George Schaub has a Nice review of the Nikon D200 up over at Shutterbug, the kind of
review that makes me wonder why I don’t remember to read them more often. (Actually, that’s easy, no RSS feed. Which is a shame, really). What I like about George’s reviews is that he’s a photographer first, a writer second, and a technician only at need. He doesn’t test a camera against three kinds of ideal lighting, or shoot endless pictures of USAF charts. He takes a camera out, shoots with it, and tells you how it went. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a geek at heart and I get caught up in the minutae, too. I love it. But I also like the way Shutterbug brings a writerly approach to the overwhelmingly techie world of web reviews. But I digress. The long and short of of it, where the D200 is concerned, is this:
Pros
• Superb lens, with manual focus ring and mechanical zoom feature
• Ultrahigh 10-megapixel resolution, gorgeous colors, snappy contrast, superlative image quality at ISO 160-400 with or without flash
• Better than average digital noise control at ISO 800 and 1600 for a prosumer digicam
• Includes the most important features for serious photography
Cons
• Some exposure and White Balance problems in low light, but can be solved with overrides
• Long shutter speed NR system is too aggressive; avoid using this feature when possible
• In camera sharpening algorithm does not produce ideal results in large prints
• Can shoot only three JPEGs in a sequence; in raw capture, no Continuous advance and slow data recording due to (uncompressed) 20MB file size
Don’t let that list of cons scare you, though: the WB issues are minor, and you’ll probably be using a custom WB most of the time. Ditto on the NR and sharpening; he actually raves about the NR in most circumstances, and when it comes to sharpening, you’ll probably be using RAW for large prints anyway.