One of the schools I applied at and most likely will attend, prefers the students use a Nikon D200. In fact they roll in the cost of a brand new one in your finacial Aid so you dont have to pay for it .....Um Ok I'll take one..

So whats the big deal?

We can use our own camera but I was told to be sure I know my camera inside and out because the instructors only use Nikon. :confused:

It's a great camera. Find out what lense(s) they are going to give you. Perhaps you can augment the selection with one or two more of your own.

Strictly speculation. The school has standardized on a particular model. It's easier for an instructer to be specific if everyone is using the same thing. Although all DSLR's will allow you to control aperture, shutter speed and a slew of other things. Kind of like having that professor who makes you buy the textbook that he wrote to teach his class. There's probably some quid pro quo (you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours) going on.

You can check out the camera here.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond200/

Im totally not going to complain..getting a brand new cam for free LOL.

I suppose it does make it easierfor the instructors to teach if we are all on the same page.

Thanks for the link. I was looking around and couldnt find to much info on it.

I went to a Photo show yesterday and a guy was selling 4 new ones...If I only had the money LOL

The D200 is just...fantastic! Great image quality, fantastic build quality, all the features of a pro camera in a smaller, fast, strong package.

The man selling the camera at the show I was at yesterday said that it is terrible for Portrait work.
Any knowledge if thats so. I like to do my own portraits of my kids.

I don't know what he was smoking, but I bet it was some pretty bad stuff ;)

The D200 is great for portrait work of all types. Just today, my teacher (member MJS) and I were shooting both individual and group portraits of our school dance team. The results with the D200 have been excellent under many conditions- be it static portraits with a full multi- studio strobe setup and full background or groups out in the field with nothing but a single SB-800 on a bracket and fifteen teenage dancers sitting *on* a tree on a windy Miami day.

Nothing like shooting spandex for the day. The D200 is a great bang for the buck camera. I absolutely love mine and deckcadet is pretty good with his soon to be 4, 2 just wasn't enough for him.

LOL..Thanks .

He said it flushes out the color of peoples faces. I think he was really trying to get me to buy one of hs rather expensive Canon's.

I'll be looking forward to getting this camera then.

One of the schools I applied at and most likely will attend, prefers the students use a Nikon D200. In fact they roll in the cost of a brand new one in your finacial Aid so you dont have to pay for it .....Um Ok I'll take one..

So whats the big deal?

We can use our own camera but I was told to be sure I know my camera inside and out because the instructors only use Nikon. :confused:

In my experience the D200 does everything well, with nothing major to criticise. It does not cost a whole lot of money and it is very usable as a professional camera. This is also true for the lenses - put the 18-70 or 18-200 on it and you have a very versatible combination.

Charles