Nikon D800 and Nikkor 28-300mm lens

My normal lenses when I'm not shlepping my gear with me everywhere I go are the holy trinity of Nikon zooms plus the 50mm and 85mm f/1.8G lenses. But when I'm traveling, I like to take my 28-300mm Nikkor lens to shave pounds off what I need to carry around with me. A recent post on using the Nikkor 24-120 lens, arguably a better lens than the 28-300, got me wondering whether I would be happy with the results from my D800 using this lens. So, I did some informal testing this afternoon. Perhaps I'm not demanding enough, but I was pretty pleased with the results, even pixel-peeping to 100%. The image below was shot handheld at 300mm and f/5.6 at 1/160th of a second and an ISO of 1600. An earlier shot at half the shutter speed and double the ISO didn't turn out appreciably different. Anyway, I don't buy into the idea that you can only use the most expensive lenses on the D800. Even at 100%, this image is tack sharp, and I did not do anything special with my technique. BTW, the bloom in the foreground and just to the right of the midline was where my focus was placed.