Here's the URL and quotation for my above post:
http://nikkor.com/technology/02.html

Sato
Actually you would be surprised by what nice of photos even the older NIKKOR lenses can take. It's almost like our forerunners who designed these lenses knew that eventually cameras like the D810 would appear so they made them adaptable. Just look at the Auto NIKKOR from the Nikon F era. I recommend the Micro-NIKKOR Auto 55mm f/3.5, for example. While some users may prefer today’s modern lenses, you may be surprised at the fact that the lens still does its work perfectly. Our predecessors definitely had some insight into the future. They didn't have the tools back then, so they tried to make everything as over-spec as they could. If you look back over the design records left by our predecessors, you can see that there are entries regarding attempts to design lenses in order to reach theoretical resolutions. Advanced design concepts like this have been used in NIKKOR lenses for decades.

" Your question is not going to result in an answer - but you will get lots of great opinions."

Here is a different sort of answer to your question.

There is an article featuring Nikon's lens designer, Sato, now, looking to the future. He recommends a pre-AI lens (I just got it in a post-AI version) as a star performer. Sato-san is answering your resolution question.

There is sooo much erroneous content about lenses on the web, maybe including this comment, that it is useful to carefully and repeatedly read what the people who know most about lens quality are saying. The problem is, they cannot say enough.

I keep seeing people (hogs, actually) wanting 100% positive feedback from eBay merchants. This standard hurts YOU, the hog buyer on eBay.

I suggest that a handful of incidents across hundreds or thousands of transactions is noise, better disregarded.

What is the benefit of a looser feedback criterion when buying on eBay? M o r e - c h o i c e, at equal risk.

Noise? Actually, measurement error due to inflexible measurement. In engineering terms, eBay is applying an insensitive measure. The eBay measurement of feedback has to be inflexible, to scale up. The eBay metric is useful, but is better interpreted with some slack. For example, a statistician may discard a handful of observations as "outliers," to get a more true result; this is not really controversial.

I am in physical retail in a high-end venue and have 100% through eight years, but, infrequently all vendors will encounter monsters with personal issues; don't ask!

The criterion of 100% on eBay is too stiff. My own standard for eBay when I buy there is soft: asymptotic to 100%. I also establish vendor tone by asking a question.

So succinct: "Pay the price, or play the game."

Just got a 50mm 1.4 AI-S Nikkor, mislabeled as pre-AI -- contradicted in the thumb and photos -- for $45. If you "play the game," good stuff happens.

As to the refurbished piece of the question: Being new to photography, I want to know for sure that my equipment is what I think it is and is in good condition. So, I bought a refurbished D810 and 105mm G from Nikon.com. I "played the game" here, to get a lower-than-new price, by knowing what refurbished means coming from Nikon -- tested to measure as if new. Then, more good stuff happened: I asked Nikon to calibrate the lens for the camera and they told me to save my money; one more insecurity resolved.

It is much simpler now that I know that if there is a problem, it is me.

For redwood forest cathedrals, filtered light, running water, flat or vertical hikes, http://alltrails.com/trail/us/california/purisima-creek-redwoods-whittemore-gulch-trail-harkins-ridge-trail
Some info is wrong in the link: Harkins is dry, 2/3 vertical, 2.2 miles, 1,500 feet up; Whittemore is similar and wet-green. Park entrance from HMB has a flat trail. Redwood cathedral is at its peak in first mile of Harkins. Dogs forbidden. I'm a decades-long regular there.

For extensive formal gardens with hundreds of different plants, visit
Filoli, near HMB; I was just there. Photographers welcome.

I have an archived UHH post covering where to eat if you go to/near HMB.

As for San Bruno, the very easiest is a trip to the grave of Wyatt Earp in Colma. I have an archived UHH post with a little-known photography story about Earp, btW, as told by me according to the history.

Consider Half Moon Bay.
Try Cowell Park beach.
Seal colony, long lens.
Shoot down from cliffs at any killer whales looking for a snack (shorter lens).
Beach scape, cove, cliffs, sea life in tide pools
Golden hours

"soft background colors are complimentary to the subject"

This is a valuable add-on to my knowledge -- and a puzzlement. BTW, wonderful images; thanks mucho.

You are not taking credit for the definition. Still, you deserve thanks for bringing it forward. But let's take it apart:

1. Not sure what "complementary" sic means -- and I do wish I could know -- but I'm pretty sure your last red photo echos the color of the subject. The red echo cannot be complementary but it is huge, aesthetically.

This sort of color echo is a traditional composition touch point, from painting. I learned it in first grade in my home town of 2,000 souls in a remote part of Texas. It is not easy for me to include this sort of echo in the meaning of complementary.

2. Also not sure what a soft color is. I interpret "soft" as an infelicity of writing, simply redundant with the notion of the out-of-focus background/foreground. That is, we could just leave out the word, "soft."

3. I suggest that color is optional in bokeh, as in black-and-white images.

My point:
Color complementarity is not necessary to good bokeh, yet is likely an optional component of good bokeh, whatever this phrase (cc) means on the color wheel.

I'm coming away from this thinking of bokeh as a logical (abstract) container of attributes or as a bundle of features, including shape of artifacts like rounded, donut, hex,...

Not clear to me that any attribute or feature would be other than optional. Scientists would ask for a definition that is complete (which is why I am adding echo, now having seen your last image), consistent (which is why I see no role for the term, soft color), and correct (Is bokeh predictable, even if quite difficult to model?). The definition of bokeh is not there yet in this discussion.

I'm impressed, intimidated.

BTW, out of admiration I looked closely; maybe some barrel distortion...in axial center of lens, not sure why.

This bird is thoughtfully walking into your well-chosen rectangular frame so clearly he/she has a good understanding of composition.

Apart from all else, there is interest in the pose because the extreme neck twist and focusing of the eyes are unusual.

Gotta love those dogs in your avatar

Leaded optical-glass formulae in lens elements can contribute to what may be the look you admire. So can thoriated optical-glass (using so-called “thorium oxide,” that is, thorium dioxide). I’m unclear exactly what your question is but largely these lenses are manual-focus primes, no longer made.

Many lens makers, especially including several mentioned in these responses to you used lead, not to mention thorium.

I have a highly-regarded Nikkor 200mm f/4 that probably is thoriated, made just before Nikon introduced its extra-low dispersion glass. The optical design of the 200mm changed radically when Nikkor deprecated thorium oxide, as this lens had to. Just got this lens, so can’t say much more about it yet.

Oh, and did I mention that my first test picture from the D810 with a 105mm G literally made my jaw drop? You just don't say such things on UHH, so I share that experience, knowing few here will agree.

Some ways to save when provisioning your new D810:

1) Find mis-labeled used lenses esteemed by Nikon's lens designers. See my 'how-to' $45 case study, posted today at UHH: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-368904-2.html

2) I have 3 D810 batteries. I find that two is enough for studio work.

3) Skip the CF card for now. One on-hand SD card is enough for starters.

4) Try to reuse the remote trigger you already own.

5) Forget about AC power, for starters.