How do you rate the Nikon D200?

Nforce

Thecageyone wrote: »

Just encountered the NEF file ... crap. What RAW setting should I use, these files won't open on my pc, they don't even show in the RAW viewer I have on it.

Don't you have Lightroom installed? They'll open in that.

davmigil

you can download plug-in from microsoft raw codecs page

Picasa from google I think allows you to view .nef files also

jpb1974

All the usual RAW processors should work of D200 NEF files -

Nikon Capture NX2 (usually bundled with Nikon cameras I think - the person you bought the camera from might have the original disc)
Lightroom
Adobe Camera RAW plugin for Photoshop
Adobe DNG Converter
etc

Thecageyone

yeah I have lightroom, for some reason they refused to open in that last night. I'll give it another go. There's different RAW settings on the cam, Looks like one is normal and then the others are that Nikon format? [battery on charge right now so can't check atm]

PopeBuckfastXVI

Raw is not a standard there is no 'normal', yet.

Thecageyone

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

Raw is not a standard there is no 'normal', yet.

Nikon's own version certainly is not standard. never heard of it before I had one. I have a RAW viewer on here that displays RAWS from my Sony, but doesn't display the Nikon ones. That's what I mean by standard.

There's 4 variations of RAW on the camera, I was hoping one of them was the usual type?

Also - th battery life seems to be very poor - on full charge I'm barely getting a day out of it!

magicbastarder

is it a genuine nikon battery?
i know it's a different camera, but i currently have 55% charge on my D300, 480 shots since the last charge.

Thecageyone

The D300 is more power hungry I imagine? - I actually think i didn't give it a full charge - can't remember if the light was still blinking when I took it out. And no, it's not genuine Nikon I'm afraid. It's a crappy Power2000 1700ah Li-ion, I see they fetch an almighty $20 on amazon. I guess I'll have to start hunting for better ones. It does fully charge in an hour though, just like the Sony one did - but that used to last me 3 days on a charge!

PopeBuckfastXVI

Thecageyone wrote: »

Nikon's own version certainly is not standard. never heard of it before I had one. I have a RAW viewer on here that displays RAWS from my Sony, but doesn't display the Nikon ones. That's what I mean by standard.

There's 4 variations of RAW on the camera, I was hoping one of them was the usual type?

Also - th battery life seems to be very poor - on full charge I'm barely getting a day out of it!

The 4 versions of Raw are most likely Raw alone, and Raw with 3 quality levels of jpg. Your raw viewer can handle sony raws, maybe it needs a plugin for Nikon ones?

Raw is just the raw image data from the sensor, totally proprietary for every make & most models. I know there's a push towards a standard 'digital negative' but it hasn't really caught on yet.

Have a look at any raw processing program and you'll see that they support a varying list of raw formats - the good ones will support them all.

Thecageyone

Yeah i figured it'll just need a plug-in to view the Nikon RAW version, I did download one that claimed to read them last night. But it crashed when trying to install :rolleyes: LR3 should open them?

Battery charged now, so 'll pop off some RAW shots and see what works with what

NakedDex

LR2 still opens everything I've got in .NEF, I can't see why 3 would be any different.

Nforce

The D300 battery lasts much longer than the D80's...probably the same deal with the D200. Might be worth your while investing in a battery grip...go with the Phottix one if you're on a budget. I picked one up for my D300 recently for ~€50 delivered including 2 spare batteries.

Edit: and yes...LR3 opens the Nikon RAW files without issue.

magicbastarder

just did a quick google, and there are some complaints about the D200's battery life - talk of only 400 shots off a single charge.

Thecageyone

A grip shall be added to the wishlist in that case. €50 with spare batteries!? That is a bargain. I'll have to top up my paypal soon.

The RAWs do indeed open fine in LR3, just opened a folder up in there. It was very slow though, anything to do with the file sizes? They're a lot larger than the RAW files off the Sony.


I still want a quick viewer so I can view them right off cam. I prefer to go through new images and delete any crap before opening up in LR, as it can be sluggish with a lot of files to work on, with this pc.

NakedDex

magicbastarder wrote: »

just did a quick google, and there are some complaints about the D200's battery life - talk of only 400 shots off a single charge.

I noticed that originally, but it seems to have disappeared without explanation. I use a grip, so there's two packs in there, but I was getting only 800-1000 shots from a full charge.
Without having done anything different (except buy an extra pair of packs), the problem seems to have faded and I'm now getting 1500+.

TinyExplosions

OH has no problems with battery life on her D200, easily gets 1000+ shots out of one charge

smelltheglove

The d300 battery life is much better than the d200 but I believe the d200 is still quite good. I use a battery grip on mine so I have 2 genuine nikon batteries in there, I charge them maybe once every 2 weeks for standard work use, I dont count how many shots I would get out of them to be honest but I believe they last quite well.

Thecageyone

Yeah, reckon it's more to do with the cheap battery than the camera. Had a quick peek on ebay and you can get spares for €10+ - Even if they're not great, a bunch of them charged would do for an outing.

ender ender

I've gotten 3000 shots with battery grip - one Nikon battery and a spurious one - in a day(poor camera!).

There's an 18-70mm DX lens for about €350-€400 that you should avoid IMO if you're looking at lenses. It's horrible. Out of interest does anyone know what's a good equivalent? I know there's a 24-100mm f2.8 for about €1200 (non-DX), is there anything cheaper? I don't mean to hijack the thread but thought you might be interested too, OP...

Thecageyone

Work away, I am interested in lenses too. Nothing so fancy for the moment though. I have a cheap Tamron 75-300, which seems fine quality for the price. I took portraits of the kids this evening:



They were just for facebook uploads, so I never bothered to remove the green straw on the table - was just a humourous one for a caption - resized down a lot here, but this was taken at ISO 320 [f/4 @ 1/80] - which is around where I'd prefer to stay. Though I've only really seen obvious noise around 800, I've tried 640 out too, love those in-between numbers.

What I really want for shots like this is a 50mm f/1.8. Love a nifty! Since the above image was taken at 70mm, I think 50mm can work very well indoors. Often see people complain they find there's no room to work with one [must have tiny houses!]

ender ender

Nice work. The 50mm is great, but I very quickly found myself looking for a wider angle lens so I got the 18-70mm. Maybe a more knowledgeable person can clarify things but I wouldn't recommend it: too much distortion at either end, and loads of colour fringing, and I wouldn't normally be picky! I use a 28-100mm kit lens from my film camera instead. Not a DX lens so it's not wide enough, but it just seems to be better built...

Thecageyone

Anyone ever used this program? Opanda IExif - Tells you every single tiny detail about an image once it's straight off the cam, Jpeg. The seller had told me the actuation count was just over 11k, seems they were completely honest in this case Curiosity just got the better of me.

Thecageyone

ender ender wrote: »

I've gotten 3000 shots with battery grip - one Nikon battery and a spurious one - in a day(poor camera!).

There's an 18-70mm DX lens for about €350-€400 that you should avoid IMO if you're looking at lenses. It's horrible. Out of interest does anyone know what's a good equivalent? I know there's a 24-100mm f2.8 for about €1200 (non-DX), is there anything cheaper? I don't mean to hijack the thread but thought you might be interested too, OP...

There's a Sigma 24-70 EX f/2.8 on adverts for €280, dunno if it's any good. [edit: just looked it up, 82mm filter size ... ]

Nforce

ender ender wrote: »

I've gotten 3000 shots with battery grip - one Nikon battery and a spurious one - in a day(poor camera!).

There's an 18-70mm DX lens for about €350-€400 that you should avoid IMO if you're looking at lenses. It's horrible. Out of interest does anyone know what's a good equivalent? I know there's a 24-100mm f2.8 for about €1200 (non-DX), is there anything cheaper? I don't mean to hijack the thread but thought you might be interested too, OP...

The 18-70mm DX lens is excellent. Granted there's distortion at the 18mm end but for the price (I got mine for €120 used off ebay) it's a very sharp,well built lens.
See here and here

Maybe you got a bad example?

Nforce

Thecageyone wrote: »

There's a Sigma 24-70 EX f/2.8 on adverts for €280, dunno if it's any good. [edit: just looked it up, 82mm filter size ... ]

You'd probably get the Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 for less than €100, if you can live without the 4mm at the short end?

Thecageyone

Nforce wrote: »

You'd probably get the Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 for less than €100, if you can live without the 4mm at the short end?

I found on the Sony 18-70mm I rarely used it at it's widest angle. Whenever I did, I ended up cropping out the sides. I think anything around 28mm would do the job for me. WOuld love to have something like a 28mm - 200 f/2.8 ... but no monies left after getting the cam tbh. And next on the list is either a 50mm or 28/35mm whichever comes up cheapest when i have the cash

Rainbowsend

Just getting to grips with the D200 myself, battery life great and charges in under two hours, have only charged it twice in two weeks, RAW files opening no problem in Picasa for weeding out rubbish then on to Lightroom for editing,
I was given an old 55mm Nikon lens which has been great for trying it out and getting used to it, but I have a 18-200 mk11 VR waiting for me in Wales when I go over, which will be all I need for it, an excellent all round lens. (as I am keeping my Sony a700 gear I wont need anything else)

Good luck with it I am sure you wont be disappointed with it.

ps. I have an old Minolta Flash which works great on it too! I am sure you will pick one up for buttons on ebay!

pete4130

Download for FREE Nikons View NX. It is a specific Nikon viewer with basic editing capabilities such as white balance, exposure etc....

as someone else said Capture NX2 will work but it didn't come with the D200. I got Capture NX 1 with my D3 and it came with the D300 as well. You can download a 30 day trial of Capture NX 2. It can be confusing to work with as its different to anything you've used before but it is by far the best RAW editor for Nikon files.

Don't bother with the Sigma 24-70 or 28-80 options. I had a brand new Sigma 24-70 2.8 a few years ago and couldn't wait to sell it. Slow to focus, noisy, prone to strong glare and flaring and the filter sizes are ridiculously big meaning filters are expensive. If you want a good lens look for the Sigma 18-50mm 2.8 macro.

Thecageyone

I gave the battery a full charge yesterday, took just over an hour. I used the cam, just shots of the kids and general messing about with the cam and settings, shot count is at 130 no and the battery life is 54% - not as bad as i thought. Still nowhere near the life of the battery in the Sony. The D200 is more power hungry I guess? A spare battery should cover me. Will probably buy one or two before we head to the states in Oct. I have at least 4 x 4GB CF cards.

I really want nice little prime first, I'll look out for a sharp zoom for Christmas maybe

jpb1974

This is almost like an online diary... how intimate

Thecageyone

I don't know about you, but I don't keep a diary, and if I did, camera settings would be the last thing I'd be scribbling in - how weird ...

battery power = intimacy to you? Anything you'd like to share?

melekalikimaka

thats awful battery life your getting, must be an old battery, new ones are less than 5euro and will triple the shots you can take per charge

Thecageyone

Any particular cheap ones that last longer than others? A quick look on ebay brings up tonnes of crappy ones, would do the job so long as they work and don't run out as quick as this one.

pete4130

Just buy a Nikon one and not from eBay. Where do you imagine the 3rd party battery you have now came from more than likely. You'll end up with 2 crap batteries.

NakedDex

eBay does have a few sellers with genuine packs. I've gotten a pair on there for €75 delivered and they were identical in looks and performance to the pair of genuine ones I'd bought in a bricks-and-mortar store for €85 each.
The difference was solely that the packaging was the Japanese version, so the manual was unreadable. I'll get over that...

ender ender

Nforce, I've seen the good reviews it's gotten before but I just can't agree so maybe you're right, could be a defective lens. The colour fringing is really terrible. I think my mate has the same lens so I should borrow it and compare the two.

Anyway cageyone I'm sure you don't care too much at this stage, the camera body is great and the 50mm 1.8 is a fantastic lens for portraits of the kids or whoever. It helps as well when you don't want a high ISO as people say, high ISO's are one of the d200's few negatives...

NakedDex

I forgot to mention, has the firmware been updated? I found my battery readings became a lot more reliable and realistic after I did mine.