D200 Samples

[aaron l]

Here are some D200 samples I took yesterday at the San Diego Photo

Expo:

<br><br>

<a

href="http://aaronlinsdau.com/d200.html">http://aaronlinsdau.com/d200

.html</a>

[armando_roldan]

Just how big are those files?

 

some of us still got dial up connections.

[mark pav]

Thanks for posting. Shame about all the motion blur.

[frank_skomial]

Thank you Aaron for the pictures.

I cannot get overly impressed with the noise, or the quality of the new lens or the VR. Possibly it would perform better with a 2.8 VR ?

 

So far I have not seen yet any reason to switch from D70 to D200. Possibly better focusing and picture speed for sport photos would tip the scale and pay for the little extra $$$. The quality of the pictures presented is about what I get with a D70. With better lens, I get better photos with D70.

 

D200 may need a better lens to provide better results. The VR on this lens seems to have limitations. 4 steps reduction advertised by Nikon for this lens seems to be a wishful thinking.

 

I would take a D### that has an equivalent of 4 sensors from D70, and place them in one full 35 mm frame, and gives 24 mega pixels. How long will I wait for such a camera from Nikon ? 2 years ?

[terry_rory]

This has tempered my enthusiasm for the D200 a bit.

[durr3]

Pretty noisey.

[terry_rory]

White balance has gone to pot and the noise looks worse than my 6mp fuji f10 at iso 800. Nothing is sharp. (RAWs are normally a little soft but the ones I looked at were downright OOF even with 1/80th sec.)

 

But the noise? Ouch. My D70 definitely copes better.

 

I hope this was a bad sample.

 

Highlights the wisdom of waiting for full production versions to have been thoroughly reviewed before jumping in.

 

Looks like I may be saving harder for that D2X.

[erik_loza]

With all due respect to Aaron, who we owe thanks for taking his time to post these images,

they really don't tell us much. I'm reserving judgement until I see photos that have been

shot from a secure platform, such as a tripod, and with lenses of known quality. Again,

thanks to Aaron for his efforts, but I think that there just aren't enough pieces of the

puzzle yet to get a really clear picture of what this body may/may not be capable of.

Anxious to see...

[bwcombs]

No offense Aaron, but do you work for Canon?

[lex_jenkins]

Noise at 1600 appears to be about the same as my D2H. The D200 shows less banding at 1 Over.

 

The best bang for the buck in a low noise dSLR at high ISOs may be the D50. But I can't tell what, if anything, has been sacrificed in the way of critical sharpness to accomplish this.

 

There's lots of good software to reduce noise easily. It's not so easy to apply sharpening as well.

[User_1172872]

There is only one frame at ISO 100 (and it appears to have been taken by accident) but it looks noise-free to me.

[dan park]

Seems to be a pixel out in the top right of the images. Theres also one out in the bottem left.

[aaron l]

If you're on dial-up, don't even bother. They're 4.5MB each. I shot @ 1600+1 to get maximum noise. The ISO 100 shot is sweet. This is the result of handheld shooting in the dark with a super slow lens. I can't vouch for anything. Wish I coulda tossed on a tripod and blah blah blah but when you only have a minute or two with a line of people behind you, that's what you get.

[aaron l]

Also to note, I didn't check anything as far as settings, it was right out of the box. The rep even had to set the date. I'd say the images are underexposed for whatever reason. I got permission to stuff the card in, fire off and get out of the way for the next person. Also, I'm not sure if the vr was on or not. The high-speed shots where with me moving while shooting. Never had a camera that fast so I was in fantasy land. Nope, don't work for Canon....wait 13 days and you'll have tons of people posting real shots. Can't wait for Bjorn's brick wall shots. :)

[ramon_v__california_]

i hope it's just the lens, but those are awfully noisy at 1600.

and the blur at 100? maybe it's the adrenalin shooting up because of the excitement. hence, the hand shakes :-)

 

am pretty sure it's not the camera.

[aaron l]

The blur at 100 is due to the rep moving. Notice that's a 1.1 second shot. Not too bad for handheld. The most ironic part is that I didn't care all that much about the images I captured because I wasn't even sure if I'd be allowed to put a CF in it. I cared much more about how the camera felt. I was a bit beefier than the D70 but not much heavier. In comparison to the 5D which I held for a while over at the Canon table, the D200 felt infinitly better.

 

When I was shopping for my first modern camera, I compared the N80 to the comparable Canon at the time and concluded the Nikon felt much better in the hand after holding each for 15 minutes. It didn't take me that long now to feel that the D200 felt better in my hand, didn't sit with a hard corner in my palm like the 5D did. Since I carry my camera a lot, that is what most matters. Both systems are great. Blasphemy.

 

My D70 has 3 red pixels at 1600, in comparison. Not at any other speed than 1600, too. Don't know what happened to the ISO on DSC0015. Bug?

[erik_loza]

"No offense Aaron, but do you work for Canon?"

 

-Why would you ask this?

[steve_johnston4]

Makes me wonder why all the fuss about digital over film.

[joshua daniels]

My Fuji S2 does much better at ISO 1600. Disappointing, if representative.

[antonbar]

<i>"No offense Aaron, but do you work for Canon?"

-Why would you ask this? Eric</i>

 

IMO he suggests that these (bad) samples were made intentionally.

[aaron l]

Who sets out to make bad photographs? Certainly not me. I end up with a lot of them but not intentionally, whether with either system. I don't care to make one look bad over the other. Only maniacs try that with stupid debates.

 

Couldn't tell you if that camera was a sample, pre-pro of otherwise. It was a tough situation with poor light. The focus was darned fast and I enjoyed feeling the body I'll own next summer. Wait for more competent tests to come out before deciding.

[ilkka_nissila]

Joshua, how do you know exactly how the images were processed, the contrast must be the same as well as the color of the light and outcome if you want to compare noise. Also, the D200 is a 10 MP, not 6 MP camera, which increases noise if you do not compare the same size files (downsampling the D200 files to S2 size would reduce noise).

[marcofrancardi]

C'mon guys! the "do you work for Canon" thing was a joke, I think. Don't take it too seriously. I laughed at it and found it ironic, as many of these posts.

Anyway, thanks Aaron. Since I have to lay a downpayment, here in Lebanon, to get one D200 by the mid january, ANY info or feeling is useful at this stage. (by the way, I really think you are an undercover Canon agent! ;-))

[antonbar]

I know it was a joke, and I also didn't mean to offend. I just answered on Eric's question.

[ShunCheung]

Folks, Aaron spent a fair amount of time to shoot and share these samples with us. They were shot at an expo with a brand new camera right out of the box. It is unreasonable to expect the same quality from a studio setting with a familiar camera. Please show some appreciation to Aaron's effort, and certainly don't use these samples alone to make purchase decisions.

 

Juergan Specht, who maintains the Nikon D1 (actually all DSLR) Digest, is a German who lives in Tokyo. He also posted some early D200 images from a show in Japan.

 

http://www.juergenspecht.com/TMP/Juergen_Specht_D200_sample1.jpg

 

http://www.juergenspecht.com/TMP/Juergen_Specht_D200_sample2.jpg

 

Those are large, 3.6M, JPEG images. The EXIF data shows D200 at ISO 200 and shot with the new 18-200 zoom. The model is not precisely in focus, though.