Fabulous lens - yet to have a better Nikkor!
Sharp and contrasty lens on the D40, superb. Curiously I hardly used it for a year, finding the D40 kit lens covering 18-55mm covered everything and fairly well. Doing a portrait course however and being told to use a zoom at about 100mm to make the sitter feel comfortable, and given we usually have such space in an Aussie home, showed me how nice this lens was. Now its my favourite on the D40. I haven't used it much yet on the D90 (the kit 18-105 has a good range) but should try it...

On the D40 it produces images that need no post PC work something which is only also achieved by the Tokina 11-16mm wide angle on this camera.

Not a snappy focuser and the VR rattles away all the time, the camera does not shut it down unless you turn the camera off so you will find your battery consumption goes up when using this.

For the price these are minor drawbacks given its sharpness. If all Nikkors were this cheap and good....

This lens is suprisingly impressive
I bought this lens a year ago to shoot my kid's outdoor sporting events and to also give me more reach as a complement to the kit lens, 18-55mm VR, that came with my D60. At a cost of 0 I got more than I bargained for. The picture quality is tack sharp in daylight conditions. Auto focus is usually on point althout I wouldn't call this a fast lens. The cons are auto focusing can be tough at the long end of the focal length (approaching 200mm) and certainly in low light conditions which will cause you to miss some shots (shooting indoors or in a poorly lit gym which happens more often than you realize until you need AF to work for you). You will still get great shots indoors so long as ample light exists or of course you use a flash. Another con for those shooting sporting events is 200mm may not be long enough for you. I found myself want a little more reach which is why I'm about to swap this lens for the 70-300mm. For those reasons, I took away a star. I really don't want to get rid of this baby but once I get the 70-300, I won't have much use for it. But its still a great lens. I shot an entire vacation trip with this lens and the even more impressive Nikkor f/ 1.8 35mm DX (prime). I don't even use my kit lens any more. Bottomline: this lens loves a lot of light. If the sun is out, you will look like a pro. Regardless at a shade over two hundred bucks, you cannot go wrong.

Great Lens for the price!
I'm a newbie to the DSLR world, but I had used a few friends cameras prior to purchasing my own. This lens takes great pictures across the board. It is exactly what I was looking for. For the beginner who is on a limited budget, you can't beat it.

Quality lense
Another great quality lense from Nikon. Like the VR (vibration reduction) of this lense. Don't think I would buy one without this feature.

nice lens. good quality for the money

Using this lens for indoor kids' sports - volleyball and basketball - with a Nikon D5000. This is a cost-effective way to capture action shots at the indoor sports distance. It gives good quality without the more expensive (or less quality) alternatives. I'm happy with the decision to go with this lens.