Mid-Range Tele Zoom For Nikon

[Just Before Dawn]

I'm looking for a 'stay-on' zoom for my new D5000, and am looking to pay up to £350 for one - I'm looking at the Nikkor 17-70, 18-105VR and the 18-125, as well as the Sigma 18-50 OS HSM - does anyone on here use any of these and do they have anything to say about them?

[THE MISSFITS]

Depends on what you are shooting. If you are doing landscapes then a bit more money would get you the Sigma 10-20mm.. But of of the ones you have listed, I would go for the 18-105mm (Make sure it has the ED glass) as the images will be shaper. The VR will help you keep your images nice and sharp in lower light..

There are a few places the do secondhand stuff like Grays of Westminster. If you can scrape a bit more cash together take a look the 18-200mm Vr lens which would be much better coverage. A new version is on the way and this will be better, though at the moment it is almost twice your budget...

[Just Before Dawn]

In the end (long story) I looked at the Sigma 17-70, the Nikon 18-70, the 18-105 and the Sigma 18-50. Discounted the latter first as it made a hideous noise auto-focussing (which I suspect was a problem with the lens I had, rather than a general fault), then got rid of the 17-70, which was a nice enough lens but looked very soft wide open and there was a bit of chromatic abberation in the images I was taking. In the end, got down to both Nikons - they were both fine for the money - the 105 has VR which is nice, but I found a very, very good example of the 18-70 for well under £100, I plumped for that in the end, as almost all my work with it will be on tripod, so VR is a nice luxury but not really necessary.

Missfits - I'm interested to see what the new version of the 18-200 performs like. The old version has some stonking reviews but alas, it's out of my price range just at the minute.