In article <32C8E7C4.4B73@earthnet.com>, neil@earthnet.com says...
[..]
>I have just stepped into the Nikon SLR system after getting myself a
>used Nikon FA that works perfectly, although comestically it does not
>look well. I haven't got myself any lenses yet but I have my eyes on
>these 2 zooms:-
>1. AF 28-70mm f3.5-4.5D
>2. AF 70-210mm f4-5.6D
>Can anyone enlighten my on the reputation of these lenses regarding
>their optical sharpness/contrast/quality? Would it be better if I were
>to use several primes instead?

The answer to the last question is "yes", but the zooms you mention
may be good enough to satisfy your needs. Though they are not at the
top of Nikon's zoom heap, they are still good lenses...;-)
You may find my "SUBJECTIVE Lens Evaluations (mostly Nikkors)"
interesting - it can be found at these sites:
-- Jan-jaap Aue: (nice text format)
http://www.phys.rug.nl/mk/people/aue/nikon/david.html
-- Quang-Tuan Luong: (nice text format)
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/photography/35mm/nikon-neuman.html
-- Niklas Nikitin: (nice table format)
http://www.cs.hks.se/~nicke/private/photo/lenstest/david.html
-- Leo Verwoerd (plain text and table formats)
http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/leover/nikkor.htm
-- Bo-Ming Tong: (plain text format)
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/bmtong/nikon/c.html
(number 13 in table of contents)
Hope This Helps