You are absolutely right; and to make matters worse, I've just checked out the book for the D200 as well, and though slightly less positively stated than for the D700, it seems to offer the very same multi-point functionality!
I wonder where I developed my idea that it couldn't be done? I've had the thought as long as I've had the first of the two cameras. And I did RTFM - without doing that, both would still be in their original boxes! One of life's mysteries. ;-) Maybe just post-mid-life crisis.
Regarding Bernard's point about the eye being better than the green light, I don't know: I have problems now with glaucoma and some days are better than others. It's not a thing about the diopter settings of the camera - they still have a way to go - it's that if I am lucky and focus quickly within, say, three seconds, I'm okay; however, if I have to hunt focus a bit, as with the glass on the Coke bottle I sometimes shoot, I may as well give up, look at the horizon or my shoes, and then try again after a few seconds. That's where a tripod helps a lot - I can sometimes focus more rapidly by holding my face a little way off the camera and just concentrating on the small area that remains visible in the eyepiece. No idea why, but it helps. Hence the delight of a split-image screen. That kind of image confirmation is easy to make.
The strange thing about all of this is that, though the subject may be difficult to bring to focus, I do see the grid lines in the pentaprism perfectly crisply pretty much all of the time!
Thanks for your very helpful piece of information! I'm pretty sure it will help me quite a lot.
Rob C
