Introducing My New Nikon D200

Published by Nick Ladd | Filed under Nikon D200

9 days and 2,926 miles later my new Nikon D200 from Cameta Cameras (via Amazon) has arrived! At about noon our office secretary came over to my desk at work with a box the UPS man just dropped off. It took all of my will power to not open it then and there, but I knew it’d be a pain to unpack it and then repack it in order to get it home via my normal bus route. I waited patiently until 5:00pm and quickly left for home package in tow.

Once home, the cardboard and bubble wrap started flying:

Picture 1: Fresh Off the UPS Truck
Picture 2: Let’s See What’s Inside
Picture 3: Straight into the Box
Picture 4: All Laid Out
Picture 5: Lots of Goodies

The packaging left a little to be desired (the camera boxes were basically floating within the shipping box, only protected by a few sheets of bubble wrap) but everything looked to be in good condition.

First Impressions:

1. This Sucker is SOLID
   Compared to my old Nikon Coolpix 4500 it is considerably heavier and larger. The biggest difference however seems to be the quality of the build. The 4500 used to feel solid, but compared to the D200 it seems like a toy.
2. This sucker is FAST
   Once I got the battery charged (just a spec of two hours), I fired this bad boy up. Power up was instantaneous (basically). There is almost zero shutter lag and after switching to continuous mode (there is a fast continuous mode and slow continuous mode) this puppy fired off shots at an amazing pace.
3. This sucker is SEXY
   Not only does this camera look nice, but everything about it exudes quality and good design. The sound of the shutter firing off (especially in continuous shooting modes) is sublime. The LCD is bright and vibrant. The view finder display is crisp and easy to read, the on top control panel LCD is sharp, well laid out, and large, and the buttons are very ergonomically placed (very intuitive locations). The camera ‘fits’ my hand, and the rubber grips seem to ‘bite’ very well. Even the release switch to open the Compact Flash compartment is smooth and functional.

Here are a couple of the quick test shots I took. Nothing special, just messing around with the default settings within the camera:

Fortunately this weekend’s weather looks great (no, it doesn’t always rain in Seattle) so I should have some good opportunities to take this puppy out for a spin. Until then, hopefully I can wade through the manual and start to get a pretty good grasp of the camera’s controls and functions.