Product Description

To satisfy the requirements of passionate and demanding photographers - Nikon Introduces their highly anticipated Nikon D200 digital camera. The Nikon D200 is a high performance digital SLR camera combining brand-new technologies with advanced features inherited from Nikon's venerable D2X professional digital SLR camera. The Nikon D200 digital camera was engineered to incorporate more must-have features than any other camera in its class, enabling photographers to capture images in a way once reserved only for professionals.

• 10.2 megapixel DX Format CCD image sensor
  
• Industry-leading image processing for exceptional color performance
  
• Large viewfinder with 0.94x magnification:
  
• Durable, Magnesium alloy (Mg) body
  
• 5fps high-speed continuous shooting
  
• Fast SLR response where it counts
  
• 11-area Multi-CAM AF System with 7 Area Wide AF
  
• Large 2.5-inch LCD monitor with wide angle viewing to 170 degrees
  
• New EN-EL3e Rechargeable battery with Fuel gauge function
  
• Wireless Transmitter WT-3

The Nikon D200 promises an extremely satisfying shooting experience, with a winning combination of quality, performance, construction and advanced system features. Employing a newly developed 10.2 effective megapixel Nikon DX Format CCD image sensor, the D200 captures images with remarkable resolution and clarity. Its sophisticated 1005-pixel 3D Color Matrix Metering II system ensures ideal exposures while an advanced Nikon image processing engine renders images with superb clarity and smooth color gradations. The D200 reacts with lightning speed, powering-up in a mere 0.15 seconds, and firing in an imperceptible 50 millisecond shutter release lag time. It can shoot five frames per second with a drastically shortened viewfinder blackout time of just 105 milliseconds between shots. Its large, bright viewfinder offers 0.94x magnification for comfortable and precise composition while a new 2.5 inch LCD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7499 in Camera & Photo
• Brand: Nikon
• Model: 25235
• Dimensions: 2.00" h x 4.00" w x 6.00" l, 2.00 pounds
• Display size: 2.5

Features

• 10.2-megapixel SLR captures enough detail for photo-quality enlargements or creative cropping
• Body only; lens must be purchased separately
• 2.5-inch LCD display; power-up time of approximately 0.15 seconds
• Five frame-per-second continuous shooting with a time lag of approximately 50 milliseconds
• Stores images on CF cards or Microdrive; powered by EN-EL3a or EN-EL3 rechargeable lithium-ion battery (includes EN-EL3a battery and charger)

From the Manufacturer
The powerful, feature-packed D200 digital SLR camera delivers a high-precision, high-performance package and creates a new class of camera between entry-level and professional digital SLRs.

The Nikon D200 combines the solid look and feel and advanced camera operation of Nikon's D2 professional series with the approved user-friendliness and stunning image quality that are the hallmarks of all Nikon digital SLRs.

The D200 has been crafted to connect a range of newly developed Nikon technologies with advanced features inherited from the Nikon D2x, ensuring an ultimate shooting experience with exceptional and versatile imaging performance, high speed, and an instant response. The result is a blend of superb features, high-quality components, and fantastic results.

This combination makes the D200 perfect for passionate, dedicated amateur photographers, business users in fields such as the police, dentistry and museums, and professionals or semi-professionals looking for a second camera to complement their Nikon D2x or D2Hs.

A lightweight, durable, and robust magnesium-alloy chassis is the foundation for the D200.

Solid look and feel
The D200 boasts a lightweight, durable, and robust magnesium-alloy body and an advanced sealing system that protects the camera from moisture and dust, making it suitable for a range of rigorous and challenging assignments. The integrated double-bladed shutter, which incorporates a refined mirror balance system, has been tested to well in excess of 100,000 cycles.

Advanced operation
The D200's camera operation is inherited from the Nikon D2x, and boasts more than 40 well organized custom settings, so it is ideally suited to the user's needs and preferences. The large, bright viewfinder offers .94x magnification and 95% frame coverage both horizontally and vertically to guarantee exceptionally detailed viewing control.

The D200 sports an impressive 2.5-inch high-resolution LCD.

A 2.5-inch high-resolution LCD screen provides an ultra-wide 170-degree viewing angle from all directions. Images on the D200 can be magnified by up to 400% so users can check for fine detail.

The top LCD panel is the largest in the industry, containing a wealth of data such as shooting mode, battery condition, card information, gridline display, shutter speed, f-stop, and shots remaining. A new color-coded menu display facilitates easy viewing, supported by intuitive keywords to assist speedy navigation.

The newly-developed high-energy EN-EL3e rechargeable lithium-ion battery delivers enough power to the D200 to support the shooting of up to 1,800 images on a single charge, which takes no longer than 2.5 hours. Battery status can be checked through a real-time fuel-gauge system, found in the menu. An optional MB-D200 battery pack extends shooting capability, using AA-size batteries (six are needed) or two NE-EL3e's.

Ultimate shooting experience
The D200 is ideal for capturing unexpected or fleeting moments, thanks to the 0.15 second power-up, a speedy shutter lag time of just 50 milliseconds, and a shortened viewfinder blackout time of 105 milliseconds.

The D200 is also capable of ultra high-speed continuous shooting of five frames per second, capturing up to 37 pictures in JPEG or 22 in RAW format (when using a SanDisk SDCFH Ultra II or SDCFX Extreme III 1 GB CF card). A newly developed and highly flexible Multi-CAM1000 Autofocus features a pinpoint 11-area AF system inherited from Nikon D2 series as well as a 7-area wide AF to focus on larger moving objects easily.

Continuous shooting mode captures five frames per second for up to 37 pictures in JPEG or 22 in RAW format.

Another feature inherited from the D2x is the 3D-Colour Matrix Metering II, which delivers optimised exposure using new technology developed for the Nikon 1,005 pixel RGB exposure/Colour Matrix Metering sensor. This system evaluates seven parameters in every shot--including brightness, color, contrast, selected focus area, and camera-to-subject distance--and references this data against an on-board database of over 30,000 actual photographic scenes to instantly and accurately calculate the final value.

The Nikon DX Format CCD delivers excellent sharpness, color, and resolution.

Professional results
A fundamental feature of the D200 is a newly developed 10.2 effective megapixel Nikon DX Format CCD image sensor that captures high level sharpness and color at 3,872 x 2,592-pixel size, delivering the right resolution to support significant image enlargements and enable greater freedom for creative cropping. The highly sensitive new sensor covers an ISO range from 100 to 1600, rising to 3200 in Hi-1.

High speed image processing is inherited from the Nikon D2x, guaranteeing fine color gradations and smooth transitions. A new Optical Low Pass Filter helps prevent moire, color fringing, and shifting to get even greater colors.

For added control, saturation and highlights of a shot can be controlled easily using the D200's RBG histograms on the LCD monitor.

In addition, new image optimization modes enable D200 users to produce results that more closely match their intended results, with the ability to optimize sharpening, tone and contrast, color, saturation, and hue in choices including Softer, Normal, More vivid, Portrait, and Black and White in camera.

Unparalleled possibilities
Like all Nikon digital SLR cameras, the D200 is compatible with Nikon's Total Imaging System, which means it can be teamed with over 50 high-quality AF Nikkor lenses, including renowned DX Nikkors as well as non-CPU lenses. It also opens up the creative possibilities that can achieved with Nikon's Creative Lighting System thanks to a built-in i-TTL Speedlight which can serve as master in Advanced Wireless Lighting systems.

The D200 incorporates an x-Sync terminal to connect to studio lighting and features GPS support to record geographical data of the shot, as well as wireless functionality for image capture and transfer.

Nikon D200 Major features

• Newly developed 10.2 effective megapixel Nikon DX Format CCD image sensor with the power to capture exceptional sharpness and faithful color at 3,872 x 2,592-pixel size. Incorporates high-speed 4-channel data output that contributes to 5-frames-per-second continuous shooting performance and employs a newly developed Optical Low Pass Filter that helps prevent moire, color fringing, and shifting while improving resolving power.

• Incorporates the industry-leading advanced imaging processing engine of the D2x, which allows color-independent pre-conditioning prior to A/D conversion to work in concert with advanced digital image processing algorithms to achieve fine color gradations with exceptionally smooth, consistent transitions.

• Newly developed 11-area AF system packs the same number of focus areas available for the professional D2 series into a space-efficient system, with the photographer able to select individual focus areas from 11-area wide and 7-area wide AF for Single Area AF, Dynamic AF that delivers precise Continuous servo AF mode operation for moving subjects, Closest Subject Priority Dynamic AF, and also Group Dynamic AF. All these AF options are supported by refined lens-controlling algorithms that realize improved focus precision, better subject acquisition capability, keener subject tracking ability, and overall improved system response.

• 3D Colour Matrix Metering II (AE)--as used in the D2x--delivers optimized exposure through the use of new technology developed for the Nikon 1,005-pixel RGB exposure/Colour Matrix Metering Sensor. Evaluating brightness, color, contrast, selected focus area, and camera-to-subject distance, this system references all such data against an expanded onboard database that has been created using data from more than 30,000 actual photographic scenes to instantly and accurately calculate the final value with high-level dependability during both automatic and manual operation. Also offers variable size center-weighted metering which concentrates 75% of sensitivity within the center-weighted circle, as well as spot metering supporting each individual sensor of both the 7 wide-area AF and 11-area AF groups.

• New image optimization modes enable photographers to produce results more closely matching the intended results, with a range of choice comprising optimization of sharpening, tone (contrast), color, saturation, and hue, with choices from Normal, Softer, Vivid, More vivid, Portrait, Custom, and Black-and-white optimization.

• Multiple exposure enables up to 10 separate images to be used to create a single composite to produce imaginative and even surreal results. Image overlay function creates a composite image in-camera from two selected NEF (RAW) images. The original files remain unaltered, opacity can be precisely controlled and the resultant image can be saved in either RAW, JPEG, or TIFF format.

• Connection to a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit via an optionally available GPS Adapter Cord MC-35 enables the recording of data including latitude, longitude, elevation and UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) along with conventional shooting data for each image.

• A large 2.5-inch LCD monitor with a 170-degree viewing angle from every direction assists accurate assessment of sharpness by enabling image preview with up to 400% magnification. It also offers RGB information as a single display or separate histograms for each color channel to enable better exposure-related decision-making.

• A chassis crafted from magnesium alloy gives the D200 lightweight resilience, while an enhanced sealing system helps protect each and every exterior seam from potentially damaging dust and moisture.

Customer Reviews

Nikon has nailed it
No matter how you slice it, this is a great camera.

If you're considering this camera you likely to be in one of two camps: A Nikon person trying to determine whether or not to buy the N50, N70 or the D200; or you already know you want something more on the pro end of the pro-amateur spectrum and are trying to choose between a Nikon and a Canon. If you're in the latter camp then you can't go wrong with either the D200 or any of Canon's offerings. They both make excellent cameras. If you're already a Nikon person, get the Nikon; if you're already a Canon person, get the Canon.

That said, I'm a Nikon person, and after 5 years of having fun with my film-based N80 I wanted to make the leap into real digital photography. I say real, because I've had a Canon Sureshot for 4 years and it's great for snapshots, but when it comes to landscapes or dealing with any kind of lighting issues, it just doesn't measure up. Since I'm a Nikon person (all my lenses work with the new digital SLRs) I looked at the N50, N70 and D200. There are plenty of sites out there that compare these three cameras (against each other and the competition) to death, so I won't bother with all the details.

We buy cameras to take a variety of different pictures and my choice was driven by my needs, so my review is going to be colored by the kinds of pictures I tend to take. My favorite pastime is landscape photography. For this, any of the three cameras will take great pictures. The 6 mega pixels on the N50 and N70 are more than enough to take great pictures - I've got a 20x30 poster of Yosemite's Half Dome taken with a friend's N70 that is as crisp as anything I've seen. Having 10mps gives me more room to play with when it comes time for cropping, though, and that's always nice, but hardly a reason to shell out an extra grand.

My next favorite photography subject is my yellow lab, Happy. If he's standing or sitting still, then all three of these cameras take excellent portrait shots. But when he's moving, such as launching himself off the end of a pier to fetch a toy in the lake, the D200 really shines. Its 5fps burst mode takes perfect pictures. It focuses each shot and with its rich 25 picture buffer built into the camera, I've yet to fill it up. What this means is that it doesn't matter what speed your memory card is. The camera takes its pictures and puts them into its buffer. Then a separate set of processors moves the picture from the buffer to your memory card. I would have to hold the button down for over 8 seconds before the burst mode would slow down (it would simply slow down to the speed of your memory card here - it wouldn't stop taking pictures). This clarity of the pictures in burst mode is what made me choose the D200, and with the 18-70mm DX kit lens you'll get some brilliant photos.

While all three cameras let you take great picture, the D200 makes it very easy to change the most often used settings. Picture quality (e.g. resolution and depth), White Balance and ISO can be changed by holding down a single button with your left hand and rotating the command dials with your right. This means you don't have to take your eyes off of what you're looking at through the viewfinder in order to change these settings, and I find myself changing at least one of these on almost every picture I take. To be sure, you can change them on the N50 and N70 as well, but just not as quickly or easily.

Other things I liked about the D200 are:
o Build. It's made of metal and has a very nice heft to it. The D50 and D70, much like my N80, are made of a very good plastic, and I've never had any problems with the N80, but the D200 just feels good
o LCD. The 2.5 inch LCD makes it easy to determine whether or not you're happy with a picture in the field.
o Color. The auto white balance for the D200 is awesome and the colors are brilliant.
o 4 settings banks. You can preprogram four settings (ISO, WB, Picture Quality, etc) so you can get to it quickly.

One last point - the D200 is very difficult to get a hold of these days, but it's slightly easier to get in kit form (which comes with a lens). The 18-55mm lens is nice, but I prefer the 18-70mm (remember, with digitals you have to multiply the focal length by 1.5 to compare it with their film counterparts, so the 18-70 for digital is more like a 28-105 for film). The 18-70mm kit will run you about $300 more than the body itself, and it's worth it.

If you don't already have a big zoom lens then the new 18-200mm Nikon VR lens is awesome (equivalent to 28-300 for film). It takes stunning pictures and has all the zoom you're likely to need. It runs between $700 and $800 and is even harder to get than the D200 (which is why I don't have one yet :-).

In summary, you can't go wrong with any of these Nikons. The D200, however, is definitely the king of the hill. Happy picture takine!

Credible digital for the serious amateur
I just had the opportunity to use 2 nikon D200 cameras on a trip to Antarctica. All I can say is "wow"! I have been hesitant to make the move to digital due to the relatively low resolutions of the early amateur digital SLRs. The specs for the D200 caught my eye. Of particular interest were the 10.2 MP resolution, the magnesium body and the enhanced environmental sealing. In fairly adverse conditions the cameras performed flawlessly. Particularly notable were their ability to work in cold conditions, something I was concerned about at the beginning of the trip. While other people's cameras were having battery issues in the cold, the D200 kept shoothing. The camera handles very well and is easy to shoot with. There is a bit of a learning curve to understand all the custom settings and menus. The good news is that most of the controls build off of familiar Nikon concepts so they are not hard to pick up. The output of the camera is amazing and while I have not had the chance to review my shots on anything but a laptop, the early returns are very positive. The new autofocus system is quite good, though one of my few complaints is that it sometimes seemed balky with certain subjects. I am willing to write this off as perhaps my not have a full understanding of the various focusing modes, but time will tell. The monitor on the camera is really good and viewable in bright light. Being able to shoot at 5 fps was nice when trying to shoot diving humpback whales. In this case the DX size sensor comes in handy, extending effective focal length by 1.5 the 35mm equivalent. With wide angle the DX is a little more frustating and I see a new lens in my future. I am very happy with the D200. I think Nikon is feeling some heat from Canon and had to come up with an offering that upped the ante on the price performance curve. The D200 looks like they got a lot of it right.

Already one of the great ones. A great deal.
The Nikon D200 is a professional camera which is also aimed at the serious amateur digital photographer. It is essentially the upgrade unit from the D100/D70s, and it incorporates solid improvements over those excellent cameras.

The most obvious upgrade feature of the D200 is the 10.2 megapixel images that it creates. The advantage of more megapixels is twofold. Firstly, many digital photographers "crop" their images in post-processing. For example, if you take a photograph of a flying bird such that the bird occupies only a quarter of the image, you may want to crop the image such that you eliminate half of the image, leaving the bird dominant. More megapixels means more detail will survive the cropping, which is essentially a form of magnification. Secondly, if you wish to print images larger than about 8 x 10, more megapixels again equates to more detail.

In my opinion the most impressive improvement in the D200 over the D100/D70s is the autofocus system. The D200 gives the user numerous different autofocus modes over and above those offered by the D100/D70s. These are designed to make it easier and more effective for the user to photograph moving and erratic subjects, such as fast-flying birds, or athletes on the playing field for you sports photographers. This, combined with another big improvement of the D200--the fabulously bright and wide viewfinder--makes it much easier to photograph difficult fast-moving subjects. The D200 viewfinder is wonderfully bright, making acquisition of difficult subjects much easier. Combined with the improved autofocus, I am bringing home more "keeper" photographs of erratically flying birds in which these photos are in perfect focus.

The D200 also offers up to 5 frames-per-second continuous shooting, and has a big buffer so that the camera will not slow down to write to the CF card. This is really useful when shooting fast-moving subjects. When combined with the excellent autofocus system, the user can shoot fast shots with confidence that most or all of them will be in focus. This is another improvement over the 3 FPS of the D70s.

Another obvious improvement of the D200 is its body construction. The quality and durability of the D200, which is housed in an all-metal body which is weathersealed at all critical points, has to be experienced to be appreciated. The unit is built very solidly, but happily does not sacrifice weight for durability like some Nikons (remember the F5?) have done in the past. Despite being all-metal, the D200 is light enough that you will probably not mind carrying it all day on vacation (like I like to do) or during outdoor photo shoots. Although this camera body is of pro-quality, it nevertheless retains enough lightness and is sufficiently compact that amateurs will not feel overwhelmed by its size or weight when carrying it around on vacation or whatnot.

Other reviewers have noted that the D200 is much more similar to Nikon's other professional cameras, and I am inclined to agree with this. I am only an enthusiastic amateur, and I am convinced that the D200 is about as much camera as virtually any amateur can effectively appreciate.

The D200 menu system is very good, and it is an improvement over the already very good menus contained in the D100/D70s. The camera allows the user to set up four "banks" of settings that are completely independent of one another. Thus, you can have one bank with settings optimized for portraits, one for fast-moving subjects (e.g. birds), one for landscapes, and one for point-and-shoot "party" shots. (This is how I have mine set up, credit to "Nikonians"). While this sounds complicated, the way Nikon set up their menus actually made this quite easy to grasp, and after about thirty minutes of playing with the camera I was quite proficient with the menus. Good job Nikon.

By the way, the exposure system on the D200 is also an upgrade from the D100/D70s. Nikon really spared no effort to make the D200 a quantum leap over its already excellent line of amateur DSLRs. This is the first amateur digital camera that I have used that seems to get exposures as good as my old F5 film camera (one of the great Nikons during the film era) although the D100 and D70s came pretty close.

With the D200 Nikon continues its tradition of offering a nice on-board flash. This flash is fine for snapshots and fill-flash of close subjects. Serious shooters will want either the SB-600 or SB-800 external flash units. Again, here Nikon has given the camera pro features--the D200 built in flash can act as a "command" unit for other flashes. Serious amateurs and pros will appreciate this feature.

As if to prove that it re-engineered the D70s/D100 from the ground up, Nikon also improved the battery situation with the D200. The D200 battery has built in voltage testing, which means that the battery indicator on the D200 is actually accurate, a first in my experience with any DSLR camera. This means that when it says that the battery is half-discharged, that is actually the case. (On other, earlier units, when the battery indicator moved from "full" this usually meant full discharge was imminent.) This is important because the D200 does go through a battery significantly faster than did the D100/D70s. This is partly because of (yes, another upgrade) the larger LCD viewer on the back of the camera, and partly just to the more complex electronics in the unit. Serious users will want to buy one or more extra batteries to stash in one's pocket or vest.

The 18-70 DX kit lens is a very nice little lens. It features some ED glass for better contrast in the images. Since it is a DX lens, it is small and light, while sacrificing nothing in image quality. This is a great first lens or walkaround vacation lens for portraits, snapshots, and landscape shots.

One very minor quibble with the D200. The default sharpening settings are somewhat soft. Some users have been unhappy that when they take the D200 out of the box and start shooting, that their images are not tack-sharp, as to be expected from a high-end camera. Not to worry, simply set sharpening to +1 or higher in the camera and it will produce sharp images. Better yet, experiment in post-processing with sharpness settings. Bottom line is that the unit will and does produce tack-sharp images, but not with the default menu settings.

Overall, the D200 is a pro camera at amateur pricing. It is used by pros and serious amateurs, and with its feature set and impeccable quality and ergonomics, it is an impressive offering by Nikon. This is one of those cameras that is really fun to use, and it produces fine, sharp, and bright images limited only by the skill of the photographer. Highly recommended.