Depends what you want to use the 180 for. It's not a really fast focusing lens, at least not reliably so. And it's slow to manually focus if the lens is in AF mode, since it uses a barrel-mounted switch that must be set to Manual in order to focus manually. It often shows purple fringing when shot around water that has brilliant highlights on it. I had an AF and an AF-D at the same time for a while, got both at ridiculously low prices! Ended up giving the AF model to a British fellow who had all, his kit stolen. Try not to overpay for one; prices on these have dropped pretty low.
The focal length is pretty handy though, for a prime tele. It's just enough shorter than a 200mm, and longer than a 135mm that it's very handy! And it does work pretty well with a 12mm or a 20mm extension tube added for closeup work. The lens is light in weight too! And relatively compact. I wouldn't call the lens "soft", but the color fringing is a well-known problem when the lens is used around subjects that have a lot of bright, strong skies, or bright, strong highlights on water. For slower-paced stuff, I think it'd be a good buy for many people, but it's not a "sports lens" really. As far as focal length, for portraiture, I often find that my EXIF reads 174mm or 178mm-a LOT...
Maybe I need to start shooting my 180mm lens again!
Aubree
