Nikon D200 digital SLR body

The D200's supplied with Picture Project software which can process NEF files, although to make the most of them you'll need additional software such as Nikon Capture 4. Along with RAW processing and remote control of the camera over a USB cable, Nikon Capture 4 supports the D200's dust reduction option where a reference frame is taken and used to automatically remove dust from subsequent images. It's not 100 per cent effective, but any active approach to combating dust is welcomed. A 30-day free trial of Nikon Capture 4 is available to download from Nikon's website.

Sensitivity is offered from 100 to 1600 ISO in one-third EV steps with three further extended options known as H0.3, H0.7 and H1.0 - these correspond to sensitivities of 2000, 2500 and 3200 ISO respectively. A custom mode allows you to change the ISO increments to half or one EV steps. Four noise reduction modes are available: the default Normal setting applies reduction automatically at 400 ISO and above, High and Low adjust the degree of reduction, while Off disables it at or below 800 ISO, although minimal noise reduction will still take place at 1600 ISO. There's additionally a long exposure noise reduction option for shutter speeds longer than eight seconds which employs dark frame subtraction.

Along with Auto and manually preset white balances, the D200 offers separate Incandescent, Fluorescent, Direct Sunlight, Flash, Cloudy or Shade options, or the option to manually enter a temperature from 2500 to 10000K.

A selection of Image Optimisation modes offer presets for sharpening, tone, colour, hue and saturation. Modes include Normal, Softer, Vivid, More vivid, Portrait, Black and white, and finally, Custom for your own choices. We used the default Normal preset for our Results and Gallery pages and it produced well-balanced JPEGs out of the camera, although those who wish to apply sharpening to JPEGs afterwards will be better served by a softer option. Colour space can be switched between sRGB and Adobe RGB.

The D200 sports a number of additional built-in features. The Multiple Exposure option allows up to ten exposures to be combined into a single image, while the Image Overlay function lets you create a composite image in-camera from two RAW NEF files - the opacity of each can be adjusted and the result stored as a new file, leaving the originals untouched.

The Interval Timer Shooting option allows you to program the D200 to take shots at preset intervals. You can enter the start time, the interval in hours, minutes or seconds, the number of intervals and the number of shots to be taken at each interval.