- Wi-Fi Connectivity with adapter (not included)
- 24.2 MP DX-format CMOS sensor,Display Screen 3.0-Inch Rear Screen, LCD (921000)
- EXPEED III Image Processing
- Wide ISO sensitivity range,Filter Thread: 52 mm
- One-touch Full HD 1080p movie recording
The tutoring graphical-based menu system is geared more to beginners, which I am not, so I find it maddening. Most will love it, since it is somewhat educational, and offers a great variety of pre-sets to take creative shots easily.
It is amazingly light weight lighter than most lenses! It is very quiet. The AF could be faster, but it's plenty fast enough. When you dig deeper, you shockingly find that the D3200 has many advanced internal features from the highest-end cameras (D800 & F4). The high-res LCD rear screen, the EXPEED 3 image processing engine, and a new 24MP sensor. The EXPEED 3 image processing engine allows the D3200 to perform at an altitude unheard of for a so-called entry level camera. Nikon's Active-D dynamic range enhancement at 24MP at 4 frames per second requires substantial in-camera processing power.
I bought this camera primarily for still photography. With the proper lenses & technique, the results are stunning. Low-light/high ISO performance is far beyond what you should expect at this level camera. Candle-lit face images are noise-free, and look great. Still life's on a tripod at ISO 100, have more resolution that ANY DSLR I have ever used, with very little shadow noise. In short, I might not accept my D800 when it becomes available. I might use the D3200 longer than I thought, (waiting for the 24MP FX D600 for $1999 later this year -my guesses on price & stats & date)...or, just keep using the D3200. If it breaks (I'm hard on cameras), I'll just buy a new one.
Bottom line -the D3200: super light-weight, very quiet, super high resolution (& low noise, high dynamic range, superb colors), incredible HD video with slow motion. It is no doubt THE most amazing DSLR value on the planet!
5/14/12 UPDATE: I've now shot 100s of images, using lenses from 11 mm to 600 mm. I've learned a lot. Super-high resolution cameras are a new arena for most of us. On the surface, one automatically thinks you will get images with twice the resolution (12MP vs 24MP). Not so. MP resolution is measured linearly, so the increase while significant, is less than doubled. More importantly, when you enter the hi-res camera stratosphere, photographic technique & lens choice are critical. While these high MP cameras are capable of amazing results, you have to work to get absolutely ALL the MP's this camera has to offer. Do not blame the camera if your initial results are less dramatically sharper than your old 6-8-12MP Nikon. It's probably you...
BTW, the Nikon 18-55mm is a decent lens, but it doesn't do this imager justice. You can get better results, with better glass. The excellent f1.8 35mm DX Nikon on this camera makes a super-light weight compact package you can carry all day long, producing super images. A 60 year-old Nikkor Q 200mm f4, $70 or so on eBay, produces stunning results if carefully used on Manual, on a tripod.
Set-up a table with clean background and a few artifacts on it. Use the sharpest lens you have, at f 8, on a sturdy tripod, perpendicular to the table, Shoot the scene with the in-camera flash on both old & new camera bodies. You will see the difference easily when images from both cameras are compared side by side, enlarged to 100%.
How does this translate to everyday casual shooting? Not easily. Sub-par technique still results in sub-par images no matter what camera is used. If you are a beginner looking for the best entry-level DSLR ever made, all of this won't matter -grab a D3200 and shoot away! Just note that the D3200 is capable of world-class imagery. If it takes more effort to take photographs of this caliber, it's a good thing -the D3200 forces you to up your game to get there!
Buy Nikon D3200 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR (Black) Now
I had no plans to buy this camera, but eventually had to find a solution while waiting for my D800 to be delivered. I kind of felt, I could get some training by shooting high megapixel images on this entry level camera.My first outing after the camera arrived was to some birdpark with absolutely no prior preparation. The manual is still in the box, only charged the battery overnight and brought a selection of lenses in addition to the kit lens.
First surprise, even the kit "plastic" lens performs really nicely on this camera. Due to the nature of the objects of interest, the remaining shoots were done on a 28-300mm.
I was accompanied by an experienced bird photographer and we took turns with the camera. Both made the following observations: From the angle of experienced Nikon users, this camera offers everything in terms of menus and dials to set the camera up the way one is used to from D90, D7000, D300s level cameras. This came as a surprise, as the D3200 does not have the front dial that we both were used to and familiar with. Nikon has done an surprisingly good job in making the menus very easy to access and after a short while, we where entirely concentrated on the shoot and only occasionally reminding ourself that this was "only" an entry-level DSLR.
At the same time, we were impressed how nice the software is tailored to the needs of a potential beginner, gently guiding him towards to goal of making better photos along the way.
The LCD screen on the back is a huge step forward from previous models, as it allowed to effortless pre-screen the shots taken. I was even carrying a laptop computer to better inspect the initial images, but after a short while we only resorted the the built-in screen.
The biggest surprise was however the image quality after we analyzed our initial >350 photos on a large monitor. The yield of usable photos was right out of the box very high, which reiterates the ease of use of this camera and the great auto-focus system (despite only 11 sensors). Also the smallish size of the body turned out to be less problematic, even with a bigger lens attached to it.
We found the image quality obtained to be absolutely stunning, the sharpness of the images was "picture perfect". Colors just the way one would expect them, as is the hall mark of any Nikon camera. Even small birds could be cropped from the 24 MP resulting in usable 7 MP images. Post-processing was a thrill and resulted in a substantial number of images clearly qualifying as publication quality.
Having seen both, the best and the worst in Nikon cameras, I can verify that this entry level DSLR is a keeper. Even though never planned, it will stay in the collection as a second body and now serves as the main camera until the D800 arrives.
If an entry level camera already is this good, what may be expected of the upcoming updates of the other DX models, the likes of D5100, D7000 and the D300s?
Read Best Reviews of Nikon D3200 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR (Black) Here
I only really purchased this as a studio cam. Don't need AF performance for that, nor high ISO's, but do need great resolution. So, with trepidation and reserve, I decided to try this one. I am coming from D700's, D3's, D7k's and other as my point of reference. I shoot for a living.The good:
Resolution is excellent, especially when coupled with the 40mm macro from Nikon. I have shot a few hundred shots now and am very happy in that regard. The menus are simple enough that you can work them out if you already know Nikon's systems for menus. AF performance is great for this kind of body. Using my 17-55 with it, I could acquire focus only slightly slower that with the D7000. I tried in lower light to see how that worked, and while you could tell it was slower, it was not too bad. Every shot I have taken bar one (black dog in a dark room), was in focus as intended. So, AF is good for this kind of body. I like the layout of the controls too, everything was where it was expected to be.
The bad:
Small body means uncomfortable grip. However, that is what was expected, so I don't really think this is a "bad" for this camera. I expect a person with smaller hands will thoroughly enjoy that aspect. Lenses (all but smaller ones) are front heavy and fell off balance. Pop a 70-200 VR on this and it is silly unless you carry/hold it by the lens primarily. Lastly, there is no AF fine tune, but.... I have not found the need on even one of the lenses I will use it with to make any adjustments, so not too bad a thing.
Conclusion:
Get one if you want it for landscape, low speed portraits (esp families) or for product/architecture. I highly recommend it.
Want Nikon D3200 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR (Black) Discount?
I was planning on purchasing a Nikon D7000, but then found out about this camera. Reading on the Nikon Rumors site, it appears that the D7000 may be replaced with a higher MP sensor (24.2 same as the D3200) sometime this fall.Not wanting to wait, I thought I'd give the D3200 a try. I still had to wait a bit, but finally got one from Amazon for $699 with Prime.
This thing is NOT a toy!! It is a serious piece of camera gear, and if you spend time getting to understand all it can do, it will pay off handsomely with incredible pictures. I would also recommend getting a good Digital Image Management program to get the most out of your pictures (I'm using Adobe LightRoom 3).
Doing some test shots with the D3200, those extra MegaPixels DO count, if you know what you are doing. My brother-in-law (who just bought a Nikon D800 for $3,000 with no lens) was surprised at a shot I took at 6000x4000 JPG resolution, hand-held with available light at 1/20th of a second with the "stock" lens that comes with the camera. You can blow the picture up to 36" and still not see any blur! You can get even HIGHER quality pictures by shooting in RAW format....
Exposure bracketing is the only thing missing, IMO, but if they threw that in NOBODY would buy the D5100 or D7000 it's that good.
P.S. Make sure you get a HIGH Quality memory card to go with this camera. I got the SanDisk Extreme 32GB 45MB/s SDHC Flash Memory Card (from Amazon, of course) and it's a great combo for burst shooting or HD Video use.
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*** Update 6/12/2012 ***After analyzing the result more, I found that, for this kind of camera, my Sharp lens at the sharpest aperture is required to get real amazing sharp picture to the pixel. My Tamron 17-50 VC F2.8 at F5.6 is required for edge to edge sharpness.
Also, Tokina 11-16 F.8 (which is manual focus with this camera), becomes more critical. Using the range finder mode is a must to get a tack sharp picture. That's new to me. But I am glad I learn the lesson. And now I am more happy with this camera (and lenses)...
*** Update 05/31/2012***
Update lightroom 4.1 today, now support NEF. And as expected despite the high resolution (24mp) cmos chips, the noise quality of D3200 is comparable with D5200.
Meaning that D3200 has advantage of having more real estate (meaning more room for cropping),hence still have the same IQ with D3200. And thanks to Expeed 3 (which is the processor they use in D800 and D4 and D3200), D3200 is a very responsive camera. Bravo Nikon!
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Just received this Camera today, and this is my preliminary Review (will update progresively).
Background: I have upgraded my Nikon Digital D100->D200->D90->D5100->D3200.
Okay, seemed I downgrade every single time, but actually not. (I also use D300, D3X, but those are different class of equipment). This path, is more for daily activity platform (lightweight).
D90 -> D5100: I actually considered to buy D7000, but chose D5100 simply because the price, and the articulated LCD because I use it 50% for Video. I am glad I did! D5100 image quality is SUPERB and on par with D7000. D5100 is lot FASTER than D3000 & D3100, but a little bit slower than D7000. From D90 to D5100, it has lots of improvement in image quality, low noise in low light, much better video (with 20 minutes max per session). The only drawback I can see, is the battery coverage is not long enough (on Video mode), but it is understandable, and the solution is add another spare.
D5100 -> D3200:
Other than the obvious layout design difference, the only thing I eager to know is the Low Light Noise!
So I am glad to report that IT IS COMPARABLE!
See my attached photo (The Costco Connection image) and judge yourself (both image are taken with the same setting at ISO 6400)
So, 3200 is a clear winner!
*** Update ***
I upload an image taken at ISO 12800 (Hi1). For me the image is very usable.
Will update the review in a couple of days, once I get the whole importance difference between 5100 & 3200 ...
*** Update After 200 shots ***
1. My copy of 3200 has slightly over exposure consistently (but not much, probably 1/3 ev, but I actually like slightly under exposed)
2. I noticed a slight improvement of Dynamic range. I take a shoot at an overcast day, but surprise how it can capture the clouds, the trees and shadows
3. An improvement in response. It is slightly faster than 5100, but not in the same level as D7000.
4. Smoother Mirror, and quieter. It is noticable (but not sure if this is consistent between model, or just batch/production variance).
*** Update in Video ***
The Video is also amazing. It is comparable to D5100, especially the color rendetion is great!
The low light performance is on par with D5100.
The addition of 720p 60fps, and the Manual Audio Level control + Stereo Audio Meter is a real plus for Video Maker, making this DSLR a good choice for Serious Video taker. I wish it has a headphone Jack, but probably too much to ask for considering the price level. The focus tracking in Video mode is also improved, not substantially but good enough to be considered. I did 4 songs video clip and really satisfied with the result. Both the end result and the operational experience are great. I use the 720p 60fps mode for this project, and really like the result.
I noticed slightly longer battery time, but not sure whether this is consistent or only slight production/batch variance. (*** Update: I finally found that It is a batch variance, because the other battery I have give me noticable longer running time ***).
The additional Audio Meter view (press Info several time in the live view mode), is a really good addition for me, especially while attaching external Mic for Video mode (see my image). Also the option to set the Audio Level (Mic Input) is very useful. I took 10 Video clips already, and use the Mic Input to capture the Audio from A Mixer. The audio quality is SUPERB!
For all the test, I didnt use the kit lens, but use Tamron 17-50 F2.8 VC.
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