Good, but I was expecting better optical quality ...

I used this lens on a D70 Nikon body.

Vibration reduction is the best thing about this lens. It works very well, is quiet, and settles in quickly. I've also tried this lens' equivalent in the Canon universe - the Canon 28-135 IS lens, and the VR on this lens appears to kick in faster and more quietly than the Canon. I've occasionally been able to get a sharp photo at 120 mm zoom with a 1/2 second shutter speed!!! That's about 8 stops slower than I'd normally use (I know I got lucky there, but needless to say the VR is impressive.) I also like that the widest angle is 24mm, instead of the Canon's 28.

But I expected better optical performance at this price. At B&H, this lens costs $100 more than its Canon counterpart (the 28-135 IS) but appears softer wide open, and more prone to bleeding of bright objects. At 24mm with a wide open aperture, the Nikkor's pictures are disappointingly soft. This lens is also horridly unforgiving of overexposure. If you overexpose the sky, it will bleed yucky blue-green into the darker objects, creating a garish effect that I found almost impossible to tolerate or correct.

In the end, I did not keep this lens because I switched to the Canon system, due to Canon's wider range and higher quality selection of stabilized lenses. If I had stayed with Nikon, I'm not sure I would have kept this lens - the need to stop it down for sharpness partly negates the VR advantage. I would probably have searched for a lens with better optics, and tried to get VR in a longer zoom, where it is more critical.

There is one other thing to keep in mind: Minolta's new DSLR (the Maxxum 7D) has image stabilization built into the CCD. I've used this same feature in their A1, and it was very nice, though not as impressive as this Nikon lens. Still, if you're not already committed to Nikon equipment, this is worth considering, as it stabilizes every lens you use.