AF-S Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED with HB-32 hood and 67mm Nikon NC protective filter.

This was the standard kit lens with the D70s. With a view equivalent to 28-105mm on a film body, and having previously come from the Nikkor AF 24-120mm ‘streetsweeper’, I found the 18-70mm a little narrow at the wide end. Build quality was certainly not on par with either the 24-120mm or my previous lens the Nikkor AF 28-85mm, but considering the huge price differential this was hardly surprising. What was surprising was the very decent optical quality and fast near silent focusing. Unbeatable value. Some complex distortion and vignetting at 18mm, but nothing that a quick dose of PT Lens ( http://epaperpress.com/ptlens/ ) can't fix.

Unless Nikon comes out with a slightly higher build quality 16-55ish lens, I’ll be sticking with the 18-70mm for the foreseeable future.

The very well built, faster, optically superior (though not by much), and almost five times as expensive (!) ‘Pro’ AF-S 17-55mm f/2.8G is out of my price, size and weight range.

Some samples here: http://www.pbase.com/tuckeruk/samples_1870