I was looking for NIKON camera that will allow me to use manual focus lenses with proper light metering. I found that D200 would suite this need. It a 10 megapixels camera with SONY ICX-483-AQA sensor. It seems that is the only camera using this one. It is more or less the same as on D80 only being capable of faster data read-out. It is a CCD type sensor.

It has a lot of pro features like top LCD with work parameters. It has a lot of switches so you are free of going into menu to change anything. You can skip LCD for almost everything you need to take pictures. It has no live view so you could use only LCD to change AUTO ISO or to preview pictures. No motion picture capturing either. It has one button which can be programmed. I have programmed mine to let focal length and minimum F number for MF lenses. It has DOF preview button.

Design

It is a very solid metal body which can survive fall from 2m to concrete surface. Mine got tested that way. It has crack next to battery compartment. Nothing else suffered. I must admit that this was very impressive. Rubber falls off as on any other NIKON cameras. You need to glue it a little bit to stick to the body. It is quite heavy. A lot heavier than D70S. It is lighter than earlier pro cameras like D1. Buttons, switches and scrolls seems to be very solid made.

You can mount any NIKON F AI lens. You can mount as well AI/S, AF, D and G lenses. You cannot mount pre AI lenses. On AF-P lenses, AF will not work. Fortunately you can have both light-metering and focus confirmation on AI and AI/S lenses, which is the most important thing.

It has stronger filter atop the sensor making patterns less sharp but with less color artifacts such as moire. I have compared it with D70S and it seems to be less sharp overall. I defined sharpness here as being able to resolve details at proper contrast. D70s performs better here even having only 6 megapixels sensor. In case of taking good or bad pictures it does not matter that much. One day I will elaborate more about my chase for 35mm film like look with a lessen black level, broad dynamic range accross the same, near contrast levels. It is easier to accomplish this not with D200, but with D70s. Shame for it that it does not have light-metering with AI lenses. I would not bother then with different cameras.

Samples

Conclusion

It is a very good camera, worth its money. You can judge it yourself by taking a look at sample pictures above. If it suits your needs there give it a try. Remember to keep spare battery in a pocket as camera drains it very fast.