The little nikon 180 will surprise you with it's image quality, it's bokeh, mediocre comparatively speaking of course. Hard to argue with the Leica look, and the 180 must be a beautiful lens. I have the 200VR, it's a great lens for sports, any type of action, and you can get that great bokeh @ f2. To me, giving up the AF for this type lens is to much to ask. If you are only using the 200 on a tri-pod with manual focus, you are not using the lens to it's fullest potential anyway. I have moved away from big lenses, or am in the process of it, giving it up, but I am keeping the 200vr, takes a 1.4 tc really well, and gives me a 340 2.8 I think it is. Don't hold me to that, maybe it's 4.0. I forget.
I have a 300VR, and am considering trading it for a rare Noct lens, Crazy I guess, but it's what I am into, and I regret getting rid of my ground aspherical element nikon glass. i used to have the 28 1.4 and the 58 noct. just lovely glass. I may give up my 24 1.4 for another 28 1.4d as well. I just love the rendering of that glass.