Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I know what you're thinking: Seventeen hundred bucks or more for a mere midrange zoom? There is nothing "mere" about this zoom! Wide open, Nikon's new workhorse is sharper than most prime lenses. That's right -- I shoot all day long at f/2.8 (I like resulting blurry backgrounds) and never, never lack for sharpness. Being able to shoot f/2.8 at night doesn't stink, either. Colors are vibrant, the bokeh (out of focus areas) is creamy, and you'll see ghosts and flares *only* when shooting straight into the sun. And I've never seen an autofocus do its thing so quickly or with such accuracy. I'm catching a lot of shots I used to miss. No lens is perfect. This one has exactly three drawbacks. 1. It's pretty darn big for a midrange, so sometimes I miss Nikon's compact 18-200mm zoom. And that's without the massive lens hood in place. Snapped on, a big lens gets even bigger. 2. The zoom ring is too close to the camera body. I've only been shooting with it for a few days, but I keep grabbing the manual focus ring by mistake. There's a learning curve here, and I'm not yet over it. 3. It's in short supply. Good luck finding this beast at the suggested retail price. On my D300 however, it's as perfect as a giant, expensive hunk of glass can get. It takes all my standard 77mm filters, and its DX-effective 35-105mm (approximate) zoom range makes it a great "walk around" lens. It goes wide enough for most landscape shots, and zeroes right in on my two-year-old's face. But mostly I can't get over the sharpness, the color, and the responsiveness of the autofocus. I probably paid too much for mine, but it was worth every penny.