sethrichards.com

D2oo: First Light

Above is literally the first shot out of my new D200. I figure since 200 is about 3x 70, this new camera should make me a 300% better photographer, right?

Just kidding, of course. But the D200 is definitely a nice step up from the D70. It’s not my intent to do a real “review” of the camera, partially because it’s not really my gig but also because others have already done a much better job than I could hope to. For the every-button-and-dial-explained review you can go to DPReview here, as usual; for a more concise review on what it’s actually like to use the camera I’d look here or here. I will point out some things I’ve noticed, though.

• Of course the thing that jumps out on the spec sheet is the 10MPix sensor (as opposed to 6MPix on the D70). This isn’t as big of a win as you might think for me; at an 8×10 print size the difference would be unnoticeable. On the contrary, I’ve already noticed that the extra detail is showing up any deficiencies in my handling of the camera…
• This thing is solid. In a cage match between the D70 and this camera, the D70 would be reduced to a shattered pile of plastic and the D200 would come out ready to shoot. Which is nice, since I don’t tend to be very kind to my cameras sometimes. Of course the flip side of that is that it’s noticeably bulkier and heavier than the D70 was. Win some, lose some.
• The control layout is, I think, significantly more powerful than the D70, but it’s also more complex. I think it’s going to take some getting used to. I’m already beginning to see the advantages of having the AF-ON button separate from the shutter release.
• The screen on the back is great. On the D70 I couldn’t really tell by the rear screen whether a shot was in good focus or not, so I ended up tossing out a fair number of shots when I got back to my computer. You can definitely tell on this screen. It’s really nice.
• The viewfinder, which was one of my major reasons for upgrading, is kind of a mixed bag. From the reviews I was hoping it would be huge and bright like an old 35mm finder. It’s definitely larger, brighter, and sharper than the D70′s finder (which felt like peering through a keyhole sometimes), and it’s much easier to manually focus on this screen. But it’s still not nearly as large as even my dad’s old FG-20 finder. Chalk one up to overexpectations, I guess.

All in all, I really can’t see myself needing to upgrade again for a long time. Maybe if Nikon comes out with a (relatively) cheap full-frame DSLR, but I can’t see that happening for another 3-4 years at least. Which is perfectly fine by me. It’s kind of nice to step off the upgrade treadmill for a while.