[Matty]

New Nikon rumours abound....

SPECIFICATIONS
12.4 megapixels, Same as D2X: 4,288 x 2,848 pixels as well as 3,216 x 2,136-pixels and 2,144 x 1,424 pixels. Automatic rotation of vertical shots.

CMOS sensor, standard DX size. (23.7 x 15.7 mm)

Frame Rate: 3 FPS at 12.4 megapixels for up to 10 consecutive NEFs. Bizarre high speed crop (like the D2X): 5 FPS at 6.8 MP for up to 18 NEFs. Image sizes are 3,216 x 2,136, 2,400 x 1,600 or 1,600 x 1,064 pixels when cropped.

Shutter and Flash Sync: Only 1/250 with flash. Bad, this is worse than the D50/D70/D70s and the same as D2X. Up to 1/8,000 without flash.

Flash: i-TTL. Works with SB-600 and SB-800. No rumors of a built-in, which is a big defect and another reason I love the D70s. You can do wireless flash control for free with the D70/D70s, but will need to buy a second SB-800 just to control a remote flash from the D200. I have an article here on using the free wireless flash control.

AF Zones: 11. Only 9 are sensitive to both vertical and horizontal, similar to D2X

ISO: 100 to 800. Too bad; I love the extra sharpness I get from my one-stop faster D70. Likewise, the D70s and D50 also are twice as fast (ISO 200 - 1,600) and the Canon 20D goes to ISO 3,200 and looks great doing it.

Memory: Compact Flash Type I and II and Microdrives

LCD monitor: 2.5" 235,000 dots. White LED backlight like all the other Nikons.

Metering: 1,005-pixel RGB Matrix, center-weighted and spot, just like the D2X and D70s etc. Also has an ambient light sensor for better auto white balance like the D2X but missing from the D70s.

Exposure Modes: Program, Shutter priority, Aperture priority and Manual

USB 2.0. Who cares? I plug my cards into a reader. Studio shooters will love this for tethered shooting.

Battery: EN-EL3a, just like D70s and compatible with D50, D70 and D100. Includes MH-18a Quick Charger. The EH-5 AC Adapter and MB-D200 Multi-Function Battery Pack are optional.

Size: 6.2" wide, 4.8" high and 3.4" deep. (158 x 121 x 88 mm). A little bigger than D70 (5.5" wide, 4.4" high, 3.1" deep). Smaller than D2X (6.2" wide, 5.9" tall, 3.4" deep). The biggest difference between them is the height.

Weight: 29 ounces (810g) empty. Magnesium body. Heavier than D70s' 21 ounces and much less than D2X' 38 ounces.

Miscellaneous:

Two new Adobe RGB and sYCC color spaces

Goofy effects of Image Overlay and Multiple Exposure

World time clock

found this here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d200.htm

[Steve]

It looks the business from the picture, the specs are slightly disapointing in some areas though. I guess if the rumours are true then the deciding factor will be the price..any ideas on that?

[Matty]

apparently around $1500 - $1800 DOLLARS, so about that much in pounds too(rip off Britain etc)

[Steve]

If it comes in at that price, even with rip off UK its still a strong package. Is it full frame?

[CT]

You gotta love that 'chunky' look Nikons have.

[Steve]

The built in "battery grip" is a great thing..Canon should offer two models of every camera, one with and one without. For the one without they could still offer an addon unit so as not to alienate the users who couldn't afford the grip at the beginning or limit their upgrade path.

[CT]

It's not a full frame sensor and I don't think Nikon have any plans to get into that size at all.

There's an interesting view on it all from Ken Rockwell here..

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/dx.htm

[Steve]

Very interesting read that CT and certainly a take on the subject that I had not considered. Cheers for the link

[CT]

It made me think too I must admit.

[Pink Fairy]

Remember that this is Ken Rockwell looking in his crystal ball and NOT factual specs. The image is also likely to be the result of someones imagination and photoshop work.

[Steve]

Yes it is just rumour currently and should not be taken as anything other than that but out of that runour I have learned something tonight

[Pink Fairy]

Originally Posted by Steve

Yes it is just rumour currently and should not be taken as anything other than that but out of that runour I have learned something tonight

Ah, you mean the myth that 'full frame sensor' means anything significant in this day and age.

[Steve]

Well yes and no, I understand the ins and outs of full frame vs crop factors and that it doesn't really magnify anything, but I had not thought about it in the way Ken has outlined and uses to explain Nikons position.

He may or may not be correct but his reasoning offers another perspective that I had not previously considered.

[SammyC]

Sliiiiigtly skewed perspective there but based in facts.

Used to develop the machines that produce computer chips and his arguments about yields going down as the chip size increases is true. But it's not true that chips that size are rare and would get 'laughed out of the wafer fab'. Plenty of applications use chips like these, it's just that they cost a lot to make because the yields are so low.

The real reason why Nikon won't go for full frame is that they can't make CCDs that size work around the problems with CCDs whereas Canon can make CMOS sensors work at that size. Different technologies.

[Pink Fairy]

BTW, the Nikon D200 photo is a Fuji S3 + photoshop... apparantly it's been floating around on the web for months.