Camera Labs

Over the past 3 weeks I have taken 2775 images with my D200, this according to the camera counter.

I liked the D200 from the beginning on, over the past weeks I have begun to like it more and more as a camera that is. I purchased the battery grip with it which makes it bulky and heavy, but also gives it a more secure grip when shooting with my 80-200 2.8 VR lens.
The D200 becomes and automatic extention to ones body after a while, where all the controls are in a natural position and can be found without having to look for them, I would recommend the D200 to anyone, it's expensive but in my opinion well worth it. I am not able to go into technical details for I still don't know what the blazers I am talking about, but for that information one can still read up on sites like this. All I can say is that the D200 is a very satisfactory camera. It is my first ever digital camera and I am use to photograph with leica analog cameras like the M and various R series, I think the D200 can compete, well it does compete fully for me.

As for the lenses,

I returned the Nikon 17-50 2.8 as in my opinion this was a "crap" way overpriced pices of junk. Don't forget I come from Leica glass and although I'm not a fanboy defending everything that has to do with Leica, they do provide you with good quality glass, to which I am used to. the 17-50 2.8 at 1100€ is in no way comparable. It distorts at 17mm, at 2.8 the image quality is poor over the full lenght and at 50 the images get soft. The edges are never quite sharp at any aperture setting. My dealer saw the result and told me it must of been a monday morning sort of lens, excuse me a monday morning lens retailing at 1298€ !
Instead I bought a Tamron 17-50 2.8 and although not perfect it renders better than the Nikon at a third of the price.
My 80-200VR 2.8 is a magnificent piece of glass at any focal length in combination with any apperture. The VR works wonders, I would say 3 stops is about the limit, which in my opinion is great. The combination of the 80-200 and the D200 allows me to photograph at 800 Iso without loosing any detail or needing to de-noise, this in combination with 2.8 aperture and 1/30th provides a wide variety of low-light shooting possibilities, obviously only still" photogrpahy, which I do most anyway. The combination is pretty heavy, but I don't need to carry a tripod/monopod around all the time.
The sigma 30mm 1.4 is of excellent quality as well although focussing gets a bit "wild" sometimes. I use this lens quite a lot and tend to crop quite a bit.
I am currently looking for something wide, this in the area of 10-20mm the Nikon 12-24mm which I tested as well doesn't quit cut the cake, the fixed focal 14mm is to expensive and the Sigmas I tried so far are a bit slow or unusable fully opened. a 4.0 VR 10-20 or something would be nice but isn't available. Quite a shortcoming winthin the Nikon range I would say. But I don't do much wide angle anyway so I have time to checkout the alternatives.
I have been thinking about a second body but might revert to another brand, this for wide angle use. I am waiting for the Olympus 510 to come out for this has anti-shake and dust removal built in and Olympus also has 2 excellent wide-angle lenses.

As for Photoshopping, I am slowly but surely getting the hang of it. One needs to structurally approach that learning curve, get a book and start the tedious excersizing in order to fully understand the possibilities, this takes time, is very boring but the results are very good.

I also have the canon 9000 printer which I must is excellent but surprisingly expensive in terms of ink and quality paper, I reckon it is cheaper to have your prints done at a high quality printing service than doing it yourself .....

Hi Cornelius!

I would have asked, when you come back to us sharing some insights - but here you are!

Whoa, Sigma lenses being better than Nikon one - this will certainly cause a stir!

As to your search for a wide-angle lens, you've certainly read my sad story on the quality of the Sigma 10-20mm here, but if you exchange it for another copy often enough, you might well get a good one. I finally settled for the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye, which in my opinion is an excellent lens.
How good is the Sigma 30mm at f1.4? Please, post some pics!

Regarding the printer, I finally gave up to get good quality prints at A3 from a shop at below 5EUR. And the price of printing on your Canon Pixma pro 9000 is certainly cheaper than that plus you get total control over the colors.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Hi Cornelius, howsit going?

I think you let Klaus Schroiff test your lens here. Although it says 70-200VR 2.8...
Very impressive results. That could be a lens to test with a tele-converter!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses