I’m going to keep this short and sweet. I’m a firm believer that an action photographer needs a well built machine. Yeah, sure… some people sit comfortably on the side lines taking action shots. However, I feel the majority of us are often times a part of the action or surrounded by it. And even those sideliners get taken out by the action sometimes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPZ8MyqXESQ

See what I mean? :P And where I am going with this is that the D200 is the most robust, well built camera of its class with full weather proofing. That means water, cold, heat, and shock resistance. I hope that photographer was shooting with something of the sort at the time!

But what’s a well built camera without the proper capabilities to shoot action shots? Luckily, the D200 follows through on those as well. It has an 11 point auto focus sensor as well as a 7 point sensor in wide angle mode. Its max continuous shooting speed is 5.0 frames per second (fps). The buffer on this camera is 31 JPG (Buffer is the amount of photos that can be temporarily stored before they are put into memory– basically you can take 31 photos without letting up on the shutter before the camera needs a second to throw them in storage). Lastly, the ISO (the camera sensor’s sensitivity to light) is 100-3200.

Overall it’s a well rounded body for action sport needs! There’s a reason why most National Geographic photographers shoot Nikon. Also, when it comes to lens selection Nikkor lenses offer some of the best out there. I’d personally recommend the Nikkor AF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF DX VR lens with this setup. And if you ever want to upgrade camera bodies, this lens will always be in your quiver for it!

A quick note: you might be asking yourself, why does this guy never talk about megapixels? Here’s the thing, megapixels have nothing to do with image clarity. Take a 12 megapixel compact pocket camera and shoot the same shot with a 5 megapixel DSLR and the image quality/size it could be blown up to will always be blown away by the SLR. When SLRs only have a difference of 1-5 megapixles give or take some depending on the lenses/camreas etc. there is really no difference that is going to come out of your photos and how good they are when it comes to action photography! :)