Good, but not as sharp as prime

I bought this lens second hand at a photo fair and have tried it with a Nikon D70.
I then compared it with a couple of prime lenses: a 400mm f/5.6 AIS ED and a 300mm f/4 AF both by Nikon.
Both primes were definitely sharper especially on a subject of fine branches against a bright back lit sky.
This zoom had more chromatic aberration too.
I also spent an afternoon wandering around Paris taking pictures with it. The pictures are good, and the image stabilization surely helped.
It's a very compact lens, a bit heavy perhaps for the size, but so what, given the extreme range.
A fair number of other photographers have confirmed that it is quite good, but not bitingly sharp.

It is very well corrected against flare and does have very low distortion for a zoom.
You could use this as a very nice travel zoom, providing you realize that if you want to make commercial quality pictures you should probably look elsewhere.