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I had the opportunity to buy a second hand but nearly new Nikon D200 digital SLR at a great price.

As I had recently purchased a new lens for my D40X the kit lens was surplus to requirements so I decided to sell my 4 month old Nikon D40X kit along with the spare battery, case and remote and 52mm filter. I put it on Ebay and it sold within the week leaving me just over £100 to find to get the D200 body (I managed to haggle £100 off the asking price for a quick sale!).

The camera itself showed just 100 shutter firings, was in perfect working order and the only mark on the exterior was on top of the flash which had received a slight knock/scrape. Very minor though.

The owner (a friend of mine) decided to keep the charger and strap as he had another D200 (this was a recently acquired second body but as Nikon has just announced the D300 he decided to upgrade) and he had misplaced the box and manual. No problem, a visit to my favourite Nikon dealer and £40 later I had everything bar the box.

The camera is excellent, as you would expect for £900 for the body only (ie no lens!).

It’s a lot heavier than my D40X due to the rugged, rubberised magnesium alloy chassis (as opposed to plastic), it’s also slightly bigger.
It feels really nice in the hand, the D40X seemed a little small to me and tended to be very front heavy with a decent lens attached. The D200 feels a lot better balanced and I find that the extra weight helps dampen the slight kick you get when a camera shutter fires.

So apart from build quality what have I gained?
(D40X in brackets)

• 11 autofocus points (3)
• Nikons highly acclaimed 1,005 point matrix meter (420 points)
• 5fps continuous shooting (3fps)
• Support for all Nikons old lenses (AFS lenses only)
• Depth of field preview (not available)
• Exposure bracketing (not available)
• Support for pro accessories such as GPS, portrait grip, wi-fi etc etc (remote control and flash units only)
• Direct access switches for continuous shooting modes, white balance, quality, metering mode etc (access through menu system only)
• Larger, brighter viewfinder
• Gasketed construction for improved weather sealing

So in short its a significant upgrade from basically Nikons entry level consumer SLR to Nikons entry level professional SLR range, quite the step up…
I’ve used it on 2 occasions so far, once at a wedding reception and prior to that the stag weekend for said wedding.
The 5fps shooting was very useful for the clay pigeon shooting during the stag weekend and the metering system is top notch, it only gets fooled by very small, strongly backlit subjects and even then that’s too be expected as digital cameras don’t see like our eyes do so you either get the subject correctly exposed or the background. The D40X meter sometimes needed dialing down as it would resort to idiot proof mode which is to ensure the subject is well exposed at the expense of blowing out any highlights or light areas in the background.
The viewfinder contains more information than the one on the D40, it’s very useful to see the ISO rating for example, and the numerous quick access switches make it quicker and easier to switch between focus and metering modes.

I’m hugely impressed with this camera and now that I’ve put about 2,000 shots through it I know I will only ever consider the top end SLRs in future. Don’t misunderstand, the D40X is an excellent camera and it isn’t fair to compare a £420 body and lens combo to one costing 3 times as much. But I have noticed that I quickly outgrew the D40X really. Something to think about if you take your photography seriously although at the end budget will dictate so stick to the time honoured tradition of buying the best you can afford…

Filed under: Photography
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