Considering D800 upgrade from D200...

thequintessentialman

Did a little research in the forum and apparently my quaint little D200 is well past the point of needing to be mothballed. My two main lenses are the 28-70 AFS F2.8 and 80-200 AFS F2.8D (have an 18-70 kit lens but not thrilled with it... D900 flash.)

Among several questions:

1) Read somewhere that there were sometimes issues with the D800 and older AFS lenses, any validity to that?

2) Are these lens sharp enough not to affect picture quality (the D200 always seemed a little soft and I always had to apply sharpening... which is one of the reasons I'm wanting to change?) (With the newer larger image sizes, where does the image quality surpass even the best lens' ability to be sharp?)

3) Will I gain any appreciable length through the larger sharper image and the ability to crop? The ability to get a usable image from the D200 after cropping was less that expected (never had an image at full resolution on the D200 that was usable as is.)

What are some of the other pros/cons of the D800? Any suggestions for another body?

I am an amateur (or immature as the wife would call it...) hobbyist that shoots a wide range of stuff from indoor high speed performing arts to outdoor wildlife, sports, etc. Recently started shooting some indoor scenes the wife sets up from her hobby (which will be the real official reason an upgrade is required )

Thanks

sevencrossing

IMHO the D800 is one of, if not the, best camera in the world
both the 28-70 AFS F2.8 and the 80-200 AFS F2.8D have been replaced and are no longer the sharpest Nikon lenses but both should be absolutely, fine, beware neither have VR and the D800 will show up any camera shake
If after putting them on a D800 they still seem soft, they may be they may need a service
Yes you will be able to crop to heart content but remember the D200 is Dx the D800 is Fx

donaldejose

Do it, you will be shocked by the increase in picture quality. The lenses you have will work fine with a D800. I have both of those lenses and a D800.

WestEndBoy

Yeah, unless those are the only focal lengths that you shoot, I would be happy with those lenses. Remember that the 80-200 is still in production.

You may want to think about primes if image quality is a top concern.

Pistnbroke

If you are taking JPEGS staqight out the camera (which I do) then remember to up the sharpening to 7 or your images will always look soft. Large fine and large basic will be identical so dont panic on big file sizes. And check the back focus for each lens the camera will remember the settings and its easy to do with a ruler.

haroldp

your lenses are about s sharp as the current versions except for no VR on the 80-200, and not going down to 24mm on the 28-70.
... H

Msmoto

And, now a refurb D800 for about $2000….. and I loved my D200.

When I posted this earlier, Roberts had the D800 refurbs… I believe they are all sold now…46 of them...

thequintessentialman

... it is a done deal now. Went to a camera show yesterday and a local dealer had another few more dollars off along with the Nikon factory $200 off, so one followed me home. This may be as big of a jump over the D200 as the D200 was over my old FE2. Been spending a bit of time reading the manual and relearning everything... and taking pictures of the wife's cat. Cat makes a good test subject.

Since I have never had VR (that I am aware of) it will not be something I will miss. The 80-200 did go back to Nikon for some work a few years back; (two months and $400 later...) the presumption was it was shipped back in spec. It definitely worked a lot better (had aperture issues.)

Thanks to all.

donaldejose

Please post some shots on PAD.

NSXTypeR

Have fun!

I had a bit of a jump myself too moving from a D40 to a D7000. The learning curve is fun.

thequintessentialman

What is "PAD"?

PB_PM

Photo A Day thread. It is at the top of the forum.