D200 picture?

I saw this over at dpreview. I have no idea if it's real or just a photoshop hoax but it looks cool.

Interesting Larry, thanks for posting.

My gut feeling is that it's a photoshop'd hoax. It looks to me like a combination of the S3 and F6/D2h. It appears to have the same battery tray as the S3 which is a departure from the Nikon LiOn's used in their consumer cams. If they are going to the bigger pack, like used in the D2_ then that's cool, but I think unlikely.

I sure hope I'm wrong though, that looks like a great body - hopefully it will have a good sensor in it, and a big viewfinder, eh? :-)

Cheers

James

why would Nikon go larger with this camera? Why would they use a bigger battery than the D100?

I agree, I think this is a good photoshop work. The vertical grip on the D200 will be optional (I hope).

LOL, cute composite image. You can see that parts are actually from Phil Askey's D100 review poster shot. Hoaxtastic!

Regards, Martyn

I hope that the D200 - or whatever appears to replace Nikon's D100 will be a similar body to one of the existing Nikon digitals so that it would fit in an existing housing. The problem with that is if Nikon use a N80/F80 donor body again we are stuck with the below par CAM-900 autofocus.

Hopefully the D200 will have either the CAM-1300 AF from the F5, F100, D1 series or even better the CAM-2000 AF from the F6, D2 series.

But I think that it is unlikely that those AF modules will suddenly appear in a N80 donor body. I also think Nikon should have given the CAM-1300 to Kodak and Fuji for their SLRn and S3 cameras.

Alex

I hope I have got those AF module numbers correct - sorry if I haven't.

I would be disappointed if Nikon used the N80/F80 as the base for the D100 replacement. After using a D2H with it's CAM 2000 AF module my S2 (same CAM 900 AF as D100, D70, etc.) seems grindingly slow. The consensus opinion is that the D100 replacement (D200, D90, D80, D whatever) will be a new body design and will have the CAM 1300 AF module. It would be sweet if it did have the CAM 2000 but I think Nikon will keep that for it's Pro bodies. But, who knows? Until it's actually announced, it's anyones quess.

I'm not sure what Nikon will do with the CAM 1300 because the only camera they make with it is the F100 - and I'm not sure if they really are making that camera anymore?

One thing that I like about this discussion is we photographers are once again talking about the other features of our cameras - AF etc - when compariing models - rather than just going on about Megapixel numbers.

Alex

The cam 1300 module is history. According to Thom, Nikon's factories are only geared up to do the 900 and 2000 autofocus systems.

Cheers

James

I'm not sure what Nikon will do with the CAM 1300 because the only camera they make with it is the F100 - and I'm not sure if they really are making that camera anymore?  

 

One thing that I like about this discussion is we photographers are once again talking about the other features of our cameras - AF etc - when compariing models - rather than just going on about Megapixel numbers.  

 

Alex

Alex, Do you know of any quantitative tests of autofocus systems?

No, Herb.

I'm sure there is a website out there! But I often think that the testing methodolgies are not very robust or repeatable. So I am dubious about results.

One recent magazine test (reported on DPReview) compared the Nikon CAM2000 with Canon AF in the 1D series and concluded (rather tenuously I thought) that the Nikon was better because when photographing a fast car driving straight at the camera the Nikon got 1 photo out of 40 out of focus and the Canon 1 photo out of 36 - or something like that.

I can say as someone who owned a Nikon CAM 1300 F100 and then bought a CAM 900 D100, there is a very noticable difference as a user. I have only tried the CAM 2000 in the shop and it is even better again, although I would place the CAM 1300 closer to the CAM 2000 than the CAM 900.

Alex

James, Thom is a very reliable source - so I guess that he knows that Nikon have stopped making the F100/CAM 1300.

If I were designing an AF test for UW cameras - to do on land - I guess I would want to evaluate low light and low contrast AF abilities. Particularly on blue and green subjects. I would choose a 50/60mm macro lens for doing the tests.

You could make up a set of cards with blue and green patterns on them with difference degrees of contrast between the colours in the patterns. And then time a cameras AF response (in AFS) from the camera being focussed at infinity to it actually taking a picture of the card (AFS would ensure that the camera had locked focus).

You could repeat these tests for say 3 different levels of contrast of cards, in three levels of room brightness.

This would provide a good idea on the AF performance of cameras for UW use - without having to go UW.

Alex