Digital SLR camera Nikon D 200

It sorta pretty much comes down to using the available production capacity to supply what the vendor considers to be the primary market for the product. Typically, with tech products, Japanese manufacturors/vendors will restrict initial availability to the home, or Japanese, market, then release it worldwide by steps. Many products, from many vendors, first after home market introduction are available only in the US/North American market simply because

1) The distribution and support infrastructure (including warranty repair capability - gotta fill the parts bins and train the techs) is in place
and
2) Thats where the money is.

Germany's E. Leitz/Leica, for instance, does much the same with new product, German/EU availability preceeding US/North American and Asian/Pacific Rim availability. Auto and electronics manufacturors worldwide do the same thing. There's often product available elsewhere in the world before it makes it to the US/North American market.

BTW - the D200 is helluva camera for the price - without a doubt the finest under-US $4000 digital SLR camera body out there right now IMO, and also in the opinions of all the reviewers I've come across. A long-time Nikon user(over 40 years now - from the first F-series through my current D-70, which will accommodate many lenses and accessories I've since the '60s - way to go, Nikon!!! ), I've had my eyes on it for a while now, and at $1800, its sure tempting. Another note - if you do get one, get a couple multi-Gig MicroDrives or CompactFlash cards - that puppy's resolution requires enormous memory, particularly at higher settings - a single image can be hundreds of Megabytes.


Oh, and if you do happen to purchase a product - any product - not yet available in your particular market area, be advised the item may, in fact likely, will have no domestic warranty support when you get it home; warranties often are specific to the market region in which the product was intended to be sold, and if warranty service is available at all, it is available only through the product manufacturor's home-nation/headquarters facillities, shipping, handling, and insurance both ways at your expense, and may be of shorter duration and/or less coverage than a standard authorized market warranty for the product within its intended market. Stuff sold outside its intended market area is referred to as "Gray Market" product, and selling product outide its manufacturor-intended region really isn't looked on too fondly by most manufacturors.

Well, timber exactly what I thought ... and you noted all the points, I've considered already. :wink:

Since I'm younger, I'm not using Nikon as long as you do ... and have Sigma lenses :wink:

The problem seems to be that Nikon didn't expect such a response for this product: it's been on the market here since December last year.
(About 1.600 € in Germany momentarily.)

Any product sold in any country of the EU has got a two years warranty. So it's indeed twice to be thaught of to buy it from outsite.

Just got the news that the camera will arrive next week - so I'll get it the same time as those, who ordered it in December :wink:

If you are still listening, timber ...

Nikon stores photos in RAW as well - and sells it's own related software for that.
As far as I could find out, my (Corel) Paint Shop X can't handle this formate like Nikon's software does (and there's Danish - I think - software, a bit cheaper).

Even as an ambitious amateur - do I really need the RAW-format?
(I want to make good photos, not create photo-art.)

(Bought already four one GB cards, btw. :wink:)

In simplest terms - perhaps oversimple - the RAW format amounts to storing the entire image information file UNPROCESSED - precisely the data recorded by the camera. Technically, a RAW file is not an image file, it is information from which an image file may be rendered. That is why special software is necessary to work with RAW files; first you have to turn the data into an image file of some sort. You could think of a RAW file as being, analogous to film terms, equivalent to an undeveloped negative. Only with some processing of the undeveloped negative may you obtain a template from which an image may be made. Camera manufacturors generally provide proprietary software for this purpose, "developing the negative", and some 3rd-party software vendors offer RAW-capable product, including but not limited to Adobe's PhotoShop.

I would say that for all but the most critical, commercial production or extremely serious amature competition purposes, the RAW format offers little if any practical benefit, while imposing the costs of vastly increased storage capacity and additional processing software.


Sorta kinda like having a 900HP car capable of sustained speeds in excess of 225MPH, or an over-the-road tractor capable of pulling 40-ton loads at highway speeds - neat, fun to have, mebbe, but not particularly practical to the average individual, and most unlikely ever to used by other than professionals to capacity and purpose in day-to-day application.


Noted digital photographer Keith Cooper offers a good discussion of the pros and cons, why's and how's, where's and when's of RAW format HERE


Google's free Picassa supports some RAW processing, though it is not compatible with all camera manufacturor's implementation of the RAW format. I've found it does work with both Nikon and Canon RAW files - at least to some extent.

IrfanView also has limited RAW functionality.

Anyhow, I wouldn't wory about RAW much in your situation, and I certainly wouldn't recommend you buy any software specifically on the basis of RAW support. The Nikon software that came with the camera likely will give you all the RAW capability you'll need - or even want - for a good long while to come.

Thanks, timber. (Meanwhile, I've found out that all the pro's I've read for the Nikon software come from professional photographers/journalists.)

I know about IrfanView's RAW-functions already ... and how to integrade them.

Thanks again for your detailed response!

Yer weccum.

Only yesterday my dealer (with me) phoned the importor: the camera might arrive by end of next week (and I got assured that I will get one, even since I didn't order it in January).

Just now my dealer phoned me to tell: IT ARRIVED today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How are you getting on with it Walter ?
I've used the D100 for years and have been thinking for a while that it might be worth trading in for the D200.

Well, excellently. I did all my photos in Chicago and in New Mexico with it (you can see them on the thread about the Chicago meeting and one started by dys), had looked in the handbook only on the flight ...

I won't miss it!

(I must admit that I can use my lenses both with the D200 as well as with my olf N80.)

I suppose, however, it will take some more months until I get to know EVERYTHING I can do with it!

(What amazes me most is that I can make sgots in the dawn, with the 70-200 mm lenses AND a 2x-convertor with 1/20 sec [1600 ISO] .... and everything is sharp and clear.)

Wow. That was quick.
Thanks Walter.
I'll check that out.

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I noticed that before, too: any text within such brackets disappears when posted