Along with the Nikon 18-35mm, these are the first two lenses I purchased with D70s. I mainly did portrait with it until I switched to prime lens. Overall this lens is very good for its price, because optically this lens is almost perfect: excellent center sharpness (but going soft toward the corner), very flare-resistant (can't recall seeing any flare with this one), minimum distortion and light fall-off. The reason that I switched to primes is they are faster lenses, and because the color A09 produces is not as saturated as Nikon lens- which is obvious when I once shot the same scene with both 18-35mm and A09. The focusing takes only 1/6 turn, so you need to be careful when focusing at the 75mm end where depth of field is quite shallow. This lens weighs 510g and has 7 rounded diaphragm blades. The bokeh of this lens is not bad, but of course not on par with the 85mm F1.8. Focusing is extremely fast on D200 and okay on D70s.