Complete Guide to the Nikon D200- P25 potx

V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 721 Specifications Feature Specification Operating temperature 32-104°F (0-40°C) Operating Humidity <85% Sensor Size .93 x .62” (23.6 x 15.8mm) Final Image Size 3872x2592, 2896x1944, or 1936x1296 pixels Sensor Bit Capture 12 bits ISO Sensitivity 100-1600 in 1/2, 1/3, or 1 stop increments, 2000, 2500 and 3200 equivalents File Formats JPEG (8-bit), NEF (12-bit), and compressed NEF (12-bit) JPEG Compression 1:4 at Fine, 1:8 at Normal, 1:16 at Basic Storage Media CompactFlash Type I or Type II Motor Drive 5 fps, 37 frame buffer (19-22 with NEF) Self Timer 2, 5, 10, 20 seconds, user settable; 30 seconds with M-Up White Balance Auto, 6 manual modes, 7-step modification, Manual, from picture Autofocus Modes Single-Servo (S), Continuous- Servo (C), Manual (M) Autofocus Detection Range TTL phase detection using eleven sensors (single area, dynamic, or group) Autofocus Range -1 to 19 EV (at ISO 100) Autofocus Module Nikon Multi-CAM 1100 Autofocus Features AE/AF lock button, AF lock on partial shutter release, close- subject priority option, viewfinder focus confirmation, group autofocus, closest subject V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 722 priority, wide area or normal area Metering Modes 1005-pixel matrix, center- weighted (75/25, circle alterable), spot (2%) Metering Range 0-20 EV (matrix and center- weighted, ISO 100), 2-20 EV (spot metering, ISO 100) Exposure Compensation -5 to +5 stops in 1/3, 1/2 or 1 stop increments Exposure Bracketing 2 to 9 images at increments of 1/3, ½ or 1 stop Metering Features User selectable center- weighted area, eleven spot metering areas, spot metering follows focus, AE/AF lock button Shutter Mechanical, 100,000 cycle tested Shutter Speeds 30 seconds to 1/8,000 second, in 1/3-or 1/2-stop intervals, Bulb Maximum Flash Sync 1/250 second (1/8000 with FP) Flash contacts ISO-type hot shoe Flash Output GN 39 feet (12m) in TTL GN 42 feet (13m) in Manual Flash Modes Balanced Fill Flash (i-TTL); Standard TTL; Commander Mode; Repeating Flash, Manual; Flash Options Red-Eye Reduction; Slow Sync; Rear Curtain Sync LCD Monitor 2.5” 230k TFT Playback Functions Single frame, thumbnail playback (9 images), slide show, histogram (including channel histograms), highlight V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 723 display, thumbnail playback, magnification of playback image Viewfinder Coverage 95% Viewfinder Eyepoint 19.5mm (at –1.0 diopter); 0.94 magnification Viewfinder Adjustment -2 to +1 diopters (accessories extend range) Focus Screen B-type BriteView clear matte with on-demand E-type grid LCD Coverage 100% coverage, both dimensions LCD Protection nearly transparent BM-6 Video Output NTSC or PAL (user selectable) Computer Interface USB 2 Size 5.8” wide x 4.4” tall x 2.9” deep (147mm wide x 113mm tall x 74mm deep) Weight 1 pound 13 ounces (830g) (w/o battery or card) V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 724 Getting Service Assuming that you bought an officially imported camera and not a gray market one, getting service for the D200 should be relatively straightforward. In practice, both Nikon and users make it more difficult than it should be. I won’t go into the gray market problem here (see Hhttp://www.bythom.com/warranty.htm), as it’s an entirely different issue and varies considerably in how it’s handled around the world. The real problem is that users and Nikon both make assumptions that sometimes are contradictory. Here are the major problems I keep hearing from Nikon users who have troubles with NikonUSA and a few of the other subsidiaries: • Not under warranty. Unless NikonUSA receives a copy of the warranty card and a copy of a dated sales receipt showing the purchase of the item in question, they typically assume that product is out of warranty. (Tip: always get the store to put the serial number on the invoice). Registering your product on Nikon’s Web site or sending in the Product Registration card is not enough. Unfortunately, there isn’t a clear “warranty card” that comes with the D200 in the US. Thus, that dated sales receipt is even more important, as it’s the only official document that Nikon accepts. • Second-hand purchase. Nikon warranties aren’t transferable. Again, that purchase receipt is important. • Impact damage. Don’t try to fool Nikon and claim your camera doesn’t focus and that it should be repaired under warranty after you dropped it and bent the lens mount. Some problems simply occur only because of poor user handling (bent aperture arm and lens mount being two obvious ones). But don’t allow multiple problems to be grouped automatically by Nikon under impact damage. If your camera had a persistent card writing problem before you dropped it and damaged the lens mount, make sure V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 725 that Nikon knows that and that you expect them to fix that problem under warranty. • Slow service. With new products, service usually slows for all but NPS members (professional photographers). Even NPS pros sometimes encounter parts shortages that delay repairs. But a more frequent problem is that Nikon didn’t get all your information and/or is waiting for something from you (repair authorization, proof of purchase, shipping address, etc.). We’ll deal with that further down in this section. • Problem not repaired. A frequent complaint goes something like this: the user sends Nikon a camera body with the complaint that focus isn’t accurate; Nikon puts the camera on their test station and finds it is within tolerance, Nikon sends the camera back to the user without changing anything, so the user complains that the camera wasn’t repaired. You won’t like hearing this, but that’s your fault if it happens to you (I’ll tell you how to avoid it in a moment). • Small part = expensive repair. Most repairs require tear down of at least part of the camera and quite a bit of testing time. Beyond that, most parts are replaced modularly (e.g. you get an entire new shutter, not just one piece of it, or, heaven forbid, you often get an entirely new sensor and filter assembly if you break the filter). • Where’d it go? NikonUSA ships to street addresses only. Sometimes people wait for return of their product while Nikon waits for a street address instead of a PO Box. • Diagnosis overload. Once Nikon opens up a camera to be repaired, they diagnose all problems that would need to be fixed to return the camera to factory specifications. Thus, you might send the camera in to be fixed under warranty for a shutter problem and discover you’re going to be billed for impact damage on a bent lens mount. You probably want that fixed, but since you weren’t expecting to have to approve an estimate for repair costs, you never followed up with Nikon in a timely fashion and your camera sits waiting for authorization. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 726 Okay, now that I’ve scared you, how do you get quick and complete service out of Nikon? Here’s my list, compiled after talking and corresponding with dozens of users who’ve had troubles with NikonUSA service: • Document. Take the time to write a clear, complete, and if appropriate, illustrated letter that describes exactly the problem you’ve encountered. If the problem intersects image quality, send a printout of an image that clearly shows the problem. In extreme cases, I’d send a file on CD, as well. What kinds of things am I talking about? Dead pixels, excessive hot pixel problems, other image artifacts (banding on a D200), side-to-side focus problems, blank or incorrectly written images, and so on. Don’t write a novel; make your note concise and to the point. If you have an expectation, state it. If you included anything other than the item you want repaired, list those things in your note, along with all serial numbers. • Provide. Find the original warranty form if the product came with one, make a copy of the purchase invoice for the product, and staple them to the note you wrote. Provide these items even if the product is out of warranty! Make sure the serial number is visible on all of these things and matches the item you’re sending in! If the item has been repaired within the last three months, let Nikon know and provide a copy of anything you received back with that previous repair. Nikon doesn’t provide a form to fill out to consumers, so I’ve taken the liberty to paraphrasing the form they give to NPS members and have included a PDF of it on the CD (the file name is Nikon Repair Request). • Include. If the problem is exhibited with a particular accessory, you need to send the accessory! Got external flash problems with your D200? Send the camera and your flash. Got focus problems? Send the camera, a lens that triggers the problem, and a photo that shows the resulting out-of-focus image problem. Note that if you send an accessory like this, you need to provide the V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 727 warranty form and purchase invoice for it, too! (And don’t send third-party flash units and lenses to Nikon; obviously, they don’t warranty those.) • Strip. Don’t send the battery (unless you’re having power problems), don’t send your storage card (unless you’re having trouble writing to it and it’s one of Nikon’s tested ones), and don’t send your neckstrap. I actually get a bit overboard here: I take off the eyecup and color LCD protector. On the flip side: do put the body cap on. • Be accessible. Nikon’s NPS repair request form has places for home phone, work phone, fax, and email address. Seems like a good idea to provide them, but I go even further: I tape a business card to the camera. Also, PO Boxes are no-no with Nikon: give them a street address to ship back to. • Follow up. In the US, that usually means phoning or checking the Web site that Nikon will point you to once they receive and log your item into service. Be sure you have any number Nikon provides you, along with the serial numbers of the items you sent. • Authorize. If your repair is going to cost you something (as in the case of impact damage), you’re at some point going to need authorize payment. Usually you should wait for Nikon to ask for it. But if you want to expedite the process, write a note that says “I hereby authorize Nikon to make any repair of up to US$xxx and charge this to my Mastercard/Visa ####### expiration x/xx.” (Note that I put a spot for that on my form.) You must sign this authorization. (Nikon will also ship COD, though this is always sent UPS Second Day delivery in the US.) By now you’re probably wondering about how you get in touch with Nikon service. After all, the phone number is conspicuously missing from the materials provided with the camera. In the US, call 1-800-NIKON-SV (that’s 1-800-645- 6678 if you’ve still got a rotary phone that doesn’t have the letters on it). Foreign readers will have to consult the Web site for their local distributor. I once tried to put every number V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 728 worldwide into one of my books, but some of them changed so rapidly, it became a chore to stay up to date. In the US, your equipment will need to be sent to: Nikon Inc. Attn: Service Dept. 1300 Walt Whitman Road Melville, NY 11747-3064 Or Nikon Inc. Attn: Service Dept. 841 Apollo St. Suite 100 El Segundo CA 90245 V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 729 Questions and Answers Q: Are there different models of D200 in different parts of the world? A: No. A D200 sold in the United States is the same as the camera sold in Japan and Europe. The serial numbering method does seem to vary between regions, however (which is one way that Nikon can tell whether you’ve got an official import or gray market camera, by the way). Servicing and warranty policies tend to vary between countries and regions. Note that some gray market importers “strip” items out of the box Nikon provides in order to offer a “lower price.” It’s always a bad sign if the retailer asks you if you want a battery, body cap, charger, eyepiece, or any other normally supplied accessory. NikonUSA will not repair a gray market camera, and such “add-on scams” are your first sign that you’re getting one. Q: How can I tell if I’m getting an officially imported D200? A: There’s no simple way, unfortunately. In the US, the serial number (at least until they run out of numbers), should be in the form 30#####. That’s not a perfect method of determining origin, though. Q: Can I have older manual focus lenses modified to work better with a D200? A: With a few minor caveats, yes. First, if the lens is pre-AI, you should have the lens converted to AI (see Hhttp://www.aiconversions.com). Once the lens is AI- compatible, you can mount and use it on the D200. To get the lens to meter without entering data into the SHOOTING MENU, you must add what Nikon calls a “CPU chip” to the lens. I used to point out a service that installed CPUs into lenses, but I’ve received just enough complaints about that vendor that I no longer can recommend them. If you know what you’re doing, it’s relatively easy to order a CPU from Nikon and install it in the mount yourself. But since the D200 allows you to set information about the lens into the camera, I wouldn’t even bother with fixed focal length lenses. V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 730 Q: What’s the CPU that Nikon keeps referring to in lenses? Do Nikon lenses really have a computer in them? A: No, there’s not really a computer in Nikon lenses. There is a small chip that provides two or three pieces of information to the camera: the maximum aperture, the focal length, and (on D-type and later lenses) a broad indication of the focus distance currently set. (The focus distance is not exact, but rather one chosen from a small set of possible distances.) Is it really important to use D-type lenses on a D200? If you use flash at close-in distances, yes. With a lens of less than 100mm in focal length and at focus distances of 15 feet (5m) or less, you’ll see small, but usually visible differences in flash exposures between non-D and D-type lenses in TTL flash modes. With longer focal length lenses and longer focus distances, flash exposures don’t vary much, if at all. In non- flash exposures, you won’t see any dramatic differences in exposures between non-D and D-type lenses at the same focal length and focus distance, despite Nikon’s claims for improved “3D matrix metering.” I have seen some small differences, though, especially with really wide angle lenses focused at close distances. What does make a difference for both flash and non-flash use is the maximum aperture information, which is required for the D200 to provide Program and shutter-preferred exposure modes, as well as matrix metering. But we can now enter that information directly into the camera body, so the lens doesn’t actually need a CPU. Q: Is it safe to let the D200 and CompactFlash cards go through airport X-ray machines? A: Yes, though the camera should normally be turned OFF before doing so. The danger is not the X-ray itself (as it is with film), but that these devices tend to have strong magnetic fields associated with them. But the brief exposure in any X- ray machine, especially the relatively low-powered ones used in the United States, shouldn’t have any impact on the camera or the CompactFlash media. Likewise, your computer equipment shouldn’t have problems with X-ray machines, either. [...]... all of these devices are AI compatible, which means that you need to set aperture and focal length information in the Shooting Menu to get metering If you use an MB-D200, Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 731 V1.03 you may need to increase the extension between body and bellows to clear the front grip of the MB-D200 Q: Can the D200’s software be upgraded? A: Yes As I write this, there... and other information, including DLLs that operate as “black boxes” between your software and the camera or NEF images Some developers find it easy to get, others difficult (and it varies between Europe, the US, and Asia) You’ll also need to sign a license agreement to get the SDK Nikon also produces a “mini-SDK” that allows access to the encrypted white balance for NEF files Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide. .. cycles with their pro cameras (D1 appeared in 1999, D1h/x in 2001, D2h in 2003, D2x in 2005) and a slightly longer cycle with their consumer models Any D200 replacement wouldn’t appear until 2009 based upon current Nikon cycles Q: Is there a software development kit (SDK) available to deal with communication to and from the camera and the NEF file format? A: Yes You can apply to Nikon for access to some... modified to accept the D200 ( http://www.nexusamerica.com) I expect Fantasea to have a more inexpensive solution at some point ( http://www.fantasea.com) H H H H Q: Can I attach a bellows unit to the D200? A: Yes The Nikon PB-6 bellows can be attached by using a compatible extension ring (PK-11a, PK-12, PK-13, or PN-11) between the bellows and the camera Nikon also warns that you may need the PB-6D... up -to- date, so his site is the preferred source for card speed info H Q: Are there any underwater housings for the D200? A: Yes It appears we’re going to have a flood of them (pardon the pun) The Hugyfot HFN-D200 should be available soon ( http://www.hugyfot.com) Ikelite has a modestly priced (comparatively) housing that allows ports for most lenses ( http://www.ikelite.com/web_two/2d20 0nikon. html) The. .. 16x or even 80x speeds How do I tell which cards are the fastest? A: First, Lexar and others use those labels in reference to the peak access speed of a CD-ROM drive In other words, an 8x CompactFlash isn’t necessarily half as fast as a 16x card, though it may be true on the D200 if the card itself can handle sustained peak writes Virtually all of the actual memory chips used in CompactFlash cards are... certain there will be one when the WT-3 is released Q: Can the D200’s sensor be upgraded later? A: Not likely Such a change would require a pretty drastic disassembly, removal and realignment procedure, and the supplemental electronics might need to be replaced, too The likelihood of that being done at a reasonable cost is low, so it’s more likely that a replacement camera model would appear instead Nikon. .. small handful of manufacturers, and the technical specifications differ little between them Lexar first made improvements in write speed by implementing an “eraseahead” function, not by using faster chips That said, fieldtesting has shown that the range between various CompactFlash cards can be somewhat dramatic between the lower cost generic cards and state-of -the- art brand name cards A very good... US, and Asia) You’ll also need to sign a license agreement to get the SDK Nikon also produces a “mini-SDK” that allows access to the encrypted white balance for NEF files Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 732 . readers will have to consult the Web site for their local distributor. I once tried to put every number V1.03 Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D200 Page 728 worldwide into one of my books,. provide a form to fill out to consumers, so I’ve taken the liberty to paraphrasing the form they give to NPS members and have included a PDF of it on the CD (the file name is Nikon Repair Request) good idea to provide them, but I go even further: I tape a business card to the camera. Also, PO Boxes are no-no with Nikon: give them a street address to ship back to. • Follow up. In the US,