“Pricegrabber”:http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=48/vendors%5B%5D=NIK/popup4%5B%5D=10:112/popup1%5B%5D=90:975 shows the complexity of buying a Nikon D200. Right now, they come in a couple kits, so what’s the best one?
* “Body with 18-200 F3.5-5.6G DX ED VR”:http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Nikon_D200_SLR_Digital_Camera_w_18_200mm_F_3_5_5_6_Lens,__15228650/search=d200 . “Ken Rockwell”:http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18200.htm just loves this lense. It is a 12x zoom from wide angle to effective 350mm! Wow that’s amazing, it has vibration reduction as well. If you can afford this $700 list lense, go for it. Pricegrabber only shows Ritz Camera carrying it at $2400, but it is also at “Adorama”:http://www.adorama.com/INKD200K2.html and “B&H”:http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=413124&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation have it for that same list price.
* “Body with 18-70 AF-S IF-ED Nikkor Lens”:http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Nikon_D200_SLR_Digital_Camera_w_18_70mm_AF_S_IF_ED_Nikkor_Lens,__15228649/sort_type=bottomline. This is a basic 3x zoom lense that usually goes with the D70s. “Ken Rockwell”:http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/1870.htm prefers the much cheaper “18-55” that comes with the D50 because it is half the wieght and it is sharp and silent. It has some distortion, but Photoshop CS2’s lens distortion corrects it almost perfectly (+4.00 at 18mm, +1.50 at 24mm and 1.00 at 35mm).
* “Body Only”:http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Nikon_D200_SLR_Digital_Camera_Body_Only,__13321369/sort_type=bottomline. This is just the body. Buy this in the case where you already have tons of Nikon lenses and just want to switch backs. Because of high demand, the lowest price right now is the list price of $1700.
One response to “Shopping for the Nikon D200”
Hi Rich, I have the body + 18-200 lens and love it. The quality of this lens is superb, although you may want to pair it up with a faster prime lens for indoor/portrait work.
But as an everyday working lens, for that price, I don’t think it can be beaten.
You can check out my pictures with the setup on flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/randomimages
As far as the lightroom/aperture thing. I’ve been using photoshop almost exclusively, but have been playing with the lightroom beta (mac and pc) – and I like it a lot. Great workflow.
Cheers – Steve.
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Great to know Steve. Yup, it is an amazing lense. I love your flickr site btw. I will have to try lightroom now that I know it is around.