I'm a bit over 300 frames with my new Nikon D200, as of mid-last week when it arrived. Took two days to fully charge all 4 batteries (I have the grip for it, so it was Friday before I got the new rig out for a spin.

I'm coming from a D100 with grip as my primary rig, but also have been known to "borrow" my wife's D70 as a 2nd body or when I needed "commander" mode to drive twin SB800 flash units. Now I don't need to borrow the D70 any more, and the D100 will be the backup camera. Problem will be deciding which lens to put on the D100 when I want to run with a 70-200 on one body and a wider zoom on the other. Hmmm...I wonder if I could get enough for the D100/Grip combo on the used market to get a 2nd D200?

The speed of the D200 is amazing. It's always right there and I can shoot as fast as I want/need. And I haven't even needed or played with the 5fps mode yet. The 22 frame buffer (NEF....I only shoot raw), is a joy, with no slowdowns/lockups when the animal action gets hot, as I experienced with the D100 at times. Yahoo...one frustration gone.

Like many, I adore that the ISO setting has been elevated to a single button push, making it on par with the other two exposure settings, aperture and shutter speed. Sweet. That feature alone was worth waiting for.

Weight wise, it seems a bit heftier than the D100, but they're pretty close, since I've always had the twin battery grip on my D100 and now the new D200. I like the extra weight (for stability), the vertical shutter (very handy), and the extra battery life. Not to mention the camera fits my hands better with the grip. Makes the D70 feel a bit more like a toy in comparison (and don't get me wrong, the D70 is a fine photographic instrument!).

The metering is spectacular. I did a bunch of family photography with an SB800 mounted on top on Christmas Eve. White shirts that would have been invariably blown out on the first shot, and required exposure adjustment, came out spot on perfect with the D200/SB800 combo. Plus the skin tones using that flash unit were excellent. I'm very pleased so far with the metering capability.

Triple histogram is nice, and is actually usable with the larger LCD. Nice for tricky conditions when you might end up blowing out a single colour channel. The LCD is a breath of fresh air compared to older models (like the D70/D100) and other brands. You could watch DVD's on the thing. Lovely.

I've noticed a lot less hunting when using my 70-200 AFS VR lens, than with the D100, in borderline light conditions. The focus lock seems to be a lot quicker in good light, though I haven't played much with the focusing options that the camera provides. Definitely an improvement.

Sharpness seems to be more a matter of proper technique...the D200 is definitely capable of tack sharp images. Though I do seem to be using a bit more sharpening in post production (since I shoot nef only, I don't use the camera settings), but that could simply be due to the difference between 6mp and 10mp resolution.

Initial thoughts: this one's a winner! It was a long wait for a D100 successor, and the D200 is everything I had hoped it would be and more. It's definitely more of a D2X smaller brother than a successor to the D100, as many pundits have surmised. I was hankering after a D2X, but the price differential was just too great to warrant the top of the line, when the D200 was announced.

Anyway....the weather sucked on Friday last (rainy and cold), but I did a couple of hundred shots at the Bear Creek Exotic Wildlife Sanctuary (http://www.bearcreeksanctuary.com), where I'm the resident photographer. I've posted 8 shots from my first 300 frames for those that are interested, 6 from Bear Creek and a couple from Christmas.

You can find them here:

http://tarafrost.com/D200.html

All shots were NEF-only (Nikon raw format) and mainly 70-200 AFS VR lens, except for the last shot of my nephew, which was using my 24-85. Last two shots used a camera mounted SB800. I did sharpening and slight contrast/colour boosts in Capture 4.4.1, then converted to jpeg using the latest Nikon View. That's my typical bulk shot workflow, which gives me a good feeling for the "potential" of the images I've captured. Fine art quality shots (and prints) are typically tweaked extensively in PS/CS2 ACR and agonized over. Now I'm anxiously awaiting a new release of ACR that supports the D200!

Nikon...ya gone good!

Now....what about the D300 that I hear will be due out in 2008? And a price reduction on the 200-400 lens I lust after? ;-)

Thanks for the report.

Regards,
Bernard

I'll be curious to see you thoughts on battery life. I have no idea when I'll be getting mine.

Bryan

I'd be interested in your thoughts on size and weight. I read somewhere that the D200 with the new long zoom would be in many ways the ultimate "point 'n shoot," small enough to be relatively discreet while powerful enough to be fully professional...Is that right? Could you tell us how it compares in size to something like the D50 or the Digital Rebel? Thanks,

JC

Bryan:

After 349 frames, the Right battery is reading 4% and the Left is 91%. This is after a first charge, so I expect better battery performance after a few recharge cycles, since that seems to be what others are experiencing. That is, a few charge cycles are required to get the batteries to the max levels.

Even so, that means I'm getting 700+ shots on two batteries. I can live with that, since I always carry a couple of spare batteries with me. With any luck, after a few cycles I'll get over 1000 on two batteries.

Hope this helps!

JC:

Don't know about the D50 or Rebel, since I don't have ready access to either, but I can compare it to a D70 and D100, both of which I have.

The weight is about the same as the D100, but fit and finish seems a bit better. The right side rubber coating seems more "grippy" than the D100. Buttons on the D200 are larger and better positioned, with the viewfinder offest a bit more to the left. The right side thumb rest is more pronounced and sculptured as well. Of course, the LCDs on the D200 are huge compared to the D100 and the clarity of the rear colour LCD is spectacular.

There really is no comparison to the D70. The D200 is heftier and feels a lot more "solid", like a pro body, rather than "plasticy" like the D70. I would think this difference would be even more pronounced compared to a Rebel, since they always felt lighter/more plastic than a D70 to me. The D200 is also taller and wider than a D70. I've always found the D70 a bit on the small side for my hands, though that has never gotten in the way of using the D70 effectively. More a matter of personal preference.

Now keep in mind that I've always had the dual battery grip on my principle camera, and that is no different with the D200. With the grip on, it's comparable to the D2X or 1DS MkII in size. I like the grip since it adds more heft (better balance with bigger lenses), gives me double the battery life and the vertical shutter release is very handy.

Mind you, with a 70-200 lens mounted and the grip, the combined rig is hardly "discreet". I usually get asked if I'm a pro when I have that combo together. I suppose without the grip it would be a bit less obvious, especially with the new 18-200 zoom (which I don't have). It would definitely be a super all-round combo with the new lens.

I was hoping for a little better performance than that after Nikon's claim of how great the new battery was. It looks like I'll be carrying more batteries on extended trips than with the D70. So it goes.

Thank you for your observations,
Bryan

Bryan:

Keep in mind that this was my preliminary use of a new camera. Which means I was formatting new cards, chimping, using the menu to change settings extensively and the like, all of which drain the battery faster than during "normal" usage.

This, combined with the rumours that you need to recycle the batteries a few times to get max juice out of them may mean that the new batteries may perform as well or better than the last generation.

I don't think the battery technology is very different from the older ones, in that they are still LIon batteries. What Nikon seems to have done is instrumented the batteries with more intelligent electronics so that battery display is supposedly more accurate. The older batteries would read close to 100% till they crashed and burned. The new ones are supposed to be better in showing the drawdown of power.

I would reserve judgement for a month or two, till all the new D200 owners hit a "normal" workflow steady state and then see what the final word on the new juicers is.