep switching the lens between us. Aha, this is almost the perfect time to tell her about the lens I bought yesterday. Then she had a confession about something for Christmas, so I shared my birding confession with her: I bought a new lens. She now understood why, and the final clincher was to tell her that I bought it so that we could spend more quality time together. I’m not sure which of my coworkers came up with that line for me, but thanks!

I then confessed that I had actually won the auction yesterday, but waited until today to tell her. We had a great date night last night, and I did not want to risk it going sour over a silly camera lens. She then admitted to me that she would have said No, had I asked for permission before-hand. She said she was okay with it, but that I should not expect this to set a precedent or anything.

In other news, we spent some money we got as a Christmas gift on a super-wide angle lens, the Sigma AF 10-20mm f/4-5.6D DC-HSM. I heard there were some bad copies of the lens floating around, so we bought it new so that we could easily return it. These two purchases nearly completes my lens wishlist:

The 80-400mm VR should be a pretty good match for the 50-500mm we already have. My hands are not steady enough to hand-hold the 50-500mm, but Dallas can. I can make up for the 20% less range on the 80-400mm, since I have twice the resolution of Dallas’s camera. I think we will both end up using both lenses, but will have different favorites for each situation.