This is an amazing lens.  It boasts's Nikon's unique "defocus control" technology, which allows you to alter the degree of foreground or background blur (bokeh) whilst leaving the main subject of the photo extremely sharp. ("Defocus" is NOT "soft focus", though you can do that too with this lens.)  The defocus effect is subtle, and can't be seen through the viewfinder, and it takes a bit of practice and experimentation to master. But when you've done that, you've got a lens which is capable of delivering extremely attractive portraits - it's arguably Nikon's, and the world's, best portrait lens.

And even if you're not sure whether you really want all that fancy defocus stuff - this is still an excellent, fast, telephoto lens. It's very sharp, the autofocus is pretty fast despite being the old-style screw-driven design, and the build quality is everything you'd expect from a Nikon professional lens.

COMPATIBILITY NOTE: This is not an AF-S lens. It will not autofocus on the D40/D40x/D60 and D3000/D5000 cameras.