Which 70-300mm Lens for Nikon D90?

I'm researching into good quality zom lenses with a focal length of 70-300mm. I went to a camera store to look at the nikon vr version and a sigma version (both are stabilized) anyway, i liked both of them, but i want to know what sigma use to name there image stabilized versions of their lenses (e.g. VR for 'vibration reduction in Nikon lenses). How to i know if a sigma lens has got image stabilisation? Also, what are you thoughts about these lenses? I personally thought the Nikon lens felt fairly cheap whereas the sigma felt better quality and extremely responsive.

Cheers, Tom.

The Nikon AF-S 70-300 mm VR lens is an excellent lens for the money with good sharpness and relatively fast autofocus for a moderately-priced consumer zoom. I find the VR system to be very effective. I use this lens with my D200 mostly for casual bird shots. It's not really long enough for real bird closeups without a lot of effort to get close.

Here's Nikons international web site description of the 70-300mm VR lens:

http://imaging.nikon.com/.../index.htm

Sigma calls their stabilization system OS for Optical Stabilization. Here's the stabilized Sigma 70-300:

http://www.sigma-photo.co.jp/english/lens/tele/70_300_4_56_os.htm

The Sigma MTF graphs show substantially lower contrast than the Nikon (the top curves), with substantially less center sharpness (the bottom curves) grading off to just somewhat less sharpness closer to the edges of the frame.

You can find user comments on the lenses by searching on the Nikon lens forum at
http://www.dpreview.com/...review.com

Pop Photo has a review of the Nikon at:
http://www.popphoto.com/Reviews/Lenses/Lens-Test-Nikon-70-300mm-f-4.5-5.6G-VR-ED-AF-S

Here's a review of the Sigma:
http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Sigma-70300mm-f456-DG-OS-12755

I trust Nikon to deliver good equipment and to fix it if there's a problem, and haven't purchased any 3rd-party lenses for my system.

Nikon have a 70-300mm VR in the Gold Series (obvious from the gold writing on it) this is the best one to get because it has low dispersion optics to control chromatic abberations. And it's built considerably better than the Sigma APO version which also doesn't have stabilisation.