[stoppingdown]

The Nikkor AF-S 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5, in spite of being a kit lens, has got some good quality in being very sharp (you might want to look at a very favourable review by Thom Hogan; Thom also evaluates the 18-105mm, if I'm not wrong, so you can compare them). It also sports a "quasi" fixed aperture around f/4. The AF-S 16-85mm, on the other hand, has got the advantage of featuring stabilisation and on paper it should be sharper; but I think not at the level of the AF-S 35mm f/1.8 (I own the 18-70 and the 35, not the 16-85).

 

I've been using the 18-70 for one year now, mounted mostly on my D5100; I've favoured it over the 16-85mm because it's cheaper and it fits better the role of travel lens in the sense that I'd scream less loud should they steal it ;-) Also, my experience with a lens in the role of travel lens is that I'm often in a hurry and in this circumstance I am the sharpness limitation, not the lens (at least at the 18-70mm quality). OTOH, if I have time to mount a tripod, I'd probably use a prime.

 

Now I'm probably abandoning it as I'm evaluating to switch the landscape/travel stuff to Sony, thus changing the overall evaluation, but this is another story.