My middle grandson, age 12, has expressed an interest in photography. He has accompanied me on a few LF sorties and truly seems to enjoy the process of creating images. Unfortunately, he learned a hard lesson last week when he accidentally dropped my Nikkor W 180mm f5.6 lens. While I now have a "backup" Copal 1 shutter, the front element is toast. It was an honest accident and I don't want to dissuade his interest by troubling him too much. Besides, I dropped my Nikkor SW 120mm f8 last year in an irrigation canal.
I'm looking for a replacement lens. A good copy of the Nikkor W 180/5.6 isn't particularly hard to find and they are generally reasonably priced. A local LF acquaintance informed me he had a Nikkor W 180/5.6 he'd be willing to sell. While examining it, I noticed it had a red letter "D" on the lens barrel after the serial number. I've attached a photo below to show what it looks like - this isn't the lens, just an example. I've never seen this before and the Nikon/Nikkor LF lens info I have access to doesn't explain what the "D" stands for? I tried researching online and find lots of theories, assumptions, and well intended statements, but no definitive conclusions.
Any idea of what this nomenclature is signifying? Any help would be appreciated. Besides the mysterious red "D" on the barrel, the lens looks in excellent condition.
PS - The fellow who currently owns the lens bought it used from a camera store in Idaho. He doesn't know anything about the red "D". But claims the lens works wonderfully. I have no reason to doubt him.
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