Nikon's new D3100. Get yours today!
Nikon's new D3100

Here’s my review of the new Nikon D3100 on B&H’s website:

Great value for a fraction of the D7000

By Magellan from Houston, TX on 2/6/2011
  • Ease of Operation: 8
  • Pros: Easy To Use, Fast / Accurate Auto-Focus, Fast Shutter Speed, Good Image Quality, Good Image Stabilization, High ISO Performance, Quiet
  • Cons: Low-res LCD
  • Best Uses: Family Photos, Indoors/Low Light, Weddings/Events
  • Describe Yourself: Semi-pro Photographer
  • Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

Comments about Nikon D3100 Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm NIKKOR VR Lens:

I’ve only had the D3100 for about a week and only taken it out for a pro gig once so far as a back-up to my D90, but it performs nearly as well as my much more expensive primary.

For the six hundred dollar tag, it’s a steal with the 18-55mm lens (plus, I got a free bag and DVD from B&H!).

It’s missing a lot of the bells and whistles that the D90 has, but it’s great for a starter DSLR. I love the manual switch they added for shooting mode (single frame, continuous, etc.). Sure, it can’t autofocus on my older lenses, but I manually focus on a lot of those, anyway.

The only HUGE problem I’ve run into so far is the inability of Adobe Lightroom 2 to recognize the RAW files shot with the D3100. Of course, if you update to LR3.3 or your Camera Raw plugin, you’ll be good to go. Unless, of course, you’re still using an older PPC-based Mac that can’t run Lightroom 3. Your only options at that point (that I’ve discovered) are to either change the model type to NIKON D90 or an already supported model with ExifTool, or convert to DNG first using Adobe DNG Converter (which you can upgrade for free to recognize RAW files from the D3100). Either way, the extra step before importing to Lightroom are a bit of a pain. This may force me to upgrade my computer system a bit earlier than I would have liked.

Other than that, the camera is super quiet (even while not in Quiet Mode), and light as a feather (which is good and bad, of course). It feels a bit cheap because of the light weight and plastic exterior, but it is a load off after carrying around the D90 with extended battery pack for hours.