Nikon D200

Okay, so what's it like?
Well as I said earlier, it's an older camera without all the bells and whistles the newfangled cameras have.
More of a PRO camera, it shoots in RAW and has for me, a minimal amount of settings.
What I mean is you can't go hog wild with your pictures once you take em, you'll need some aftermarket software for that.
First of all, this thing weighs about a GAGILLION pounds.
No really.
I could build up my biceps if I did some curls while I was standing around.
It also eats some batteries, like fast.  I took maybe a hundred shots and the battery is like over halfway dead.
I'm also getting the battery grip with this so battery life shouldn't be a problem except now I'm gonna have to lug around like 2 GAGILLION pounds.
There's no preview of your shot so you got to eyeball it and set things up accordingly.
I haven't had to eyeball shutter and aperture in a while so it'll take some getting used to, but thankfully if you need to mess around you can mess around in P as the shutter and f/stops are adjustable.
Meaning you can scroll up and down:

The first shot was taken in P at f/3.5 @ 1/1750.
Scroll the wheel and the second shot was taken at f/19 @ 1/40.
Both were taken with the lens at 28mm.
Not too bad and I like the true depth of field.
I sort of got used to P&S cameras with a DOF of about a GAGILLION feet.
Or so.
Some macro:

Again at two different f/stops, but this time I went manual so there are a bit dark.
Operator error.
Something I think we'll see a lot of with this camera.
Thank goodness for stuff like iPhoto and Aperture!
I like what this camera can do with it's full manual settings and focus, although it's like going back and navigating through MS-DOS.
I remember how.
Sort of.
Okay, not really.
I do have a plan though if I pick up this camera.
It's got a fairly decent lens on it, all I would need is another long zoom and a short fast lens.
If I pick those lenses up, I'll go and look for a newer Nikon body, like a D90 or D7000.
I can use the D200 as a back up, or just turn it around and sell it for what I paid.
Actually it's difficult to see this a second camera since it's so freakin heavy.
So I'm sort of leaning towards picking this up and using it for a bit, you know, like learning how to ride a bicycle again.
On the other hand, I've also lined up a good deal on a Canon T4i, but that comes with the kit lens and that set up will cost me more in the long run.
Do I go Canon or Nikon?
Stay tuned.