D200 firmware bugs

[Henrik Paul]

I have recently upgraded to Nikon D200, and already on my second serious shoot with the camera I have found lackings in the firmware. With the lack of belief that the customer service would have any power over the issues, I thought to post them here for general disgruntlement and in the hope that there's some Nikonians among us.

The issues I'm referring to are firstly the same bug that D70 was infected with (later fixed with a firmware update) - shooting with compressed raw files, the "images left" counter misses the actual amount with a half. With an empty 2GB card, the camera indicates 120 shots left, when I've got well over 220 shots. Sure, a careful underestimation is healthy, but that's a bug in my mind.

Another thing, that actually is irritating when shooting in demanding and hectic environments is the way the focus zones (perhaps there's a more correct name for them) are selected (in 11-segment mode). When I have the lower right zone selected for focus, I can't select the lowermost focus zone by pressing downwards (which is natural by my logics), but I have to press left to select it (unintuitive for me). The same is mirrored on the upper left/topmost focus zones. There might be others, which I haven't encountered yet.

I haven't installed the 2.0-firmware, because the changelog only mentions the three features I don't need, and I believe in not upgrading in vain, because of too many first-hand experiences in the computing world.

Any rumors of this being fixed in the forseeable future? These kinds of misses hints of not rigorous enough beta-testing by real photographers on Nikon's side.

[BryanHansel]

It would be nice to see the compressed RAW count fixed.

But the focus issue makes sense to me. I have my focus set up so when in the lower right and I push down it goes to the upper right. In this context it makes sense to push left to get to the center row.

[Henrik Paul]

But the focus issue makes sense to me. I have my focus set up so when in the lower right and I push down it goes to the upper right. In this context it makes sense to push left to get to the center row.
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So, apparently you have set the focus zones to wrap. I don't use that. I now see the reason behind the desicion, but in my mind it would be nice to have the behavior I described earlier when the wrapping isn't active. This is because when, for example, the leftmost zone is active and I press up, it jumps to the upper lefthand zone, therefore it would be only logical for it to go all the way up with another upwards press.

PS: I noticed that this behaviour occurs on each of the four 'diagonal' focus zones (upper left and right don't respond to "up", and lower left and right don't respond to "down")

[BryanHansel]

Right on. It would be interesting to hear the design logic behind the decision to do it this way. I never really noticed it as an issue until you pointed it out. Must be used to it.

[vyanush]

It would be nice to see the compressed RAW count fixed.

It's not a bug. It is simply the "compression ratio" that varies depending on scene details, optics sharpness, ISO noise, etc.

[Henrik Paul]

It doesn't vary so much that making an educated guess impossible. For instance, I seem to get an average file size of just a tad under 9MB per compressed RAW (based on about a thousand files). Now, if the camera would assume each compressed file taking 10MB, it would be on the cautious side, while still giving an accurate-enough estimation of the remaining count.

I don't see it being too hard to implement - i've seen more complex stuff done. After all, it's just a firmware fix with one additional 'if'-clause.

PS: I'm right up to here hearing companies mum the "it's not a bug, it's a feature" mantra. This is definitely a bug. Calculating with wrong variables is a programming error, thus a bug.