Wonderous cheap alternatives to professional lenses

I've seen a couple documents in here with reccommendations for lenses to mount on your D7000 and I was always intrigued until I looked at the price of some. I spend lots of my time on the internet researching cameras, and the rest of that time is spent on me being in the field testing out gear I purchased. I have come to the revelation that there is a lot of old gear out there that is still up-to-date. Here are some that I've come across before and feel are worthy sharing with you guys if you are ever looking for a cheaper alternative to an expensive lens that will not take away from the photo quality.

80-200mm f/2.8 'Push Pull' lens



Photo: http://cl.ly/EQOD

You can find this lens used for $350 (fair condition) to $700 (mint condition).  It was made from 1988-1997.  It functions as a 'push-pull' lens, where instead of twisting a ring on the lens to zoom, you push the barrel on the lens back and forth.  It may be a little more inconvenient for that matter, but it's not anything you are going to be irritated by unless you are recording video and want that smooth zoom effect.

The reason why it is so cheap is because it doesn't have an internal focus motor.  It focuses via the autofocus built in the camera body (which the D7000 has).  Because of this and the weight of the lens, the focusing is slightly slower than the 80-200mm f/2.8 made today, but if you are not shooting action, you won't be hindered at all.  The optics on this 20 year old lens are surprisingly sharp, but after doing research, I found that the glass construction is merely identical to the present 80-200mm f/2.8.

Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 AF



Photo: http://cl.ly/EQE9

I've seen this lens go for roughly $400 in good condition on eBay and if you are like me and find yourself using your 80-200mm f/2.8 or any telephoto lens of that focal length at 200mm all the time, this is a great substitution.  A 180mm f/2.8 prime lens will always beat an f/2.8 zoom lens at the given focal length.  They discontinued this particular lens in 1988 with a rougher version.  It's another fantastic buy since it's outdated, but also focuses via an the camera body's focus motor.  Now you can score some nasty cheap older manual focus versions of this, but I'm not a fan of manual focus and I'm guessing you guys aren't either.

Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 Micro AF



Photo: http://cl.ly/EQEH

This is another retired lens from Nikon, and they only produced about 50,000 of these during its time.  Very rare, but you can still find them on www.amazon.com for $200.  Not much to say about this lens because I never personally owned it, but it's a great substitution to the present 60mm f/2.8 Micro.  From most reviews, people actually prefer this one over the new model when it comes to autofocus.  With the optics construction, you do lose a 3/4 of an inch when it comes to focusing versus the 60mm, but it is said to have a sharper picture than the 60mm, so you can pick which is more of a priority for you.

Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 AI-S



Photo: http://cl.ly/EQJH

These are available on eBay for anywhere from $1000-$2000.  The reason why I'm posting this one is because it's merely a $5000 lens in quality compared to the presently made Nikon, but retired.

I'm tired and don't feel like posting any more, but feel free to add some to this if you know of any fantastic buys, but here are some other models which I feel are still great purchases, although I'm not in the mood to write about them:

1. 85mm f/2.0 AI-S
2. 35mm f/2.0 AI-S
3. 24mm f/2.8 AI-S

That is all, thank you for your time!