A magnificient, semi-professional camera. One of the most "lusted after" cameras by me, ever, especially after handling one for the 1st time in San Antonio in Dec 2006 during our wedding anniversary celebration.

Bought this on my mother's birthday, 3-6-2009, from Fred Miranda for $580. At the time Best Buy was selling these online brand-new for $600 (plus tax), a killer price at the time. Sold my D80 for $400, my Sony H2 for $100, leaving me only $80 to make-up to get it.

I LOVE the build of this thing, it feels like a "real Nikon," the ones that are tough and professional-feeling. I love its huge amount of customizability (such as the ability to make it release-priority at all times instead of focus-priority), ability to meter with old manual-focus lenses (if I get any), and just that overall "professional" feeling. The image quality honestly would be about the same as the D80 I sold to get it, except for one key feature that was, in fact, my main complaint about the D80--meter. The D80 was a great camera except that it tended to be inconsistent with its exposures and require constant fiddling. The D200 is reputed to be much better there, and it was in fact a leading reason I sold my D80 to get this.