Good low-cost lens for beginners

I bought this lens used as I needed a long zoom lens for portrait (I'm sparing money to buy the sigma 70-200 EX HSM...)

It's not very crisp (I find it even soft above 200mm), colors and contrast are not the best but remember it's a 100$ zoom... It's still better than the lens that any compact consumer camera can offer...

I tried the 3x more expensive ED lens, but it is not far better. The ED lens improves colors and contrast, but build quality is cheap too and you get the same softness above 200mm, so if you want a low-cost long zoom lens, consider this 70-300 G, or the Sigma 70-300 APO II, but forget the Nikon ED version.