I bought my first Nikon 35-200mm f3.5-4.5 AIS manual lens about six years ago, and I have used it and its successors (currently own three) more than any of my other Nikkors since then. It's versatile for travel (though not small or light), pretty sharp for a lens of this vintage and has a reasonably useful macro feature.
Start with build: It's built like a tank for the most part. I used and abused my first copy of this lens and lots of hiking trips with no problems other than cosmetic (I now have one lens to take on abusive trips, two others for more sedate assignment). In the naturograf review of this lens, Bjorn Rorslett refers to some people reporting problems with the screws holding the rear sleeve on, but I have not seen that issue in any of the four copies I've had. However, extended to 200mm, this is a very long assembly, and flexing is possible (with concordant problems in focus). My only complaint about the build is that there is no rear seal because of the travel of the rear elements -I dropped my favorite copy of this lens in a lake in the Sierra last summer and in the fraction of a second that it took me to snatch it out, it filled with water (yes, I realize I'm a dunce).
Image sharpness: Will this beat a Nikkor 85mm f1.4? No way. But it's a lot sharper at 35mm and at 200mm than that big, expensive Nikkor! I've had no issues in producing 12x18 prints for my wall with this lens and all focal lengths. One thing to know about this lens: Infinity focus at 35mm is well before the infinity mark on the lens, which makes it tough to use for such things as star photography.
Macro use: This lens will reproduce to 1:4 in macro mode. However, this lens is a long way from being a macro lens. Think of it as a fallback. In macro mode, focus becomes mostly a push-pull affair, with twist useful for finetuning. Still, it's a lot better than Nikon's other 'macro' zoom lenses of this vintage.
Size: This is a middling size lens -62mm filter size, fairly heavy and long, but it's not the size of an 80-200mm f2.8, either. It's comfortable in the holster on my belt for 20-mile days of backpacking, though that might not be true for everyone. I prefer not to carry this in a holster for skiing -too heavy, so I pick a prime or a 28-200mm G for that.
So if you want a manual focus Nikkor with a wide zoom range that can still be got fairly cheaply, this may be your lens.
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