In article <5fudp9$v7e@thelonious.new.ox.ac.uk>, nick@thelonious.new.ox.ac.uk says...
>In article <33216EFD.44F8@bluewin.ch>, Gerald Deix wrote:

>>I am looking for a zoom-lens to replace my Nikkor AF 85 1.8 and AF-D 28
>>2.8 lenses. Any ideas which lens would give me the same sharpness and
>>brightness at f 5.6 or at f 8 as the mentioned prime lenses do?

>None of them. No zoom will be as good as a prime, even stopped down. Also, I
>don't know about Nikon, but in my experience, most professional level zoom
>lenses (ie Canon L series etc.) in the medium-wide to short-tele range are
>28-70, 28-80, 35-80 etc. I don't know of any that go as far as 85.

Ah, but the advantage of the Nikon lens system is that the cheaper
optics in the line can be fully "pro-level" optically (though this
may be less true now, with the cheapest AF zooms, than it used to be
in the all-MF days...). And several Nikkor zooms are close to primes
in performance, when stopped down slightly (though these are the
normal-to-tele or tele zooms, not the wide-to-short-tele zooms...),
and one lens is VERY close to primes, even wide-open (the 80-200mm
f2.8 AF Nikkor). BTW, if you are willing to stop down a bit more than
f8 (f11-16), the 24-120mm Nikkor is very sharp, and may be close enough
to prime performance level for your use. At f5.6, it is very good, but
edges and corners aren't quite at prime-lens performance level.
I would add the 24-120mm to the lenses you have, rather than replacing
the primes...
Hope This Helps