You might recall that, just last month, I ’fessed up to my tendency to lust over some silly pieces of camera equipment. I subsequently admitted that I’d surrendered to temptation and acquired the Nikon D80 camera body.

Well, the disease (syndrome? affliction? addiction?) did not end there. Remember that I had expressed an interest in a new and very popular lens as well: the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor? I had been on a waiting list at B & H Photovideo (in New York ) for about three months, and was pretty convinced that this particular lens was, indeed, a rare beast and I would not be seeing one anytime soon.

Well, except…of course…I took that trip to San Francisco recently.

Ah, yes. Within an hour of checking into my hotel on March 17, I was walking along Fisherman’s Wharf and visiting that (seemingly endless) line of gaudy electronics stores on Jefferson Street. The second shop I entered had one of these lenses in stock! Unheard of!

Yup. It’s now mine. In addition to this shot, see some more taken with this lens at my flickr site.