After a lot of debate and reading extensively on here I decided to go for the D700.

It's in the back of the car and can't wait to get home tonight to play.

I have had the D200 for a couple of years and feel that I have learned a lot from it.
I really do like the low light promise - Every year I cover an indoor karate competition in horrid light and spend ages cleaning up and removing noise afterwards - not to mention that I could never really get the action frozen enough (no stobes allowed)

I had been struggling with the choice of compromising and going for the D300 as an upgrade or waiting until I could afford the D3 but now the extra size and weight don't seem to be worth the extra cost of carying a D3 around now that the D700 is here.

I look forward to trying the 70-200VR and my 50mm 1.8.

Unfortunately I will have to use the DX 18-200 VR on a weekend trip to the Lake District (in the rain) as I can not yet justify the 24-70 which I have convinced myself I need/want/desire.
I am sure I can still enjoy it, even at 5MP.

Most topics here have focused on comparing it to the D3 and D300.
What sort of thing should I expect as improvements over the D200;
Should I expect to be blown away or are the differences more subtle?

D200, Grip & 18-200VR going on ebay after the weekend

Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is neverending.
--Hagakure--
GreenNinja Photography

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

You certainly won't be blown away if you're using only a subset of its pixels combined with an average performing lens. If you get a good quality, full format lens, you'll be amazed at the quality of the photos. Take a few shots with your 50mm at ISO 1000 and prepare to be astonished.

Rick Walker

My photos:
GeoVista Photography

Download from our library of Image Doctor podcasts here

Hello,

I'm also coming from the D200 which I maintain is a great camera which makes high quality pictures. I could not switch to the D300 when it appeared because I didn't find enough good reasons to do so. But making many photos of the shows performed by my daughters' dance school, without flash and with rather slow lenses, I had to make them at 1600 and even 3200 ISO with substantial noise in the darks. This obliged me always to work a lot to clean up the pictures. So, I preferred to wait for an affordable FF with low noise at high ISO in a year or two or three..., the D3 beeing far beyond my financial means. And suddenly appeared the FF D700 which promessed clean and detailed pictures up to 6400 ISO !! And it really does so !
IMHO, this well-built camera is an enormous jump in image quality, and I am really happy of having switched now.
Thanks Nikon ! (Thank me too Nikon for having spent a lot of money for your great product !) :-D

EYES WIDE SHUTter...
Christian
Belgium (EU)

Hi Christian,

I could have written that myself!
Thanks.

Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is neverending.
--Hagakure--
GreenNinja Photography

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Personally I think you will be blown away.

The D200 started getting noisy at ISO 400. The D3/D700 has about that level of noise at 3200.

It made ALL the difference in how I THINK about shooting. It's huge IMO.

At ISO 200 at mid-day both will make nice pictures, but the D3/D700 quickly takes off from there.

I had the D300 less than 10 months before receiving the D700, so holding on to your D200 was probably a good decision. Although the D300 is an excellent camera, I believe the transition will be more of an improvement for you coming from the D200 *which is also very good).

What to look forward to in the D200-D700 move: Improved color saturation and color accuracy. Exceptional low light performance; I too used to sweat bullets when taking indoor low-light shots with the D200; the D300 was only a modest improvement. Its reassuring to know the D700 can produce good results all the way to 6400. Improved ergonomics; many subtle improvements to switches, the battery door, etc. Improved viewfinder. Improved weather seals. Improved exposure and focus accuracy = more keepers.

You might try the 18-200 in FX mode on the D700; you can turn off the option to automatically invoke DX crop mode. It should only vignette at the widest zoom settings (my guess), although I have not heard from what angle. I have talked to one pro using the lens with a D3 who is quite satisfied with the results. I would recommend moving to the 24-70 ASAP; it is an incredible lens.

MarkF

D800
I still own an F100; do you think film will make a comeback?

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

>You might try the 18-200 in FX mode on the D700; you can turn
>off the option to automatically invoke DX crop mode. It
>should only vignette at the widest zoom settings (my guess),
>although I have not heard from what angle. I have talked to
>one pro using the lens with a D3 who is quite satisfied with
>the results. I would recommend moving to the 24-70 ASAP; it
>is an incredible lens.


Excellent! I hadn't even considered this as an option. (Haven't looked at the Vignetting control yet either)
Will definately try this out until I can afford another £1k for the 24-70, but you have reasured me that that is the lens I should get.

I didn't get much time to play last night after going through the menu's etc. - turning off beep, 'Release & Focus', 3D tracking, Auto D-Lighting etc. (Still a lot of tweaking to do)

The first thing that jumped out at me was the clarity of the LCD monitor. I set Auto ISO to max out at 6400 and took some low light indoor 'snaps' with the 50mm 1.8 just to see what they looked like on the monitor and already there was a massive perceived improvement in noise reduction.

Loved the option to add Copyright Info, Save Settings and make a custom menu - which is better that the old Recent Settings.


It is also great that there is nothing actually wrong with the D200 and if I could I would keep it but someone will get a good second hand camera.

Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is neverending.
--Hagakure--
GreenNinja Photography

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

I think I may be approaching the question of how to move from a D200 with a 18-200mm DX lens from a different angle - it's interesting to see your take on it.

My thoughts were to upgrade my lens first, ie to a 24-70mm. My greater dissatisfaction is currently with my lens, rather than the camera body. I also want the D700 prices to drop further. We're planning a big trip to South Africa next year, where the D200's crop factor will be handy, as will a lens that can go to 200mm. I'll feel more comfortable with a cheaper & more fully depreciated camera in an environment where crime can be an issue. For this reason & for flexibility & low weight, I may stick with the 18-200mm, plus my cheap 50mm 1.8 for this trip. (But I won't take bets on the 24-70mm not coming along too.)

Eventually, I'll be ready to jump for a D700, with a great FX lens.

Bridget

I am also a happy D200 user.
Did not bought the D300, waiting for a cam like the D700, and now it is there!
The D700 has to drop a bit in price and then it will be my next cam.

I am very happy i did not buy any DX lenses for my D200.
My 20-35/2.8, 50/1.4, 85/1.8, 105DC/2.0 and 180/2.8 will be perfect lenses on the d700.

Only i am curious how the the 20-35 will do it on the d700, otherwise i will replace it with a used 17-35 2.8.

I can't wait, but i have to wait.

Jos

(excuse me for my English)

I agree with the others on the high ISO performance.

One other thing that I've noticed that autofocus in low light is a big improvement in the D700 over the D200.

I expect that it would be really useful for indoor sports like karate, though I haven't tried mine yet in that situation. In the winter, I often shoot volleyball in poorly-lit gyms - I'm especially looking forward to that in the coming months.

I was shooting some apparel prototypes in a very poorly lit room last night using D700+24-70. The prototypes were all dark fabrics. We were examining the dark stitching and fabric weaves. Accurate AF and shadow detail was essential. Normally that situation was very challenging for my D200 (noise, AF hunting), but not a problem at all with the D700 (no noise, snappy AF).

-Robin