This winner of a wide zoom is good on a 35mm film body and even better on a DSLR. I bought mine when I was still using an N90s and I've continued with it through F100, F5, D1/H/X and now D2X cameras.
The 18-35mm Nikkor is not as fast, nor is it quite as sharp as it's sibling 17-35mm AF-S. It is, however, still exceptionally sharp with good contrast and low distortion. Focusing is plenty fast even without a built-in silent wave motor and the 18-35 is lightwieght with good handling. Unless you really need the extra 1mm on the wide end, the faster f2.8 aperture, or AF-S focusing speed, at about one third the cost of the 17-35, the 18-35 f3.5-4.5D Nikkor is very hard to beat.
Recommended at http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/1835.htm, and I have found his reviews/opinions to be extremely accurate to date. And since it is 5-6 yrs old( as of late 2006) , comes at a much better price point than more recent models. Now if I had money to burn (around $5-7K), I'd get all recent models for my F5 just to say I had the most recent model ( like many photogs I am a bit of a show off, but I do try to restrain myself from being too blatant). As it is, I've followed his suggestions and gotten 5 lenses (one almost 20 yrs old) for around $1K total, and they all make GREAT pictures ( so long as the photographer doesn't mess things up!!!).