Nikon D200 Digital Camera with 18-70mm and 55-200mm lenses

My experience as a professional photographer began in the mid 80's and 90's when I was a photojournalist for a couple of the wire services. During this time I had several motor driven Nikon F3 cameras and access to the company owned Kodak and Fuji Finepix Nikon based digital camera bodies for tight deadline projects. Back then the Kodak and Fuji digital camera bodies were cost prohibitive for all but the larger news agencies and wealthiest individuals to own and have in their equipment arsenal, each selling in excess of 20k and up per body. This era was most certainly the infancy of digital photography and digital cameras as we know it today.

I retired the film cameras and photojournalism to return to practicing architecture. Digital photography continued to make advances as continued to follow in the shadows. The gap in quality between digital and film began to close as time technology in software and hardware advanced. The price of a professional DSLR has not yet lowered to the point of a comparable professional film camera.

In an attempt to keep somewhat up on things, I finally bought into the digital age with the Nikon Coolpix 995 in 2000 and later Coolpix 4500 cameras in 2002. These cameras served me well in capturing fixed non-moving subjects like architecture with the accessory wide-angle lens attachment. However at only 4 megapixels, I was still shooting film for the critical shoots requiring larger prints. With these cameras, nothing was more frustrating than the power up and shutter lag time when trying to shoot anything that would be remotely considered "action". Try shooting a pod of spinner dolphins off the coast of Kona with the Coolpix 4500. It was frustrating seeing the shots I could have had if I just had a professional camera. I did somehow manage to get a few decent shots during this rare situation.

I needed to get myself into a camera that better suited my abilities and expectations for a digital camera to fill the void between a D2X and my Coolpix cameras.

In November I read a lot about the imminent release of the10.2 mega-pixel
Nikon D-200 DSLR. The D200 was projected at a price point that I felt comfortable investing in and having read further about the features and capabilities, I decided that this was the right time for me to get into a decent DSLR with the beauty of knowing that the D200 has many of the features found on the 12.1 mega-pixel D2X for less than half the cost.

For the complete and extensive list of the D200's features and specifications go to www.nikonusa.com

A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to find a D200 in stock at Camera World in Portland Oregon. It however was the packaged kit with the 18-70 zoom lens. Knowing of the short supply, I immediately ordered it along with the Nikkor 14mm 2.8 lens. I also ordered a spare EN-EL3e battery and the MB-D200 grip.

When the boxes arrived, I unpacked everything and went directly to the road map like Quick Start Guide, plugged in the charger and began to charge the EN-EL3e battery pack while reading up on the features and functions on the camera. I couldn't wait until the orange LED on the charger ceased to blink (full charge).

What an impressive piece of equipment! Ergonomically, the D200 fit comfortably in the hand. The sculpted rubber grip allows your fingers to wrap around the body, yet allows one to comfortably access the various button and dials. The weight of the camera and solid feel of the magnesium alloy has the feel similar to the flagship professional D2X and D2H cameras. The LCD display on the back of body measures 2-1/2" and when activated (Menu Button depressed), the text is bold and large enough to be read in most any lighting condition. The operations of the various menus seem to be pretty intuitive, set the world time/date and any other text label you want included with the information section.

Looking through the viewfinder one is presented with a .94X magnified view that is about 95% of what is actually captured through the lens. For eyeglass wearers, including myself, the penta-prism has a built-in adjustable diopter allowing for adjustments for perfect focus.

The D-200 features a new Multi-CAM 1000 AF sensor module that has both a normal, 11-area auto-focus and a wide, 7-area auto-focus system. I haven't yet had a chance to test the camera's follow focus capabilities but it is reportedly much improved as is the camera's power-up at a reported 0.15 seconds and a shutter release time lag of 50 milliseconds with a viewfinder blackout time of 105 milliseconds.


Inside, the camera features a DX Format CCD image sensor that captures images at 3,872 x 2,592 pixels. Image can be shot in three sizes
Large at 3,872 x 2,592 pixels, medium at 2,896 x 1,944 pixels and small at 1,936 x 1,296 pixels. The menu system allows you to select and create 4 different shooting profiles so various image settings can be set according to the end-product use desired. The options allow for RAW only, RAW with large, medium or small J-peg or only a single large, medium or small J-peg file saved per image.

The AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED lens that comes with the body works fine, though not my first choice. It is light in weight which has a certain appeal for some. Having shot with a long history of Nikkor lenses, I haven't quite warmed up to the feel of the polycarbonate barrel construction and the loose fit of the polycarbonate lens shade which has the tendency to twist itself off and bounce around on the ground.

I was at first reluctant to load the included Picture Perfect software (definitely ambivalence on my part toward learning yet another new program), as it would require that the previous Nikon View program for the earlier cameras be completely unload. After a call to tech support, I was assured that the Picture Project program is as is it should, be backward compatible with a long lists of past products. With this all done, the entire process of relearning began by learning where and how to re-direct the picture downloads to its appropriate location and folder for later retrieval as well as new operational idiosyncracies .

Installing the MB-D200 grip requires removal of the battery door on bottom of the body and storing it in a slot in the grip's internal spine and tightening a wheel that drives a screw up into the tripod lug in the body. The construction of the grip I thought would have been more like the body itself made out of magnesium but instead it is made of the similar textured polycarbonate and covered around the grip areas with the same textured rubber like material found on the body. I feel the battery door and locking mechanism in the grip is kind of weak and almost an after thought. The AA battery holder is shipped inside and is removed when either a single or pair of EN-EL3e batteries is used. Currently, I am using a pair of the packs where battery level information is transferred back to the camera's information menu which is pretty informative. It'll tell you the percentage of the charge remaining in each of the packs as well as the overall health of each battery I guess by how many charge cycles each has undergone. The camera will use one battery at a time until depletion (0%) and switch to the other.

The addition of the grip does add a bit more weight overall, but more importantly allows the camera to be held in the portrait axis with better balance. The main and sub control wheels as well as a rotating lock lever round out the controls on the MB-D200 grip and make the body and grip package comparable in size to the D2X.

I've used the D200 so far mainly for interior architectural shots with the 14mm 2.8 lens where the adjustable and custom white balance setting feature has been invaluable in producing images that have been sharp and of the proper lighting temperature. Soon, I will be throwing on my manual focus Nikkor 300mm 2.8 lens to shoot my nephew's basketball game in the coming week.

The D200 so far has been a great DSLR camera for me and I would recommend it highly if you are considering a higher resolution camera and don't need a camera of the D2X caliber. So, at this juncture, if you can get a hold of one, buy it. So far Nikon has not been able to keep up with the demand for this camera and shops have been placing people on lengthy waiting lists.