With both my mood and weather improving (if only slightly on both counts) I decided it was time to review another interchangeable lens camera. Instead of doing one of my newer ICL cameras (which I plan to save for weeks I'm doing an out of area weekend trip with) I decided to pull one of my Classics off the shelf, a full professional APS-C camera from 2005 the Nikon D200.
If cameras could talk and tell stories of where they have been and what they have seen, the D200 would be the first camera I'd pull up a chair to sit and listen to. These cameras were wildly used by professional photographers in the mid to late 00's from Portrait Studios to Wildlife Safaris around the world.
Many photographers from National Geographic shot D200 cameras, so if you pick up a National Geographic Magazine from 2005-2007 and the photo was taken on a digital body there is a very good chance it was taken with a D200.
Both of the D200s I have owned have had issues, the one that I currently have replaced one that managed to have over 250,000 shutter actuations and was working albeit barely. The grips and covers were peeling off, the shutter button was mushy and it was very picky on what memory cards it would read.
The fact that my original D200 lasted so many shutter actuations and was still going when I replaced it was a true testament of how well it was built; during in an era where many other DSLRs would die before they hit 50,000 shutter clicks. The one I replaced it with and currently have has a lot less shutter actuations (around 23k) but the rear control dial is broke. Luckily the rear control dial on the grip works just fine, so the camera is useable if not a little awkward at times as I need both hands to change some settings such as ISO or exposure compensation.
The D200 is a Beast of a Camera and the epitome of not being discreet. You pull one of these out (especially with the battery grip as mine has) and everyone will know you are a photographer from a far.
When the shutter button is pressed you can actually feel the vibrations from the mirror as it violently flips itself out of the way for the sturdy mechanical shutter which echoes a hearty ka-chank. It may not be as high pitched or loud as a Canon Rebel but it certainly announces itself in a non-subtile way that makes you know that you got the shot.
The D200 is from a line of long forgotten Unicorn DSLRs with APS-C CCD sensors. The APS-C sized CCD sensor would disappear from the market less then seven years later (with the Sony a290/a390 being the last CCD based DSLRs released by any camera mfg in 2010).
It was released in 2005 and sported a 10 megapixel APS-C CCD sensor which was very high resolution at the time. Even the full frame flagship D2X only had 2.4 MP more then the D200, leaving this camera as a solid contender back in the days where crop sensor bodies could be just as professional as Full Frame kits.
The button layout is a lot like my other full pro legacy camera (the Canon 1D Mark IIn) with a lack of the standard PASM dial, and relies on holding down one button and turning a control wheel for pretty much everything.
As one would expect from a camera like this it's ready to take a photo as soon as you are. There is no startup or shutdown lag. It has a very impressive buffer which means you can fire consecutive shots, even in burst mode, for a good duration without needing to write to card. It gets 5fps burst which may be pretty slow and meh for 2023 but seventeen years ago anything above 3fps was almost unheard of.
There are defiantly times that this camera shows its age. While the buffer is large and can take a lot of shots before filling up, writing those to memory takes a much longer time. Even with a higher speed CF card (that the D200 would support atleast) it took a solid 10-20 seconds before I could turn the camera off while it was writing the buffer to card while in RAW. That said, I could still keep shooting which is something that differentiates a camera like this from an early Prosumer bridge camera such as the Sony f828.
The metering is not the greatest either, so it is advantageous that I shot in RAW. I had a lot of photos that turned up under or over exposed but a lot of it may just be fine tuning that I didn't have time to deep delve into during a single week. This camera is very advanced, even today that it's really hard to get a full feel for and comfortable shooting with the time I had to shoot it.
The D200 has no live view or video mode which may be a dealbreaker for some, but I'm a photographer not a videographer, and as such all my reviews on this blog are going to be how well a camera takes photos.
While I didn't care that it couldn't take video not having the ability to do live view, even at a much less responsive rate like my D7200, did make it so there were certain shots I simply could not take without shooting entirely blind.
In the end, the D200 is a classic, a legend and a beast of a camera almost 20 years later. If you really want someone to appreciate digital photography without taking everything for granted with a smartphone or modern point and click digicam this would be a really good camera to hand to them.
It's heavy and bulky but few cameras in my collection has near the personality the D200 has. Shooting it is like using the grandfather to my most loved camera of all time I've shot with the Nikon D7200, and that isn't a bad thing.
Get around its crankiness and this camera can do a fine job to this day, seventeen years later. That CCD sensor gives a solid look with amazing color rendition and requires very little editing in POST so long as you don't push the sensor past ISO 800.
If the Nikon D200 could talk, what stories could it tell?
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