Others say...

"Instant Classic"
I will be very, very surprised if this camera does not end up becoming something of an early DLSR classic a decade or so from now. I have a feeling that like the Canon 30D and 5D this camera will continue to hold value very well even as similar vintage models have lost most of theirs.

If I had to sum up this camera in one word it would this one: exposure. Exposure is arguably the most important factor in judging the quality of a photo. It is certainly one of the most important if not the most important. This camera has an amazingly great talent at picking the correct exposure. There are countless sites that explain the technical reasons behind this that you are welcome to go and seek out, but I don't want this review to be 3 pages long so I will forgo detailing them again here. Bottom line, you can't ask for anything more in this regard from this camera. You will get shots with this camera that you would have lost with the D40, D50, D60, D70, D80 and D90 due to incorrect exposure. Of course if you had the time, ability, and equipment you could spend 10-15 on each shot to make sure you manually set everything correctly to get that perfect exposure. Most of us don't have the time, however, or don't want to spend the time (and the $300 for a good light meter) so it is a joy to work with a camera like this. The D40-D90s get exposure right too of course, just not as often as the D200 does.

Low-light performance: I feel like I have to start including this in my camera reviews now since everyone seems to care about this much more than they did just 2-3 years ago. Bottom line, it's real simple: this is not a low-light performer. You know what? I could care less! If I need low-light performance I'll grab a 5D or a D3. Honestly, even when I had a 5D I rarely, rarely ever shot at ISO 800 or higher. ISO 100-400 is how I roll. You know what? The D200 is awesome at ISO 100 through ISO 400! No problem here for me. ISO 800 and ISO 1600 are not good. I would have a very hard time selling a photo made at these levels and an equally hard time making a print larger than 5x7. Again, to me this is not slight. I didn't buy the D200 for low-light performance and you shouldn't either. If you need to shoot at ISO 800 and up then you need to get a faster lens, an external flash, or better yet both.

IQ more generally: saturation, contrast, color and clarity are great with this sensor, again as long as you keep the ISO to 400 and lower. At ISO 800 the sensor goes from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. Not only do you get a huge mess of noise that renders the pictures mostly unusable, but everything else (except clarity and sharpness) seems to suffer, too.

Ergonomics: outstanding. I love the ergonomics on the D50 through D700 models. The location of the buttons is also typically Nikon in its intelligence.

Pop up flash: don't ever use it unless it is an emergency. this goes for every other DLSR pop-up flash, too. They are a joke. Either don't use it or buy an external flash. I don't know of a serious photographer who would use a built-in flash on a DLSR unless it was an emergency and not using the flash meant getting no picture at all (i.e. it's 3:00AM and you are witnessing breaking news).

Battery life: this may be the one downside to this camera. It is not the best. You will probably want to buy an extra battery. This is one of the worst when it comes to DLSRs I have used over the years. I don't know what accounts for this but thankfully Nikon ironed it out with every DLSR made after the D200.

I could talk some more but it would be superfluous at this point I guess given that this camera has already been exhaustively reviewed by people much more capable and knowledgeable than I. Bottom line, this is the Pro-Sumer DLSR at this price point. At this price point, you can not buy another better DLSR. If you have $200 more dollars I would probably go with the D90, however. I do think it is worth the extra money. That being said, this is a classic and the fact that 3 years later (a generation in DLSR years) Nikon made the D90 and it came out slightly better does not in any way take away from the greatness of this camera. I mention it merely because the D90 is a current Nikon offering priced not too far above this one and I do believe it is slightly superior in most ways except the exposure. If you are on a budget and need a pro-sumer grade DLSR then this is the one.

This is one of those rare 5 star products that you can instantly disregard all 4 star and under reviews for. If a reviewer gave this 4 stars or less then they do not know what they are talking about or they simply bought the wrong camera for their needs. At the time of writing this review, only 16 out of 138 reviewers gave this anything less than 5 stars. That's right: 122 out of 138 reviewers gave this camera 5 stars. If this isn't a clear consensus then I don't understand the definition of the word consensus. Sorry, but it's not a matter of opinion--the people have spoken. This is a clear cut 5 star camera.

"$799 new what a steal!"
I almost paid $799 for a well used D200, but decided instead to purchase a D300 as my spluge for the year. A local camera shop allowed me to use the D 200 for a couple of weeks. I shot a couple hundred pictures with the D200 and was happy with the quality of the photos and the speed of the camera. I moved to DSLR because my 3 & 5 y.o. girls move much to fast for my point and shoot. I had an issue with the used D200 which was mainly cosmetic, the rubber grips got real sticky and the cost to replace the grips was about $100. According to the camera pro at the camera shop, it is normal for the Nikon rubber grips to get sticky after a couple years of moderate use. So I traded up to the D-300, which is a great camera, but maybe more camera than I need. If this $799 D200 was available about 4 months ago I would have been happy with the D200. The $800 could have been used to defray the cost of some of the lenses I recently purchased. Good luck...Chort Dee Na.

"Still Top Quality"
As the Nikon D200 is no spring chicken in the ever evolving world of digital photography, I shan't go on about the actual functions and statistics, but rather try to talk a bit about how it all is to use in your everyday shooting sessions.

I've been using my D200 for well over a year now, and it has been my steadfast companion on many expeditions (well, holidays) all over the globe, and in that time, has never put a foot wrong. The quality of the images are, as you probably already have found out, very good, and the build quality very good indeed. What I have found to be most rewarding about this little piece of kit is how practical it is. It is big and heavy enough to feel like a proper camera and have a nice feel in your hands. Ergonomically thought through I would say. It has very easy access to key features via separate buttons on the camera (ISO, picture quality, etc) which makes visits to the dreaded menu system of any DSLR less frequent. It is for example also very easy to delete unwanted photos with a couple of pushes of a button. The outlay and use of the whole piece of equipment is very entuitive and makes it quite possible to take the camera out of the box and start taking photographs almost straight away. Good battery life, on-board flash, high continuous shooting rate, and enough pixels to satisfy the most of us makes this a very decent camera, even today.

There are newer models out there, sure, but they are not necessarily the better choice. The D300 is a better camera, all in all. Of course it is. But there's quite a bit of a difference in the pricing of the two models. Normally I wouldn't advocate buying an older model when its replacement has been on the market for a year or so, but at this price, I honestly think that the D200 is worth getting. Get the 17-55mm Nikon lens (or any piece of properly sharp glass), and you'll have as good photographs as with any camera. If you're looking for a really good camera at a low price, then I reckon the D200 is (or at least should be) a serious competitor. If you take a thousand photographs a week you'll probably want something newer and heavier, but then again, you probably already have. If, on the other hand, you need a camera for your holidays, trekkings, and the odd sportsevent, this is, in my opinion at least, a very decent choice indeed.

5 stars. Without a doubt.

"Nikon D200: great camera at this price!"
Yes, it's an "old" camera in digital terms. But it still takes great pictures, the control layout is incredible, etc. I think this is a superb deal at $799.

"Get Real Amazon"
Nikon's list price for this body is $1399.95 How Amazon came up with a list price of $1849.00 is anybody's wild guess.