I picked up a Nikkor 85/2 in a Contax mount in Tokyo last fall. It is an earlier model, in pristine condition, and included a hood with a built-in skylight-type filter. It also had a rear cap. The price, in US dollars, was about $400 at the exchange rate at the time. I haven't done as much shooting with it as I would like but did recently get back about five rolls, which included a number of shots with this lens. I like it a lot -- it easily holds its own with the Zeiss lenses that I have for my Contax IIa (35 Biogon; 50 Sonnar; 135 Sonnar), and in some ways is easier to shoot. The aperature and focus rings are about where I expect them to be, which isn't the case with some of the Zeiss glass.
There's a bit of history with this lens, as you may know. It was the lens that got David Douglas Duncan in 1950 interested in Nikkor lenses when he was in Tokyo. And as the often told story goes, he eventually switched from Leica to Nikkor lenses, just in time for the outbreak of the Korean War. A few other Life Magazine shooters also switched to Nikkors, which resulted in a story in the NY Times. The growth of Nikon and other Japanese camera manufacturers in the US, is attributed in part to David Douglas Duncan and that NY Times article.
