I love the lens for the build quality as well and my contact whom I'm getting the 85mm AIS from has offered it to me for an extremely low price. The AFd version usually runs about $1000. This is much less. Plus, I believe in manual lenses and I believe in my ability with them. I like autofocus sometimes but I'm not a sports shooter and after putting that screen in my last D2Hs I saw how inaccurate AF can be when focus is critical with a fast lens. Plus, AF doesn't ever take into account what I have in my mind's eye for composition of DOF preference.
And I could use the lens to total a car or as a defensive weapon if I ever had the need to. It's almost the same as the Noct Nikkor which is a fearsome, dense bludgeon that makes beautiful photos.
And, Pramodh, THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Phil Forrest