It's been a while indeed. It's really hard for me to judge how I liked the lens. The lens I had turned out to have fungus on one of the internal elements, and it made alot of the photos look pretty bad. When shooting a directly-lit subject, I somehow got around the fungus, and the photos always turned out very good. I thought the AF was reasonably slow, but not as slow as I expected it to be. The lens really was a featherweight and almost felt like a toy to carry around. Compared to any lens I've ever owned, including the fantastic plastic 50/1.8. It was metal, sure. But it still felt really, REALLY small and toy-ish.
So, in all, I would have liked the lens, and maybe still owned it, if it weren't for the fungus. The extra length was greatly appreciated. The AF was reasonably fast when used in sunny conditions, as fast as to be expected, on my D300s. The build felt toy-like, but was solid. If I were to be in the market for a comparable lens again, I'd probably either get a faster prime, or at least the Macro version so it will focus closer than 15'.
Hope this helped a little.
Mark