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I tried it out at some different ISO's. Here's one at 160:



These at 200:





This one is really smooth at 100. I missed the focus though so it's blurry:




Critique and comments welcome. I think there are some artefacts introduced with Flickr's resizing. SOrry about that. They're all different times, most between 4 and 13 minutes.

I think that the D70 actually beats the D200 at ISO 200, but of course the D200 at ISO 100 is much smoother. I'll have to try a comparison at ISO 200 and take a closer look, but iso 200 here looks considerably more noisy than I'm use to on the D70. This is going to be a challenge as the pictures are going to be 2x longer, and battery power is significantly shorter on the D200. I do love the bigger viewfinder, much easier to compose these low light shots. One nice thing is that amp glow was fairly minimal (the iso 100 shot was over 1100 seconds, and the ampglow was easily cloned out). so I might just turn off Long exposure NR.

my favourite is the third, followed by the second.

the other 2 dont do much for me however.

Steve

Very nice. I like the first three.

Dave

I'm with Steve - #3 then #2.

#1 the leading lines to the right and the object there drag my eyes off the edge of the image. #4 is just too fuzzy.

2nd and 3rd pics are my preference. Mate, doesn't matter whether you're using the D70 or D200 the pics you churn out are all still high quality. Excellent stuff!

Dave - what I believe to be the point here is the capability of the D200 and your pics show that it can perform beautifully with some great shots.

A great tryout for a D200. Thanks for posting them.

Matt. K wrote:A great tryout for a D200. Thanks for posting them.

Where's your order? it took so long already?

The first 3 look magic.
I love the light - very eerie, almost spooky.
Strange to talk of noise in the picture when the mood created feels so unmistakenly QUIET.
Great work - by the way is that high altitude jetstream in No 1 ?

#2 and #3 are my picks Dave.
cheers
marco

Pic 3 is my pick ...stunning.

Go the D200

MATT

Nice work Dave, interesting to hear your ideas on the D200, the Sigma 10-20 doesn't look as sharp to me in a few of these shots, was it windy when they were taken ?

Dave - wicked images mate!
#2 is my fave - would love to see some more shots from you and this new camera of yours, thanks for posting. Keep them coming.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

The sigma is sharp with the D200, but I missed the focus on some of these, the others were shot wide open as I was running out of time and battery power. I need a spare battery I guess.

dooda wrote:Thanks for the comments everyone.

The sigma is sharp with the D200, but I missed the focus on some of these, the others were shot wide open as I was running out of time and battery power. I need a spare battery I guess.

Thanks for clearing that up the apparent softness, I'd vote a second battery Nikon if you have the cash, or 3rd party if you want to do it cheaply.

Nice work Dooda, your third image is great.