I went to B&H Photo when I was in New York. It's a Mecca for photographers (funny simile), and I thought they might have a lenscap for the old P. Angenieux lens. The business end of the lens is very small, with a 44mm outside diameter, and I hadn't been able to find a lenscap to fit it.

I went up and got in line for the next available helper at the SLR counter, which is a row of maybe 25 clerks seated behind a counter that runs the length of the store. The store is half a city block. The person directly in front of me became available, and I explained that I wanted a lenscap that was much smaller than normal, and hard to find.

He said, in a light Eastern European accent, "For SLR?"

I said, "Yes, it's an Angenieux," and started to pull it out of my bag and unwrap the balaclava and cycling cap that was protecting it.

"I was afraid you were going to say that," he said, taking the lens. "You will never find a metal cap for this lens."

"Pinch-cap is fine," I said. The Angenieux caps I've seen on eBay are always about $90.

He rotated the barrel of the lens, racking it out, "Mm. That's actually pretty smooth."

I said, "It's a little beat-up, but it's a good lens. It takes nice pictures."

He looked at me. "Takes nice pictures." He paused, and I thought he was going to give me a lecture on photographers taking nice pictures, not lenses. Instead, he announced, very distinctly, "This is the best lens on the floor." It gave me a chill.

What? Behind him, I could see giant multi-thousand dollar Nikon lenses. This is B&H. It is filled with legendary lenses. This was the best lens on the floor? It turned out that the clerk was the biggest Angenieux fan in the entire world, and I had randomly walked up to him and pulled out one of his favorite lenses. He turned to the young woman next to him and said, "See this? This is the lens I was telling you about!"

Over the course of finding me a $12 plastic push-on cap, and getting it sent up from the basement ("have you ever seen that place? It is more impressive than the rest of the store put together"), he told me about the unique color properties of the Angenieux lenses (which I'd noticed), their semi-affordable c-mount movie camera lenses, and the Optimo lenses they now make. B&H can order them; they cost $20,000. He was pleased to see the Zeiss Biotar ("Bee-otar") on the Nex, and we talked about the new Sony 5N and 7. I want the 5N.

My little lens cap errand in New York made my day.