Based on the above crops it seems that there is not much difference in terms of sharpness between our test lenses when shooting around the 35mm focal range. (Note: At the time we did not notice that we had set the AF-S DX VR 18-200mm to 32mm)

With the Nikon AF-S DX 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED we did notice the effects of some ghosting (flare) on the image as seen in the crop below. For comparison, the crop on the right is the result from the AF-S DX 18-70mm. We did not have a hood on either lens for this test.

There is an advantage to the different multi-layer coatings offered on the AF-S DX 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED, which helps keep ghosting and flare to a minimum. Nikon's multilayer coating process is tailored to the design of each particular lens. The number of coatings applied to each lens element is calculated to match the lens type and glass used. The results from the AF-S DX 18-135mm and AF-S DX VR 18-200mm were similar to the AF-S DX 18-70mm.

The Nikon AF-S DX 18-55mm ED II also appears a little softer and offers less contrast than the other lenses when looking at this cropped area of the image.

In general though, we find the AF-S DX 18-55mm ED II lens offers pretty good image quality considering its economical price in relation to the other lenses we tested.