Stef.: "I think justification is important to some extent." I do too, but in this case I was simply thinking in terms of something along the lines of a poll, just out of curiosity.
LyleG: "Then why buy an expensive lens in the first place if IQ is not important?" I didn't say it was unimportant, just less important, to me. Furthermore, how do you define expensive? Anything over say $150US is expensive to me.
I only ever bought one pricey lens, and that was a Minolta AF 100mm f2, new when they were still making them. I paid (I think) $550 for it. (It is nice to know that chewed up versions are selling for about $700-$900 now. My mint version should be worth even more, if I had a need to sell it.) The reason I bought it was speed: f2, length: 100mm (very traditional for portrait work), then image quality last because I figured all Minolta lenses were good. It was the fastest 100mm lens Minolta had at the time. If I had known then what I know now about being able to use old MF M42 or Minolta MC/MD lenses on a Maxxum body, I never would have bought it.
"The attributes you are after are more body attributes than lens attributes." Yes, I imagine so upon reflection. That only makes sense, considering I purposely chose to buy a used Maxxum 7D instead of a new(er) Sony Alpha body just because of its ergonomics and controls layout.
