Ehehehehe newer toy! Nikon D200

I think everyone is selling their cameras just because the D300, D3 and D700 are out/on the way here. Do I lust for one of them? Hell yes. Can I afford them? Hell no. I'd rather spend the cash (which is non-existent) on them on a tour. Do I need one? Hell no. Especially not the D3 - since I'm a wimp at carrying heavy stuff.

But the net result is - lots of people are selling their D200s away (my old dream camera - no longer a dream camera sadly. Because I got one :P ) - which, right now is a superb buyer's market for DX lenses and older bodies!

So here's my latest toy, taken with my D40x:


Woo! D200! Observe the exposure. Next:



My D40x + 10-20mm taken by the D200. Both cameras are set to EV0, Aperture Priority. The D200 meters the scene darker. Which, in my opinion feels better - if darker overall - the black blacks stay black. and the lcd is less blown out. Scientific yah? Well one of the key reasons I wanted the D200 was the supposedly better meter. This test is obviously not conclusive of anything - hopefully this weekend will be clear skies, so I can go out and shoot shoot shoot :)

Now the D40x was about a year in the market. But the D200 was out in 2005. The thing that made me hesitant about getting a D200 was high ISO noise. Let's see the 3200iso (HI-1 Boost) from the D40x:



And now the D200's boosted 3200 mode:



Very similar, but the D40x has the edge. I think. But that edge is minuscule. Next, using Bibble 4.10 and Noise Ninja set to 10:




Finally, the D200 with Noise Ninja also at 10:



The noise reduction with Noise Ninja probably went overboard - I just switched on NN, and exported the image, thinking back I shoulda tweaked abit.

In any case, in my newbie eyes, the D200, oldie but goodie, is still able to keep up with the D40x which supposedly has better noise reduction algorithms. The net result of this is that, I am not in the least bit afraid to push to ISO 3200, so long as I can get the shot. The 4 crops above are 100% crops straight out of Bibble, so you can see it's not too bad.

I've only got the camera for a few hours, only browsed through the first few pages of the manual. Man, this camera is so danged complex. Much more dials and levers and what not. Which allows one to change settings very much faster than my 40x - with it's push a button, twirl the command dial style. That said, the D40x is no way bad. It is what it is, a superb entry level DSLR.

AF speed using the 18-55VR kit lens is amazingly faster and more accurate. Note that I haven't yet fussed with the AF settings, so I'm not sure entirely what's up. Now the 5FPS shooting speed is SCARY. I was passed the camera with it set to C-HI mode, and it gave me quite a shock when pushing down the shutter snapped off a few shots. The shutter button is also an entirely different affair. It is softer to engage, and I'm sure this allows one to engage the shutter with less camera shake.

While I'm gushing all over this baby (did I mention it was my dream camera?) - no real photography has been done with it. So I may be cursing and swearing once I come back this weekend. Which reminds me, my new LCD arrived. Woot! Can't wait to process stuff in Bibble Pro.

PS: Anyone who hasn't tried Bibble has to try it. It doesn't have the halo artifacts you get with Lightroom or Capture NX when you push the fill light too far. I recently evaluated a whole chunk of raw processors (LR, NX, LightZone, Bibble, DxO) and decided to go with Bibble. Best quality I could push from all the processors, and the price is well. Awesome :)