This lens will do it all and do it well. Yes, it´s heavy but then it is built extremely well. Examining shots wide open at all focal lengths is impressive, given the focal range. It is much sharper all around than the 18-200 with little distortion or vignetting. If you can only pack one lens, this is the one to pack.

It fell apart during a job and is currently in the repair department.

The 28-300 is probably the best walkaround lens for Nikon cameras. Its a beast, not as long in length as you would think, but very heavy. The 28-300 covers just about every shooting situation and is sharp at both ends. There is no lens creep as it is rather stiff to turn, but even if there was, there is a lens lock on it. It also offers both normal and ´´active´´ (high action) vibration reduction settings. Its a bit tricky to use at the long end on any camera mode but Auto, but if you know what you are doing, it produces great images.

The 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 (´´28-300´´, for short) is an all-around excellent lens for probably every possible occasion, despite its relatively heavy weight. This is the reason why you pay for Nikon glass over other brands, and why it´s worth it.
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First of all, this lens is fairly heavy, and if you walk around with this lens attached to the camera, moreso with the camera´s relatively thin neck-strap, you´ll feel its weight around your neck, and probably instinctively (as I´ve done and still do) cradle the lens with one hand to bear some/most of its weight to take some of it off of your neck. The advantage is that this one lens can replace several lenses, and obviate the need to carry any additional lenses, or worse, a second camera-body plus lens, if you do that to not need to hot-swap lenses on-the-fly. In fact, the only likely need for any additional lens would be for ultra-wide shots or specialty uses (extremely fast lens for low-light action shots, etc.). The only other lens I carry in my bag is the feather-light but optically superb 18-55mm kit-lens that came with my D3000, when I want wide landscape shots.
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This is a full-frame (FX) lens, so it can be used on any DX/FX body, including film(!), not just DX bodies such as my D3000 or D7000. That 1.5x crop factor makes it effectively a 42-450mm lens on DX bodies. That being said, I can´t gauge corner-to-corner sharpness, color-fringes, or vignetting, so I´ll leave that to those who have an FX/full-frame camera body to test. But on even DX cameras, optical quality is amazingly crisp and clear.
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I have a sample shot of a dragonfly, shown first as-is, simply resized to 800x536 for easy comparison, and second as a 100% crop (also to 800x536) of some extraordinary detail. Both photos are, other than the aforementioned resizing and cropping, respectively, right out of the tin, *ZERO* post-processing. No adjustments, sharpening, *ANYTHING*. Note the detail around the bug´s face, the probably 1-pixel-wide ´´hairs´´. The (handheld) shot was taken approximately 3´ away at full-zoom of 300mm, f/8, ISO-400, 1/400sec, -0.3EV compensation, on my lowly D3000. Graininess at ISO-400 on my D3000 is readily apparent in the 100% crop, but that´s due to the 3k´s sensor, *not* the lens. With the amazing clarity of this lens, you can take shots and crop-zoom the shot to unheard-of extremes to make, say, a shot of a full moon look as if it were taken at 1000mm or more.
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For most peoples´ uses, taking photos of friends, kids, dogs, parties, plus the occasional landscapes, close-ups of flowers, etc., the kit-lens which comes with the camera, such as the 18-55mm which comes with the D3000, or 18-105mm which comes with the D7000, will cover the majority of those shots admirably. But I chase birds around, and while I still love the 55-200mm telephoto which I also got with my 3k as an add-on, I just wanted a little more ´´reach´´. I considered various lenses, but I was sold on the review of the 28-300 by a rather well-known person, and decided to get one.
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Again, aside from those infrequent wide-angle landscape shots I´d want (where the feather-light 18-55 fits in wonderfully), the over 10:1 zoom range of the 28-300, to me unheard of, would and should cover probably all my shooting needs. And I absolutely was not disappointed. In fact, it serves so many shooting types, from fairly wide-angle landscapes, to extreme zooms of distant objects and critters, to all types of pseudo-macro shots of buds and bugs. It became my default carry-with lens at all times, despite the weight. The 18-105 kit-lens of the 7k is so much lighter, even with its nearly 6:1 zoom ratio, but for the sheer utility of the 28-300, I gladly lug around all that extra weight.
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VR2 is, in a word, fantastic. I recently took some rather long-distance skyline shots between 100mm and 120mm, and even at 1/4sec handheld shots (!!), was able to get some astoundingly steady shots that looked almost as if taken on a tripod when viewed fullsize, ie, at the pixel-level. Granted, it took a dozen or so shots and cherrypicking the steadiest shots of the lot, but just that it was possible at all was and is amazing. I haven´t taken statistical samples of how many stops improvement I gain, but 2-3 full stops is easily achievable.
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Action is universally smooth, from zooming from one extreme to the other, to the focussing ring when focussing manually. The 28mm lock does come in rather handy when the lens dangles downward hanging around your neck. With jiggling, it can ´´zoom in´´ (ie, extend towards 300mm) on its own from its own weight and become a pendulum, so the lock keeps the lens in-place when fully retracted. It may not be a necessity, but it is a nicety. I´ve gotten to use it similar to a car´s parking-brake, engaging it out of habit, and it becomes second-nature in short order.
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Distortion such as barrelling and pincushioning are there, but largely negligible and unnoticeable, at least on a DX camera, even at either extreme of the zoom range. Unless you routinely take photos of picket fences or brick walls, you´re unlikely to notice any of either kind of distortion, even if looking for it.
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Autofocus speed depends largely on the camera, I imagine. It´s acceptable on my 3k, and would sometimes hunt in the wrong direction if the 3k got confused, but is spot-on and scary-fast on my 7k.
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All in all, the 28-300 is a fairly heavy lens but well worth the extra weight if you want or need ´´reach´´ out to 300mm, and don´t want to carry a second lens for wider shots, or v/v if you have your kit-lens but don´t want to carry a second lens such as a 70-300 for longer-distance shots. The 18-200 might suit your needs as a do-all single lens solution if you don´t need that 300mm reach, but if you do, the 28-300 is perfect as a single daily-carry lens. And if you still need something for those wider shots, the feather-light and optically-superb 18-55 is perfect, else consider a 10-24 or some low-mm prime lens to throw in your pocket. Whatever you´d decide, if you get the 28-300, you´ll very soon wonder how you ever got along without it.
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The ability to go from a 28mm wide-angle ´´Wow, what a gorgeous sunset!´´ shot to a 300mm extreme-zoom ´´Look at that bird!!´´ shot with just a split-second flick of the wrist, instead of having to grubble through your bag and then swap lenses -- and more than likely miss the shot completely -- is priceless.
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And again, see my sample shots, taken on a ´´lowly´´ D3000, high-ISO grain and all from the 3k´s sensor notwithstanding, for an example of the kind of crisp shots you can get, even when viewed at the pixel level. Individual hairs on the bug´s face are easy to distinguish, barely a pixel-wide each. The more I try to push this lens to its limits, the more impressed with it I become.
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Sadly, camera bodies become obsolete or at least obsolescent in just a few years as features improve, but lenses are an investment that will last the better part of a lifetime, and a lens which does as much as this one does and covers such a wide zoom-range (almost 11:1) and has so many uses, and has such incredible optical quality, is well worth that investment to make this a do-all carry-with lens, probably the only lens you´d even need to carry, as long as its extra weight doesn´t become an issue.

I purchased this lens to use with my D7000 along with my 10-24mm lens. I thought this combination of lenses and camera would cover most focal length I would need and boy, I was right. This lens is delivers crisp, sharp images at all focal length and work very will when combined with the 10-24mm. Only downside would be the weight of the lens, but it not all that bad.

I bought this lens to use with my new D7000, along with my 10-24 Nikkor. I thought these 2 lenses would provide all the coverage I need, and for the most part I was right. The 28-300 is very capable of providing sharp images across most of the zoom range, it may fall off a bit as you approach 300. I only have 2 concerns: It is a large, heavy lens, you always know that its around from the weight, however my biggest concern is that it appears to be hard on the filter covering the sensor, as I have had to clean the sensor of both my D7000s after a photo session using this lens. There is a massive air volumn in the lens, so this just may be part of using such a lens.

I am using the full frame D700. When I was using the DX DSLR(D100;D200;D300) my favorite lens was the 18-200 VR lens. I kept asking NIKON to come up with a lens that I could use for my new full frame camera D700 and they have!!!
This lens is very sharp and remains on my camera whenever I walk around New York City streets. I find this lens is extremely sharp at most apertures. When I set it at f8 and Aperture preferred mode with the ISO at 1600 I am prepared for every occasion. Thanks NIKON.

This would be my first VR Lens that i purchased with my D7000 camera. The lens is perfect for my kids sport activities and church events.

Pros:
No need to keep changing with your other lens.

Cons:
A little bit heavy to carry around.

I love Nikon.

Have it for couple of weeks now and took it out for the first time to Callaway Garden for test drive. Overall sharpness is pretty good but for closeup shots I got various results from shooting bees on flowers, etc.. I have not switched between active and normal mode and compare the difference, maybe that will improve the macro quality.

I usually shoot with 24-85mm AF-S (or Tamron 24-135mm) to get wide angle shots, 70-300mm VR for wildlife and 105mm VR for macro. I don´t think 28-300mm picture qualities wise are better than any of those three in their respective range, but for convenience sake it´s definitely better than carrying 3 lenses if you want to travel light.