Nikon D3100 DSLR hands-on

Besides the S1100pj and S5100, we also had of venture to play with Nikon’s 14.2 megapixel D3100 earlier today. Sadly, as a result of the non-final firmware, we weren’t allowed to acquire live sample stills and 1080p H.264 clips from the prototype DSLR, that will’t comment too much on the recent CMOS sensor’s picture quality. Still, there were some interesting features to take home with. Most notably, the seemingly solid D3100 has a far better grip compared to its predecessor and our own D5000 — it certainly felt nice and secure in our hands despite the small (and slightly lighter) body. We also dig the recent quick switch (resting by the now-larger dial) for selecting various continuous shooting modes, together with the most recent spring-loaded live-view trigger and video recording button (both at the tip-right corner of the 3-inch 460k-dot screen).

After all , we couldn’t have gone home without needing tested the video mode’s headlining continuous autofocus feature — we weren’t in a position to tell how much motor noise may need gone into the clips, but the bundled 18-55mm lens was ready to autofocus or track subjects at reasonable speeds, given that we weren’t zooming or moving about too rapidly. The sole bug we noticed was that typically the tracking may get overridden by large nearby objects with similar colors, so hopefully the overall firmware will reduce this error. Another concern is with the brand new 1,030mAh battery — no word on what percentage shots or video hours it may provide, but we shall find out when this $699 DSLR comes out next month.

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This post is tagged: d, dslr, HandsOn, nikon