New Nikon Options

Help! I am making the transition from an Oly C5050Z and would like some advice about the benefits/disadvantages/advantages of the D70S vs the D200 other that the obvious, lots of money. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Alan

Tough call Alan.

I have just 'upgraded' from a D70 to a D200.

D200 feels very nice and as far as I am concerned the biggest enhancement is that the viewfinder is noticeably bigger and brighter.

I have had Ike housings for both the D70 and D200 and they are great but the D70 was just that bit more difficult to see through and frame up a shot.

D200 eats batteries, the D70 you can fit a battery and forget it for days.

D200 more pixels = bigger files to process and requires you to have larger CF cards and better back end horsepower PC.

The rear LCD on the D200 is a lot bigger than the D70 - on the D70 I had trouble gauging if the shot was in focus or not - I am hoping for better on the D200 but honestly have not taken enough shots in the water to comment more.

Cost - if cost is an issue to you then the D70 wins out - fools like me 'upgrading' will have D70 kit to sell at knockdown rates while the D200 is still at a premium with little sign of discounting.

The D70 I had was well capable of taking better pictures than I could, I was in no way limited by the cameras capabilities.

D70 will flash synch at 1/500 the D200 is maxed at 1/250.

As I am reading this I am honestly kinda wondering why I have the D200 nesting in the corner of my office.......

Paul C

Hi Alan,

I was more or less in the same situation as you are. I used a Canon G5 P&S and i wanted to upgrade to dSLR. I used to be a Canon fan (and i still am if it comes to image quality) but i stopped with canon since there is no proper Fisheye available for their 350D,20D or 30D. The 5D would one step too much for me. So, what was left over for me was the nikon D70s or the D200. I started comparing them and to make a long story short: i wanted a proper viewfinder, since i'm used to compose on the LCD of my P&S which is relatively big.

A friend of mine upgraded from Oly 5050z to Oly E300 and she has had pretty much difficulties in composing through the viewfinder since it's very small. She now saving money to buy herself a 45 degree magnifying viewfinder.

Other points to consider:

* if you buy a D200 the housings in general are also more expensive then for a D70s (at least with Hugyfot i certainly is)

* housings for a D70s in general are in stock; for a D200 you'll have to wait

* I chose to go for the D200 because i was affraid that i would regret it if i went for the D70: in the end it would become even more expensive if i had to return it. You're going spend a lot of money anyway; the total prize will not be doubled by going for a D200.

Now i'm still waiting for the housing which can arrive any moment...

good luck with your choice, Udo

P.S.: Are there any people that have experience with Pentax? It seems that they have quit a nice zoom fisheye lens....

I went with the D70 two years ago and I have been happy with it. I wouldn't trade all the pictures I've had in the last two years to have waited for a D200. And it isn't worth it for me to upgrade now after all I've invested in the D70 and housing.

That said, if I were starting today I'd go with the D200. There are a few features that are much better for underwater on the D200. The way I see it you could be happy for a very long time with the D200. It matches the top-level pro SLRs that people used for decades so while I'm sure you want more I don't think you'll ever need more than that. The D70 on the other hand makes some compromises to make it a revolutionary budget SLR, the kind that brings prosumer (CP5000 oly 5050 shooters up to the DSLR world).

Underwater:

1) Faster Autofocus

2) Iso 100 (lower noise at all iso)

3) Bigger viewfinder

Topside:

1) Mirror Lock-up

2) Metal Body

3) Faster continious shooting

4) More mpix

5) Vertical grip option

6) Flexible Raw+jpg allows you to take hi-res jpgs along with Raw (simple convenience)

7) Ability to meter with older manual focus lenses

All in all they are both great cameras. The main difference is pro level vs high-end consumer level . For me it would be fun to try soime of the added features like mirror lock up, but nothing there is critical to getting top quality photos.

All the underwater photography specialist retailers I know have lots of orders for D200 housings. Nearly all of these are for either film photographers or S2 or D100 photographers. Very few D70 photographers have bothered to upgrade.

i dunno if this says anything?

Alex

For all of the reasons listed above, go for the D200!

I just upgraded from a 3-year old D100 which I absolutely loved and just got back from a week of shooting the D200...the larger viewfinder & LCD alone are worth it! The files are big but I shot everything at ISO 100 and loved the difference in quality. It was also much easier to gauge the out-of-focus stuff when using the Macromate so I could correct the shot immediately.

The only reason I upgraded was to get the Aquatica A200 housing which is considerably smaller than my old housing and I'm so happy I made the switch...the new housing is a gem also They corrected every issue I had with my old housing and the camera body slides in and latches so beautifully....everything lines up so much better than in the old housing...they have definitely addressed some of the negative issues from the older housing and it's sweet to use.

Very few D70 photographers have bothered to upgrade.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Except me...

With the exception of eating batteries like an OSU fratboy after an all night "alternative brownies" binge, the D200 simply outclasses the D70 in everything I am interested in doing. I probably would have paid the $1K difference just for the viewfinder , but there are other things that don't get mentioned as much on Wetpixel that make a big difference for me.

The D200 can control SB-800's and SB-600's on multiple channels and in multiple groups, I use this for fill flash control in landscape/scenic shots. D70 only has the one channel unless you use an SB-800 on camera.

My 70-200's VR function is much more useful on the D200, with the D70 it always seemed to be a bit slow and the losses of sharpness from the VR overcame the benefit of being tripod free.

The "pixel level" image quality, of my D200 at least, knocks the "pixel level" quality of the D70 out of the park. To be fair my D70 is a first batch body while my D200 came from the third batch off the production line, and more recent D70s's have better image quality than my D70, but I do think as a rule the images from the D200 have a better quality. I have taken an approximately 25% crop from a D200 in camera fine JPG file, interpolated this to 11x14 @ 300 dpi in a single step and printed the result with Pictopia, and there's no noise, grain or artifacting to be seen in the end result. I don't think I could do this with an in camera JPG file from my D70.

D200 has an in built intervalometer, which I am yet to find a use for... but I think it is very cool

In a housing all cameras feel pretty much the same. Outside of the housing, I find the D200 more comfortable to handle and it has a better "grip feel", probably a factor of the magnesium chassis and the somewhat more refined curves and grooves of the D200. I have reasonably large hands, I find the D70 grip a little thin and cramped.

Thanks for the suggestions. Now, where should I look for the best price and most trustworthy company to buy either the D70s or the D200?

Support our site and try some Wetpixel sponsors , I know Dave Marsh (Underwater Photo-Tech) sold several D200 and the D70s should be easy to get!

Luiz

Also, if you decide to go the D70s route, you can save a lot by getting it used from people that are upgrading. There are several for sale on our classified section:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showforum=6

If you're affraid of buying used electronics I would still check the classifieds for D70 housings.

I have both and endorse the sentiments of other photographers. I mainly use them for topside work, but have just purchased a housing for the D200. My view is that you should weigh the advantages of the D200 carefully before you decide to spend the difference. If it is mainly for UW work, you may do better putting the extra towards a 2nd strobe or lens (eg. 10.5, 105 AFS etc.,)

The larger viewfinder and LCD are nice and are certainly very useful for reviewing shots. I could never tell if I'd nailed focus on the D70s, but it is easy to tell you on the D200. You can even set a centre push of the round "rocker switch" (the one you use for selecting AF zones) to give you 100% zoom on playback - nice!

The image quality difference between the D70s isn't enormous, but it is certainly nice to have the extra pixels in case you need to crop and at large print sizes, the files do look better.

If you do decide on the D70s (it is worth getting the "s" I reckon) certainly follow Luiz's advice on buying a housing and you'll save plenty.