Product Reviews

Nikon's latest digital SLR offfering is the long-awaited successor to the D100, launched three and a half years ago. Targeted at serious amateurs and professional photographers, the D200 significantly improves on its predecessor in every respect, sporting higher resolution, better features, faster handling and superior build quality. Indeed, in many respects, the D200 comes very close to the top-of-the-range D2X, which costs almost three times as much.

First the sensor: the D200 has a 10.2 megapixel CCD that delivers images with 3872 x 2592 pixels and sufficient detail to be reproduced at around 13 x 9in at 300dpi. That's a considerable improvement over the 6 megapixels of its predecessor, and close to the 12.4 megapixel images of the D2X, which, at 4288 x 2848 pixels, offers only an extra inch or so at 300dpi.

Images are recorded onto CompactFlash cards and the D200 offers three different resolutions and three Jpeg compression levels, with the best-quality Jpegs measuring around 4.5MB each. The D200 can also record images in Nikon's Raw NEF format, with or without an accompanying Jpeg, at any quality setting. Although the camera comes with basic Raw processing software, to make the most of Raw files, you should use either Adobe Camera Raw or Nikon Capture 4.

The D200's F-mount can handle most Nikkor lenses, although it works best with the latest Type G or D CPU lenses. The DX-format sensor results in the effective reduction in all lenses' fields of view by 1.5x.

Although the D200 is around the same size as its predecessor, its magnesium-alloy shell feels much more solid and is noticeably more robust than immediate rivals from Canon - the 20D and 5D - despite them sharing similar materials. Indeed, the D200's build quality feels pretty much the same as the professional D2X, although the latter does have a higher degree of environmental sealing and overall toughness.

The ergonomics are also excellent, with a comfortable and secure grip and well thought-out controls. Unlike many cameras that double up the functions of controls or hide them away

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in menus, the D200 features dedicated buttons for key settings such as ISO, white balance and quality, and employs dials, levers or switches for drive, focusing and metering modes. It's quick to use and all very intuitive.

Nikon has also packed in support for a wide range of accessories. Beyond the flash hotshoe and PC Sync port, there's an optional cable for GPS navigators to record your position in the image header, as well as an optional wireless adaptor that works with 802.11b and 802.11g networks.

A newly designed Lithium-ion battery provides feedback on the percentage charge remaining, number of shots since the last charge and even details of the battery's long-term condition; and if you're missing the D2X's design, you can fit an optional portrait grip, which takes two battery packs. Unlike the D2X, though, there's no facility to record voice notes on the D200.

You can view virtually every conceivable piece of shooting information at a glance on either the D200's large LCD status screen or through the viewfinder. You can also optionally enable useful grid lines in the viewfinder to aid composition, as you can with the D70 series.

The main 2.5in colour screen is large and detailed, and Nikon has redesigned its user interface with smooth fonts to make the most of it. The menus are easy to navigate, although there are 45 custom functions to adjust if you want to delve in. During playback, you can also view RGB histograms that clearly reveal if any clipping is on all channels or just the one.

Shutter speeds range from 1/8000 to 30 seconds, while sensitivity can be set from 100 to 1600 ISO with an H1.0 option offering 3200 ISO equivalence. The camera supports Adobe RGB and sRGB colour spaces, and the continuous high-shooting mode can capture bursts of more than 25 Jpegs at an impressive five frames per second. There's even a built-in interval-timer shooting option.

The D200 operates in a quick and confident manner, like a high-end professional body. The metering and autofocus are excellent, delivering sharp, well-balanced results even in tough conditions. Image quality is also good, with resolution only fractionally below that of the D2X and Canon 5D, and noise levels remaining very usable up to 800 ISO; beyond this the 5D has the edge.

Indeed, the most impressive thing is how close the Nikon D200's perfomance is to that of the high-end D2X. Sure, the D2X has features that the most demanding professionals will desire, but considering the D200 costs almost one third of the price, it's a compelling proposition. And until we see how the competition responds, it's easily the best mid-range digital SLR around.