I’m looking for my first D-SLR and don’t have much budget. Should I go for a D3100 or a D3200?
Chris says… You ask if there is a huge difference in picture quality between these two cameras. As you are trading up from a Kodak point-and-shoot, you are going to notice a phenomenal jump in creative potential and in overall image quality whichever of the two you pick. Both are sensible first SLR choices for a school student like you.
However, there are significant differences between these two. The spec of the sensor is the big one – the D3100 offers a 14-megapixel sensor, whereas the D3200 uses the 24-megapixel CMOS sensor found on most of Nikon’s recent SLRs. That is a big jump in detail.
The motordrive also gets a boost when you go a step up, maxing out at four frames per second, rather than three frames per second. And there is a small boost in maximum ISO sensitivity too, from ISO3200 to ISO6400. Perhaps the biggest difference is in the screen on the back, with the resolution jumping fourfold from 230,000 dots to a very reasonable 921,000 dots.
The D3200 is slightly more expensive than the D3100 – although the differential has got less as the D3100 starts to disappear from more stores. If you can afford to, I’d buy the D3200, though the D3100 is still a decent camera that’s capable of taking excellent photographs.