u/SamPsychoCycles

I recently made a post about mounting my 300 on a FTZ & Z7II & asked if that caused my new problems, general consensus was no, the lens was beginning to exhibit issues regardless of the FTZ.

Summary of issues: Focus goes beyond infinity & squeals when it does, when it does that it won’t AF unless I manually turn the focus ring back into range; occasionally AF ”falls asleep”, even when in range, and won’t AF until I turn the focus ring a bit. It does not squeal when AF normally.

I reached out to a lens repair place but unfortunately they understandably won’t give me a quote unless I mail it in, but I don’t want to ship it out unless I can have an idea of the repair costs - if it’s even repairable.

That said, this lens has become my absolute favorite to shoot with. I want to either sell it disclosing its issues and buy another 300 ($1-3.5k) or send it in for repairs, not having any idea whether the repairs would cost $300 or $1000+. I’m attracted to selling it to gain the VR of the newer gen, but yeah, this is hobby and it hurts to spend so much on glass (although I can afford it).

What would y'all do?

After collecting a collection of 6 lenses for my Nikon D7000, I sold this bag of precious junk and bought a Nikon Coolpix P950. What should I do if my walking focal length varies from 18 mm to 1500 mm?
Sigma 17-50 2.8 is a very good lens, But it was impossible to shoot even cherry blossom branches with it... In the same pile I also had a good tamron 10-24 and Sigma ART 30 mm 1.4 was, and Nikkor's 55-200 and 55-300 were.

It was a wonderful collection. All the best is the envy of everyone. Moreover, all the glasses were bought in pristine condition. The last one I bought in the collection was a Nikon 55-300, which became my travel lens. I carried this duet D7000 c 55-300 with me every other day. However, together with the Canon Powershoot SX 540 HS.
I sold the collection in two installments. I came to the purchase and appreciated it. The god of greed inside turned over and I dragged everything back home.. And 2 weeks later he returned and sold everything to buy what he had bought (Nikon P950)

Yes, the 1/2.3" sensor on the P950 is not exactly an APS-C. I have some regret (maybe even a strong one) about selling my entire good collection. But here only greed is crying in me..
I'm still happy with the new Nikon P950 camera. I started shooting what I want to shoot. The Nikon P950 includes all my focal lengths and more, indispensable for me in my walks. And you know, when I hung over the bridge today and took a dozen turtles in the water with a focal length of 800mm, I was very pleased with the purchase.

So I'm asking the community here, especially the owners of the same camera, should I be disappointed, or did I make the right choice by sacrificing sensor quality for the right shooting distances?