AF-S Nikkor 24-85 f/3.5-4.5G ED VR ????

A lot of good reviews for this lens. I was just wondering who has one and likes it?

I have my second copy of the lens, and it is ok I guess. I know that the imagine resources (slrgear) showed a blur chart where on a crop,(D7000), the lens had stellar sharpness throughout most of it's range.

Well, they must of had a good copy because neither of my copies have sharpness like the one that they tested. Shot my test chart with a D7200 and a D500, and the center sharpness on the 24-85 VR was good, but as you got away from the dead center, softness crept in; this was at f/5.6 too!

Compared it to my 24-105 ART lens, and the sigma blows it away. Even at f/4.0, the sigma was sharper corner to corner at all comparable focal lengths to the 24-85 VR at f/5.6. Even at 105mm at f/4.0, the sigma was much sharper corner to corner than the 24-85 VR was from 24 thru 85mm at f/5.6.

The price is tempting, but I would save up for the 24-105 ART lens.