Nikon D3100 Review
After a lot of confusion between buying a new Nikon D5000/Canon 500D i've finally brought the Nikon D3100. Since not many reviews of this camera are available, iam writing one myself based on my user experience with the camera & some 500 shots.
Before starting off the review, i would like to explain why i chose this camera over the other contestants. Here's what was in my wish list & why i've to let off each one.
Nikon D3000/Canon 1000D: Was not looking for a bare minimum entry level model.
Canon 500D: Reviews said it had a bit more noise the raw files & raw headroom is limited. Was a bit concerned about that & let it off.
Nikon D5000: If the D3100 was not released anytime soon, i would have surely brought this. Liked everything about the camera except the articulated screen (personal dislike).
Lets start the review now.
Bundle: Pretty standard bundle, comes with an extra 4GB SD card & a nikon carry bag. Nothing exceptional here other than that the supplied camera bad is of top quality. In the first look it didn't even seem to be a part of the bundle (atleast for me).
Ergonomics: The first thing that comes to mind when holding this camera in hand is that how similar it is to the previous D40/D60/D3000. Grip is nice & comfortable & the camera has a nice feel to it. Doesn't feel too bulky in the hand & is good for one handed shots.No complaints here.
Body & construction: The size of the body is same as that of the D60/D300. Bigger lenses would make the camera front heavy. If you want to add those XXL sized lenses, then this is a big no-no. The plastics seem to be of acceptable quality. The only thing to complain here is a small creaking in the SD-Card cover, not very much and can live with that.
Controls & UI: The button layout is virtually identical that of the D3000 except for the shooting mode lever & the live view activate lever + record button. It would have been really nice if nikon had added in a dedicated ISO button & a AF point selector button like in the 450D. Plus the live view activate lever seemed a lit odd for me, why did they not place a button for the purpose? The buttons on the left of the screen seemed to have a little lateral movement in the sockets which in my opinion gives a cheap feel. The overall tactile response of the buttons seemed good & is a pleasure to use.The UI is almost the same as the previous models with added menu items for the new features like HDMI, lens correction etc. The accelerometer can auto-rotate the display from landscape to portrait. The proximity sensor form the 450D is missing here which is a bit of letdown. The press twice to delete is a better way to deleting images than pressing two different buttons. One more glitch is that though the display gets tilted, the images are not. So we'll have to manually correct that after transferring to the computer.
Image quality: This is the toughest part of writing the review & since iam not a expert in determining the technical quality of images, iam writing down my views in layman's point of view. The last cam i used was a 450D (was a friend's) & i'll be making a bit of comparisons between them occasionally.
Most of the shots were taken in jpg & came out clean right out of the camera. At low ISO's the images seemed to have little or no noise. Even ISO 1600, the images looked pretty clean. At ISO 3200 noise starts becoming apparent & starts to erode the details, still remains okay for small prints. The two extended ISO modes Hi1 & Hi2 (equivalent to ISO 6200 & 12800) should be resorted to only in extreme conditions are the noise would be taking a fair chunk of the image. Please see the images & post in your comments regarding this.
Nikon's legendary matrix metering really does. I never has a bad shot (till now) owing to the bad metering performance. Combined with the Active D-lighting, it almost impossible to get a bad shot. I've noticed some issues using the 450D in high contrast situation where the camera tends to overexpose a bit or shadow details get washed away a little. One more thing i noted is that the 450D had issues shooting small things (like a dragonfly) up close. May be its the kit lens or my in-expertise, the fine details gets washed away & the shot gets underexposed most of the time. This did not happened in the D3100. The colors, saturation & detail levels seemed very good to me.
The shutter button has nice feedback to it & the shutter release is very quiet, it won't be needing the quiet mode with such a silent shutter. Image stabilization works great though i can't exactly say how much. The viewfinder is clear & the AF points seems to be very unobstructiong while composing the shot. Lens focusing sound is near quiet & AF is fast too.
A little bit of complaint here is the full auto mode which shoots all the way upto ISO3200 when used along with flash. May be there is a workaround, but i can't find that till now. Moreover i care little for that as i mostly shoot in P,A & S modes mostly.
To sum up, in the still image shooting part the D3100 left little not none for me to complain.
ISO Performance: Here's some shots of the same subject at all the available ISO's in the camera.
ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600, ISO 3200, ISO 6400, ISO 12800.
http://yfrog.com/2sdsc0474bvjx
(All images were shot in RAW & converted to jpg using Capture NX2. No post processing applied. All shots were saved with 100% jpg quality except for the last image at ISO 12800 which was saved at 90% quality since 100% quality would exceed the file size limitation in imageshack which is 10MB)
Live view & Video Recording: These are the two features i care the least in a DSLR. The dedicated live view activation lever & video record button is a added bonus here. AF in live view seemed quick compared the 450D. I find the AF in live view to be very much usable. Videos looked good though isn't as good as a dedicated camcorder. Can't compare the video recording capability to any other DSLR's as i haven't used a DSLR with video recording before.
Battery life: After the first charge, the battery lasted for 500 shots. Flash used for approximately 20% of the shots, AF & VR used for all. So its pretty good. Since the batteries take some 2-3 complete charge cycles to achieve full potential, the battery life is expected to be a little more better.
Misc:
Since there is not inbody focus motor, a lot of the older lenses will not be able to AF. But this should hardly be a concern for the consumer segment to which the camera is targeted. Most of the users will not be looking forward to a huge array of lenses after buying this. For most users a 70-300mm tele or better a 18-200 superzoom plus a 50mm prime would suffice most of the needs.
3rd Party support for the Nikon D3100's .nef files is an issue as of now. Adobe camera raw isn't updated to support this camera till now & the only raw processing application that can be used now is the Nikon Capture NX 2.2.5.
Advantages:
* Excellent image quality
* Great high ISO performance
* Good right out of the camera pics
* Easy handling & good ergonomics
* Light weight
* RAW + Fine Jpg option
* Silent Shutter
* Fast AF
* In camera lens corrections
* Fast & responsive
* Easy to use menu system
* Clear viewfiender
* Good 3" LCD.
Disadvantages:
* Lack of some essential control buttons like DOF preview, ISO etc.
* Tiny body may be a bit of problem when using big lenses.
* Firmware issues like: auto iso in full auto mode, image rotation & file sequential numbering off by default. Hope nikon comes up with a firmware update to solve these.
* No focusing motor in the body means a lot of the older lenses would be incompatible.
Now to conclude, there is very little reason to no to recommend this camera to anyone who is looking forward to a entry-level DSLR. IMO this is the best out there in the segment & is worth every penny.
