Heh, it was only slightly more than a year ago that Canon announced their EOS 20D. At the time, I could only drool over these digital SLRs and go ahhhh. It seemed like a fantastic camera back then, and it still is.

Now I have a Nikon D70 to play with, and not to sound smug, but I’m a little impatient with those point and shoot cameras these days. Twisting the lens barrel to zoom in and out, having a focus ring when you need the manual control are all pluses to me and makes taking pictures a snap. Not to mention the superior ISO performance of the CMOS/CCD sensors they use on SLRs which captures more detail with less noise in low light situations. That and you can choose your own glass for the setting which you need to take pictures with all adds up to a package that really makes it fantastic to use.

Nikon just announced the D200, which is supposed to replace the D100 and is very much a match for the recently announced Canon 5D (jargon galore!). Back then, an announcement was just a spec sheet list and you could compare lists of information and take people’s word for it if it was good. Heh, now I’m going to give my own little assessment of the D200, even if I haven’t picked one up before. However, based on what’s available on the web, I can give some quality feedback of my own. I think that this is one fantastic professional camera.

So what’s so great about it? First of, the removal of those function modes for portraits, landscape yadda yadda that I don’t use. There are now dedicated functions for ISO and WB, and even if it’s a little nitpick for me, I’m sometimes a little annoyed with the dual functions of buttons in picture taking mode and picture reviewing mode. I sometimes forget to press the shutter button to reset it to camera mode and mess up my display pics.

Bigger viewfinder. I’ve not seen a bigger one before, but on my D70, it’s hard to see what’s in focus because you’re practically squinting at the image and don’t see much. There have been a couple of times that autofocus on the camera was switched off and I just took pictures without realising that focus was way off. The problem was compounded by the fact that it was quite dark and I depended on flash to illuminate the subject later on. With the bigger viewfinder, I think it’s easier to use the focus ring on lenses so that you know exactly what you want to be the subject matter.

Extra AF zones. I’m not sure how they work, but I recalled my friend’s expensive EOS film SLR which could detect focus based on eye movements. Heh, that was cool, but not the point here. On the D70, there are 5 zones for focus, and that’s usually ok, if what you want is in the centre or on either extremes of North, South, East and West. This one gives you more control over your focus areas and the trick of using the centre sensor to focus then reframing isn’t a very good idea (I used to be guilty of that trick).

2.5″ LCD screen. Yeah, so it consumes more juice, but at least I think I get a clearer picture. On my current 1.8″ LCD, things out of focus also look GOOD cause you can’t tell any better.

Customisations. You could tweak ISOs for the D70, at 1/3 stops, meaning you have to go through every single stop from ISO200 to ISO800 (which is like 200, 250, 400, 640, 800). Heh, call me lazy, but I like the convenience to tweak my stuff to perform how I want it to be used. You can also set Auto ISO when a certain shutter speed kicks in and you can put the max ISO you’re willing to tolerate for picture/noise ratio.

The bad. Heh, the camera is on the heavy end at 900g without a battery or lens (ouch! I can hear a creaking back!). Sure the magnesium alloy casing is much, much more durable than my plasticky D70, but it’s also much heavier. Perhaps the weight would be good to reduce camera shake, since it’s so heavy, you don’t sway in the wind as much, heh. I guess that would only be my major nitpick, I can’t lament about something this good!

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Heh, so do I want one? Yes.
Do I need one? No.
Do I want to upgrade my D70 to a D200? Yes.
Do I need to upgrade my D70 to a D200? No.

Heh, need and want. Two words with very distinct meanings.

Can I afford it? Instant noodles for 3 months? Hmmm… *ponder* *ponder* *ponder*
Haha, don’t think so. Would rather buy a dual core processor for my PC instead.

* * *

Actually, I’m personally more interested in the recently announced 18-200mm VR lens. It’s a DX lens (meant for DSLRs) and has the equivalent focal length of 27-300mm (in 35mm camera formats), PLUS Vibration Reduction. Aperture isn’t fantastic, going up to only 3.5, but that’s what I get with the kit lens anyway. You can’t get really shallow depth of field, but with the VR function, 200mm in low light is really possible (I don’t know how well it works with moving objects though, but think of handholding to capture a scene {one should have a tripod on standby anyway} at 1/8s and still have sharp images {or maybe I’m dreaming}). It would be a perfect replacement lens for what I currently have and I’m not pro enough to notice whether it produces a lot of chromatic aberrations and all those glass defects at the corners. The range is good, focus is at 1.6 feet at ALL focal lengths. That ain’t too bad, but still no macro photography with that lens.

Heh, I don’t mind if someone would lend me his/her’s D200 when they can actually buy one so just that I can play with it. The first time I held my D70 was mesmerising. Focusing was quick (don’t notice it that much now, EXPECT it from cameras I do!) and shots were just taken so quickly, especially when the ON mode is instantaneous. Did I also mention how fantastic the battery life is? One charge takes 600 shots on average, with flash and LCD reviews from time to time. Without all those, 2,000 shots is possible.

Okay, enough of promoting Nikon. Back to reality, heh.