I've been through the menu several times setting ISO, shutter, and setting normal menu items. Only good clear image is ISO 1000 or higher, open the shutter wide open, exp comp plus 2.0. Been long time for this camera Bought 1st D200 in 2005-06 sold in 2014?Scratching my head to guess where and what to try. I reformatted all system to eliminate previous owners settings, and start over, before doing anything next, ask on DP. some old timers might help.Lenses used were Nikon 85 3.5 macro and Nikon 18 140."dog house riley"

sorry - don't knowsince you are getting some image at very high isos it suggests that the mechanics are OK but even so, if it were me,   I would just test the basics:have you got a manual ai-s lens you could try it with ? Camera set all to manual and manual focus no exp comp no auto iso etc.set it to base iso and stop the lens down so that you should get roughly the correct exposure at 1 sec shutter then see what happens. you can hear the shutter open and close at 1 sec easily and time it.  You can just fire it at 1 sec with the lens off in low light to make sure that the mirror is lifting and the shutter is opening and closing.  You should get a "white out" frame recorded.My room lighting is quite dim at around 4 ev so at ISO 100, so I get an image at 1 sec and f4 . Daylight would be too bright but interiors might be OK ( eg 8ev is 1 sec and f16 ).Other mechanics:  aperture control lever:Does the aperture lever at the left side of the the body lens mount look and feel alright ? - it should be horizontal and there is a pretty definite spring when you pull it down and let it return to the unengaged position.On the electronic side, all I can suggest is:reset all menus - shooting and custom  - i think some custom settings have to be removed manually. its in the nikon manual - somewhere. Apparently you can't do a full factory reset on the D200 as you could on the D100.richard

Richard Dutton wrote:...On the electronic side, all I can suggest is:reset all menus - shooting and custom - i think some custom settings have to be removed manually. its in the nikon manual - somewhere. Apparently you can't do a full factory reset on the D200 as you could on the D100.richardgood advice!And the OP can reset the D200 by pressing the buttons with the two green dots on the top - the QUAL button (on the left side) and the +/- button on the top right. I've screwed things up a couple of times and that helpedAdditionally, in the shooting menu and the custom menu settings you can do a reset as well. I bought a D200 where the AF wasn't working and after checking everything else out, I went into the menus and reset them and got it to work

You could perhaps be in spot metering, this is a hard setting, check the dial around the AE-L/AF-L button. I think if you are using single point AF it meters off that single point, another hard setting off the lever at the rear of the camera body.You could look at  the custom setting b7 fine tune exposure.

Buanadha wrote:Richard Dutton wrote:...On the electronic side, all I can suggest is:reset all menus - shooting and custom - i think some custom settings have to be removed manually. its in the nikon manual - somewhere. Apparently you can't do a full factory reset on the D200 as you could on the D100.richardgood advice!And the OP can reset the D200 by pressing the buttons with the two green dots on the top - the QUAL button (on the left side) and the +/- button on the top right. I've screwed things up a couple of times and that helpedAdditionally, in the shooting menu and the custom menu settings you can do a reset as well. I bought a D200 where the AF wasn't working and after checking everything else out, I went into the menus and reset them and got it to workHey Guys:Thanks so much! I did the custom reset button and the green dots, one of my thoughts was maybe the previous owner made some changes, to 'baffle" the next owner? well it did, and i thank you all very much.This not the first time I've ask questions from the folks at DP, to pull my fanny out of a tight spot due to my ???? go ahead and say it. I look forward to using the D200 to complement my Nikon gear. Outside of my D800, my most used camera body is my D5600, again thanks guys and gals too."dog house riley"

dog house riley wrote:Hey Guys:Thanks so much! I did the custom reset button and the green dots, one of my thoughts was maybe the previous owner made some changes, to 'baffle" the next owner? well it did, and i thank you all very much.This not the first time I've ask questions from the folks at DP, to pull my fanny out of a tight spot due to my ???? go ahead and say it. I look forward to using the D200 to complement my Nikon gear. Outside of my D800, my most used camera body is my D5600, again thanks guys and gals too."dog house riley"Hey DHR, congrats on the new camera and on getting it working via the reset.Look forward to reading your views and maybe seeing a few contributions of pics as you familiarise yourself with your new treasure.I'd have been sweating and panicking if a camera had arrived in my mailbox with those symptoms.

Cycletourer wrote:dog house riley wrote:Hey Guys:Thanks so much! I did the custom reset button and the green dots, one of my thoughts was maybe the previous owner made some changes, to 'baffle" the next owner? well it did, and i thank you all very much.This not the first time I've ask questions from the folks at DP, to pull my fanny out of a tight spot due to my ???? go ahead and say it. I look forward to using the D200 to complement my Nikon gear. Outside of my D800, my most used camera body is my D5600, again thanks guys and gals too."dog house riley"Hey DHR, congrats on the new camera and on getting it working via the reset.Look forward to reading your views and maybe seeing a few contributions of pics as you familiarise yourself with your new treasure.I'd have been sweating and panicking if a camera had arrived in my mailbox with those symptoms.Thanks, today I'll get out and try for some fun. I'm taking my 18 140 to a place downtown, a old steel passenger car bridge converted to a walking bridge alongside the Ohio, river.Then a trip to the downtown area for some people shots. Today is a break in day! other days will use more primes to enjoy this "old antique". Please standby."dog house riley"