First
impressions of the D200 were pretty good. The exposure system is very accurate
with a slight tendency to underexpose so that you rarely wash out the highlights.
It handles very well - feels more solid that the D70. More like my old F4's and
certainly lighter than my old F3 with motor drive!
The LCD is a lot larger
than the D70 but in strong sunlight ( not that I have had much of that recently)
it can be a bit too reflective. A very good feature is the ability to zoom into
a tiny section of the image ( 30x magnification ) to check focus.
The controls
are easy to find and it is much easier to change the ISO which now you can see
in the viewfinder. The controls are pretty intuitive and a great improvement over
the D70. For those that have a load of old Nikon lenses there is good news too.
Although you have to focus manually for the older lenses at least when you feed
in the focal length and aperture of the lens into the appropriate menu setting
you can now get accurate exposure in several modes.
The battery does not last
as long as the D70 one so its always best to have a fully charged spare with you.
At least you can see how the battery is getting on in the top control panel. The
number of images you can get out of the battery will vary. I have had several
thousand - albeit in a time lapse sequence of one shot every second at the lowest
JPG compression and image size and it has also lasted 20 hours continuously at
one shot every ten minutes with the LCD switched off. I'll be adding to these
notes as time goes on so keep tuned!
All images are hand held unless stipulated
otherwise. There are larger versions of some images if you click on them.
Sigma
18-200mm zoom 27mm (35mm equiv.) 1/320 f9 200 iso - above right is a 100% crop
of the above image and on the right is a 150% crop. Click on the 100% crop for
larger image
Sigma
18-200mm 300mm equiv. 1/320 f8
1250 iso
Manchester
City v Sunderland March 2006. Three sets of images to show 100% or near crops
from originals.
Other pics on the game at City
v Sunderland
100%
crop click for bigger image
Sigma
18-200mm 300mm equiv. 1/640 f6.3 1000 iso
75% crop on right
Sigma
18-200mm 230mm equiv. 1/500 f6 1250 iso
Sigma
18-200mm 82mm equiv. 1/320 f9 200 iso
Sigma
18-200 mm 52mm equiv. 1/320 f9 200 iso
100% crop on right
Original
Raw nef file Sigma 18-200mm
70mm equiv. focal length
1/320 f9 200 iso
Sigma
18-200mm 27mm equiv. 200 iso from RAW
Original
was raw nef file shot on Sigma 18-200 zoom
27mm equiv. focal length 1/320
f9 200 iso
Sigma
18-200mm 70mm equiv. 1/350 f10
200 iso
100% crop
Original
image shot with Sigma 18-200 300mm equiv. 1/500 f6.3 3200 iso
left hand pic
treated with Neat Image. Both had same curves and unsharp mask in Photoshop
Sigma
18-200mm zoom 27mm equiv. 1/350 f11 200 iso with three 100% crops
Sigma
12-24mm 18mm equiv.
1/40 f32 400 iso
Nikon
180mm f2.8 lens ( 270mm equiv.) 1/500 f5.6 400 iso
Sigma
18-200mm at 200mm 300mm equiv. 1/750 f6.3 400 iso
100
% crops from their respective images. Both hand held and given same sharpness
in PS
Nikon
180mm f2.8 1/250 f8
400 iso
Nikon
180mm f2.8 1/1650 f5.6
400 iso
Nikon
180mm f2.8 (270mm equiv.) 1/1000 f4 400 iso
Sigma
18-200mm 300mm equiv. 1/320 f6.3 400 iso
Sigma
12-24mm 25mm equiv.
1/45 f22 400 iso
Sigma
18-200 27mm equiv. 1/125 5.6 200 iso
Nikon
180mm f2.8 1/500 f4
400 iso
sigma
18-200 zoom 100mm equiv. 1/350 f11
200 iso
3
x 100% crops from original
Minolta
A1 28mm equiv.
1/640 f9 400 iso
D70
Sigma 18-200 27mm equiv.
1/400 f10 500 iso
D200
Sigm 18-200 27mm equiv.
1/500 f11 500 iso
Screen
grab in PS - 100 % crop in PS from D200 original (no sharpenng) and then similar
images of same subject from A1 ( about 160%) and D70 ( about 130%) enlarged to
give a similar blow-up
Minolta
A1 200mm equiv. 1/640 f7
400 iso
Nikon
D70 202mm equiv 1/500 f6
500 iso
Nikon
D200 202mm equiv 1/320 f8 500 iso
Grab
from Photoshop screen showing the relevant blow-ups from the three camera shots
of the same scene. All shots are direct from camera - no extra sharpening.
I
thought I would shoot the same scene with three different digital cameras to see
how they fared and how things have improved over the last year or so. Results
below. All hand held
