Chuck,
It's truly a "one size fits all" lens. It is a far better lens than you'll expect for an all purpose lens (even given its price). It has become my "walk around" lens of choice for when I want to go light and with one lens.
Distortion performance is good although the autofocus is a bit slow at the far end (it's a varible apeture so at 200mm it's only 5.6). However, not a big drawback. The VR works nicely.
While it is not quite as sharp as the top of the line non-DX lens such as the 70-200 (which, btw, does have VR in its newest form), if only want to have one lens on your camera, this was probably the right choice.
Your wife (and you when you grab it from her) should love it.
Bob
