Nikon D200 for Documentary Photography - Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

The D200 is currently the camera that I use for 90 percent of my photography (the rest of the time I have a Leica M6 with me).

There are many great reviews covering the D200 so I'll try not to repeat what's already been said. What I will focus on here are the particular advantages that this camera conveys to my style of photography.

Good Points

Image quality. Having used the D200 since February 2006 in a variety of situations I'm happy with the quality and feel the images are acceptable for my needs. The quality is good enough for prints to look almost indistinguishable from scanned 35 mm film printed on my Epson R2400 at the same size that I used to make my darkroom prints (on 16 x 12 inch paper). I do have some issues with aspects of the image quality (see later) and more pixels would always be nice but on balance the D200 offers me a great balance of output and functionality for a reasonable cost.

Handling. This is where I find the D200's strengths really lie for documentary photography. The ease of handling means I spend less time thinking about the camera and more on the subject. The better the camera interface the less photographic opportunities I'm going to miss. I'm a big fan of reducing downtime in the field (sometimes fanatically so). If my attention is diverted from the subject it's not just the few seconds lost that makes a difference - rather the break in concentration means I can lose pace of what's going on and fail to anticipate the scene developing and lose position. Operating this camera is so intuitive that it frees me up to concentrate on the factors that really count like my positioning and anticipating how a scene is developing.

Ergonomics. The D200 fits really comfortably into my hands with fast access to the main controls. I've used several Nikon film bodies over the last ten years or so including an F2A, F3HP, F4s and F100. Compared with all these bodies I find the D200 offers the greatest fluidity of control. The camera feels well proportioned in my hands (something that the large F4s never did). The lenses I use are comparatively heavy and the lighter body of the D200 compared to the top of the line Nikon DSLRs is welcome when I'm carrying the camera around all day. At the same time the body feels substantial enough to balance well in the hand with my current line up of lenses (17-35, 28-70 AFS and 80-200 AFD).

Nikon D200 (left) and F100 (right) - subtle design differences between these two bodies really do make a big difference in use (digital vs film apart)

Here's a bit of sensible design, the camera 'holds on' to the battery when the cover is opened so it can't fall to the ground if I'm not paying attention

Controls. Here's some personal highlights from the camera's control design. Firstly the ease of exposure compensation; compensation is applied in the same way as previous Nikon SLRs including the F100 (from which I graduated to the D200) and as this is one of the controls I use most frequently I appreciate Nikon's design consistency. EV compensation can also be set without having to take your finger off the shutter using custom setting b5. After that it's as simple as rotating the rear command dial. I also like the ease of access to QUAL, WB and ISO adjustments from the top plate of the camera. I do wish ISO was continually displayed in the control panel though - sometimes I really could do with a clearer visual indicator of ISO (though I accept this point is more down to my shortcomings than the camera's).

I also really like the way that most of the important controls can be locked to prevent accidentally altering them.

The position and design of the rear exposure lock button is a big improvement over the F100 - where I used to get the position of this button confused with cold or tired hands. The AE-L button on the D200 is spaced further apart from the AF-ON, and is incorporated into the design of the metering mode selector (by means of a rotating collar around the AE-L) this means that it's impossible to mistake the AE-L and AF-ON buttons - great !

Speed of operation. The fast operation of this camera allows me to take advantage of fleeting moments - the camera is very responsive from the moment you turn it on, there's minimal shutter lag to be concerned about and I like the way the camera can be set to expose whether it's in focus or not - I like the shutter to fire when I press the release regardless of whether the camera thinks I'm correctly focussed or not. For some people this wouldn't be their preferred option and it's great to have the freedom to select the style that suits me best.

Frame rate. The luxury of having 5 frames per second with such a small form factor camera is tremendous and the ability to see the buffer capacity in the control panel and finder display by half depressing the shutter is a nice touch (although I don't find it a practical necessity).

I'll usually go through more than one battery in a day and I love the design of the compartment that prevents the battery from falling out when you open the cover - I never know what circumstances I'm going to have to make a battery change and damaging a battery through dropping it would hamper my next days shooting if I couldn't get access to another spare.

Materials. The construction feels solid and according to Nikon the camera's well sealed. Being a paranoid first time DSLR owner with a perhaps unreasonable fear of sensor dust I'm pleased that Nikon have devoted attention to the D200's weather sealing. As far as hand holding goes the material that the exteria grip is made from is really tactile and unlike the similar material on my F100 has not begun to separate from the metal body beneath.

Customisable settings. So many different control configurations really allow you to personalise the D200 to your style of shooting and the customisable function (FUNC) button allows me an invaluable, instant way to spot meter through custom setting f4. The ability to take a spot meter reading with an easy one touch control, lock it in via the AE lock or apply compensation as required without taking my finger off the shutter is great ! Although I have to admit that I prefer to use the exposure compensation button during this process to prevent accidentally applying compensation, so my finger does come off the shutter on such occasions.