Nikon D3100 The first step on a new adventure

A little background about me: I have owned this camera for 2 months. I have owned a Samsung point-and-shoot for three years and have taken thousands of photos with it, and for the past few months I had been using only the limited manual mode on my camera, and wishing for a camera whose settings I could tweak more. That's when I started drooling over DSLRs.

After months of reading about photography, I finally bought myself Nikon D3100. It was the best option for the price and for my experience level. It was easily one of the best purchases I have ever made. I bought Nikon D3100 that also came with a 55-200mm 4-5.6 lens, a case, a tripod, an SD card, and some extra goodies.

First, it takes amazing pictures.
- Nikon D3100 performs far better in low light than any point-and-shoot. With the right tools, it's usable right up to ISO 1600. Compared to my old point-and-shoot, this is a huge bonus.
- It's an SLR, so you can take those pictures with shallow depth of field (blurry background).
- Its pictures are sharp, clear, and beautiful. The high MP count makes details pop and cropping easy.
- It's incredibly easy to use - Nikon has an amazingly well thought out body design, and within weeks I felt more at home with this camera than my old one.

Second, I have to agree with the reviews that say the following.

- The Live View mode is a gimmick. Don't use it if you can help it. It's clunky and slow and drains your battery. Only use it if you absolutely cannot hold the viewfinder up to your eye.
- Video is high quality, but requires a lot of skilled technique to use properly - continuous autofocus does not work that well.

Finally, some advice that relates to the purchase of the camera.
- The lenses that associate with this camera are the kit zooms - the 18-55mm and the 55-200mm. These are good lenses, but the maximum apertures (3.5 and 4) do leave a lot to be desired in many situations. Within a few days of using the camera, I knew that a better lens would have made all the difference. SO - if you have the money, don't use the kit zooms. Sell them and buy lenses with larger maximum apertures. I don't personally own one of these, but I know from experience that taking pictures would be a lot easier with them.

That's all I have to say about the camera. If you are a first time DSLR user, you can't go wrong with this camera. It fulfills all your expectations, and more. If you care at all for your photography and are considering buying an SLR, do it. You will not regret it.



Some notes about techniques.
- The GUIDE mode is supposed to ease transition, but I spent a long time reading about the technical aspects of photography - I rarely use anything but full Manual (M) Mode. On occasion, I'll use Program (P) if I don't have time to quickly change the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed - and of course I'll set it to Auto when placing my camera in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to change the settings - but otherwise, any of the multiple settings on the dial go quite unused. The reason being is that the light meter often over or underexposes depending on your metering mode, and unless you set an exposure bias, you sometimes won't get the picture you want.
- That means, if you know how the technical aspect of photography works, use Manual Mode. Jump right in and allow yourself to match the full flexibility of the camera. If you are still learning, by all means use the many modes Nikon offers to facilitate learning - but don't forget, Manual offers the ultimate in control. You get exactly what you want.
- USE RAW. I used JPEG for all the first few hundred pictures I took, and they're great. But when I switched to RAW, my jaw LITERALLY (yes, I really DO mean literally) DROPPED when I saw what I could do with RAW files. You have just as much control with your pictures as you do in Manual mode. You can make your pictures look EXACTLY how you want them to look, and more. Caveats: This requires some familiarity with image editing terms, and a program like Photoshop or Lightroom or Aperture (Mac), and there's a bit of a learning curve, and the files are really big (buy an external hard drive just for photos), but the payoffs are FAR greater. With RAW, photography just opens up from pictures to art.

Summary:
- Amazing pictures - beautiful in all ways
- Low light performance is excellent
- Easy to use, but also very flexible
- Video and Live View are gimmicks or specialty tools
- Included lens(es) is(are) fantastic, but better lenses will blow you away
- Learn technical aspects, then use MANUAL mode
- Use RAW once you feel comfortable

Nikon D3100, Thats Cool

For people looking for new DSLR camera, stop, this is it. It has none of the D3000 drawbacks: Fast buffer, never overloaded. When intentionally overloaded by myself on continous shots, it will clear the buffer very fast(ADL on if you're wondering).

Nikon D3100 Image sensitivity at high ISO is great acording to random reviwes, but I'm still waiting a prof test. But think about it, on Auto ISO the range goes to 3200 - WOW, and I can't see any noise. You can shoot everything with it, but you need a flash - SB 400 will do.

Cool stuf:
With Nikon D3100 You can take photos from the liveview LCD screen. I shot a few movies and seem great, in focus most of the time. I don't care much about video, I have a video camera HD.
You can still set AUTO ISO from the menu and set minimum shutter speed.

Downside is you cannot override the AUTO ISO in any mode including Manual. You have to change it back to off from menu and than loose time figuring out which is the best ISO/aperture/shutter speed.

For shortcomings, I have to look hard but here they are:(BTW I've been using it daily for 1 week)

1. LCD sceen has a lower resolution and one cannot see if the foto taken is slightly out of focus - bummer, but they have to save some features for the D5100.
2. No bracketing - who brackets anymore? 3 pics of each just to be 100% sure seems a waste of memory card and time (deleting the other2. We are talking about exposure bracketing, not focus bracketing BTW.)
3. ADL only on or off - lol, if you really are worried about small shadows and highlits you can always add more
ADL from the retouch menu in the camera, after you take the photo. Or on photoshop or iPhoto etc. On is plenty for the prosumer ;)
4. Easy to get image out of focus: one can change the focus point from the screen by pressing the arrows from the OK ring. You use the OK ring a lot and if the LCD screen has returned to ready to shoot position and you press the ring one more time(goof) the image now focuses to the right/left/up/down depending on what you pressed. Combined with a low resolution LCD in the hands of a beginer = out of focus images. Just pay attention.

I'm still waiting for standard high ISO tests to confirm my love for Nikon D3100. Best camera for travelers, no questions. If you want more get ready to bend your neck hauling close to 2 lbs of gear. Not me. BTW buy the 35mm 1.8 lens for low light/no flash IT BLOWS YOUR MIND.

Nikon D3100 Forget All the Others

First impression:
I have tried Nikon d40, d5000, d90, canon xsi, and canon 40d. I would say d90 and d40 are the only two cameras comparable to this. when I received the camera,the kit lens is too tight to auto focus. I called up and asked a replacement.

Even for this, I still give it 5 stars as it is the problem with the kit lens. before the replacement, I tried it on 55-200mm vr. I found I can easily pull out super quality pictures from Nikon D3100 without tweaking settings. Nikon D3100 gives me the d40 feeling. I did not see this from other cameras that I tried, especially the canon peers.

Nikon D3100 will make you shoot like a pro if you get some basic knowledge on how to compose your frame. Although it is an entry level camera, it produce as good if not better pictures from its expensive brothers. Unless you have a specific goal and purpose that you need its heavy brothers d90 or d7000, you should definitely go for this, as well as 50-200mm VRlens, then you are all set. I have a gut feeling this will become another legendary entry DSLR like d40.

Color tone: Besides the super image quality, the color tone is more on the cold side while d40 is more on the warm side. The color is less saturated then d40 either. This is really personal taste. For me, I prefer warmer color and a little more saturation.

So if you want warmer and more saturated pictures, please follow Ken Rockwell's tips
Shooting menu->standard>+2 Saturation>OK (used for people)
Shooting menu->Vivid>+3 Saturation>OK (use for places and things)
Shooting menu->White balance->Auto->click right to A3->OK

Focus: focus very fast

Nikon D3100 - An Excellent DSLR For The Entry-Level Photographer

The Nikon D3100 is an excellent entry-level DSLR. Could you pay more to get a "better" camera with "more features"? Absolutely. But why? Would you use those features? I looked long and hard at several in my research before buying - the models I considered were the Canon T2i, Canon 60D, the Nikon D90, and of course, the Nikon D3100. In the end, I decided the extra features on those other cameras were features that I likely wouldn't use. I'm interested mainly in taking lots of pictures while traveling -- pictures of clouds, landscapes, maybe some street photography. I wanted a smaller, lighter DSLR with good battery life and great image quality. The D3100 delivers on all accounts.

So what do the cameras in the next price-tier have that the Nikon D3100 doesn't? A lot of stuff that most people looking in this price range won't be concerned with. Here's a list of the "missing" things and/or "problems" with the D3100 as I found while researching my purchase:

1) Most online reviews and forums mention a problem with AutoISO and the built-in flash. When using the built-in flash in full auto, AutoISO jumps straight to the maximum ISO value, which I believe is defaulted to ISO-3200. Nikon says this is intended to get a better exposed background, fine with me. Personally, I think that ISO-3200 images out of this camera are very useable unless you're pixel peeping. If you just want to blow up an indoor portrait to an 8x10 (or even larger, I don't know!), you won't have a problem. Don't worry about it!

2) You can frequently hear the lens auto-focusing in your videos. Ok, you got me. If you're in a silent environment, yes, you will hear the autofocus motor, but if you're recording kids laughing and having a good time at the local indoor waterpark or at a parade or something, it's not loud enough where it would be a bother. If it is an annoyance, you can still shoot video with manual focus.

3) No external mic input. The D3100 is sufficient for getting a clip when you want it, you're not going to have movie quality sound. Who carries an external mic with them on vacation? If you're buying a DSLR specifically for video capabilities, you probably should be considering a dedicated camcorder anyway. For my purposes, there's nothing wrong with mono sound.

4) Lack of bracketing -- too much to explain in a review. Google it and see if you would ever use it. I can see why it would be useful, but I doubt it'd be useful for on-the-go photography.

5) Manual settings buried in menus instead of having dedicated buttons -- Most people at the entry-level probably aren't shooting full manual. The D3100 features several "scene" modes that you can use, otherwise there's always aperture or shutter priority, or even full auto. Depending on which priority you're in, the scroll wheel on the back will adjust the aperture or shutter speed. If you shoot full manual all the time, you may want dedicated buttons, meaning you should look elsewhere. If you're not in full manual, I can't see this being a problem.

6) Lack of built-in flash commander mode -- you can't trigger an off camera flash using your built-in flash. Some DSLR's have built-in flashes with this capability, the D3100 does not. For travel photography, this isn't an issue. For most at-home photography, this isn't an issue. It could be for macro photography depending how close to your subject you are, or if you have a full studio with multiple flashes setup in your basement. If you decide at a later point you want this capability, some external flashes such as the Nikon SB-700 can function as a commander. Otherwise, you can use whatever external flash you wish in conjunction with the SC-28 or SC-29 cord inthe D3100's hotshoe.

7) Perhaps the biggest potential problem with the D3100 is the lack of a built in focusing motor. This means the D3100 will not autofocus with plain AF lenses (manual still works though). Any lenses with the AF-S designation will auto-focus just fine. This can be costly though - on some of the higher-end lenses, the difference can be $600 or more between the AF and AF-S version of the same lens. Again, this comes down to "what will you use it for?" For this, I go back here: If this is a problem, you shouldn't be looking at an entry level DSLR anyway.

Nikon ships the D3100 with the 18-55mm AF-S VR lens, offers a very affordable 55-200mm AF-S VR telephoto, and my personal favorite, the 35mm f/1.8 AF-S lens. The 55-200 can be had for under $100 if you catch a sale or rebate, and the 35mm can be had for under $200. These three lenses will cover most of the needs for entry-level photographers, and all three of them auto-focus on the D3100. By the time we as amateur photographers outgrow this setup, we will know specifically what focal lengths we primarily use in order to make a more educated purchase for the expensive lenses later on. And I'm convinced, when that time comes, you'll have your eye on the latest and greatest prosumer DSLR to go with your fancy new lens anyway.

Until then, enjoy the D3100 for what it is. A great, inexpensive, entry-level DSLR, which, in my opinion, produces excellent images when in the hands of a photographer ready to learn!