How would you like to profit from photography? Maybe start selling your pictures through an online library or getting them published in magazines, calendars or greetings cards?

It's perfectly feasible. Many amateurs do - and with some success. Some even go on to become full-time professionals. All you need is the ability to take a good picture, a little knowledge of the market, and the right kind of camera.

While it is possible to sell photographs taken with a digital compact, what you really need is a digital SLR - and one with a decent resolution. That's been a bit of a problem until recently; there weren't that many to choose from and the few that were available were too expensive for many enthusiasts looking to take the next step up.

Happily that situation is changing, as prices fall and specifications rise - and some manufacturers are now actively targeting this market. One such company is Nikon, who say their new D200 is 'the perfect camera for the semi-professional and freelancer', and that it will also suit 'professionals looking for a second camera to complement their Nikon D2X or D2HS'.

In theory, the D200 is a replacement for the D100, the camera Nikon launched way back in February 2002 - an eternity in terms of digital photography - which has not really been a viable purchase for some time.

Different

The D200, though, is a different proposition altogether. Based largely on Nikon's D2X, it shares much of the styling and many of the features of the flagship model. Most importantly, with a street price of £1,200 and falling, it's relatively affordable for a D-SLR that captures 10.2-million pixels.

While you want as many pixels as you can get when you're trying to sell your pictures, in practice the difference between the D200's 28.7Mb and the D2X's 34.9Mb is neither here nor there. So a lot of prospective freelancers and even working professionals may decide to pocket a saving of over two grand and go for the D200.

There is, however, one important reason why a professional may steer away from the Nikon range of SLR. The D200 isn't a fullframe digital SLR. There's a lens magnification factor of 1.5x, which severely limits the wideangle coverage available.

Those regularly shooting subjects such as landscapes, groups and buildings, where a large angle-of-view and dynamic perspective are essential, may find the lens magnification factor limiting. But for those tackling portraiture, still-life and sports, it may be less of an issue - even an advantage.

When it comes to features, you really are spoilt for choice. The D200 has everything the serious photographer needs and then some. An accurate metering system is essential, and here the camera really scores, with Nikon's highly regarded 3D Colour Matrix Metering II.

In addition there are spot and centre-weighted options, plus a comprehensive exposure compensation system, bracketing and an exposure lock.

You get a standard range of exposure modes, but no subject-based modes - photographers knowledgeable enough to buy a D200 would be unlikely to use them. Sensitivity ranges from ISO 100 to 1,600, rising to ISO 3,200 in H-1 mode. Shutter speeds go up to 1/8,000sec and the flash sync - which is important in some areas of freelance photography - is 1/250 sec.

The D200 also has a built-in flashgun, with a guide number of 13, that's extremely useful where you want a little fill-in or to get you out of trouble when you don't have a more powerful accessory gun with you. There's also a PC socket - a lamentable omission on the D100 - which allows the camera to be connected to studio flash equipment.

A wide range of white balance tools gives precise colour control, including direct selection of Kelvin settings as well as a number of pre-sets. In addition, a number of 'optimisation' modes enable the user to refine the colour, tone, saturation, hue and sharpness of the image to suit their personal preferences.

Many options

There are also lots of options on the focusing front, including selecting any of the individual focus points of the 11-Area/7-Wide Area autofocus system, in addition to setting the way in which the camera chooses the focusing point automatically.

Speed of capture is important in many areas of photography, and here the D200 puts in an impressive performance. Up to 37 JPEGs or 22 RAW files can be captured at a creditable rate of 5 frames-per-second onto a CompactFlash card.

It goes with saying that images can be recorded in RAW format, to maximise quality, as well as a range of JPEG compressions. The NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) RAW files are intended to be processed in Nikon's Capture 4 software but this isn't bundled with the camera - presumably for reasons of cost.