[mst]

Ken Rockwell says that the 16-50 kit lens is sharper than the 16-80 DX lens, which is one of the best lenses for the Nikon DX SLR cameras.

Let me put it this way: you might be aware that Ken has a, uhm, mixed reputation among photographers and especially gear heads, so please allow me to comment: not neccessarily everything he writes or says is based on careful lab testing and/or profound knowledge and experience

I haven't been on his website for many years, but just for the fun of reading his findings on 'one of the best lenses for DX', I couldn't resist.

Two remarks, if you don't mind: he writes that the lens is 'ultrasharp' and 'optically flawless'. Well, his impression of 'ultrasharp' might be coming from the fact that he shot all his 'review' samples as basic (not fine) JPGs with sharpening set to +9... on a scale ranging from -3 to +9 In other words: his images are simply oversharpened. With that setting, likely any lens will seem to be 'ultrasharp'.

Regarding distortion, allow me to quote from his text: 'Obviously no distortion in the 16-50mm, for which we can't turn off Auto Distortion Control even if we wanted to in the Z50.'
Do I really need to comment on that?