Nikon D3100 Review

November 29, 2010 | Zoltan Arva-Toth | Rating star Rating star Rating star Rating star Half rating star

Introduction

The Nikon D3100 is an entry-level digital SLR camera boasting a newly designed 14-megapixel DX format sensor, a quick-access Live View mode, one-touch Full HD video recording with autofocus, plus an interactive Guide mode, a sensor dust buster and an 11-point autofocus module. With a sensitivity range of ISO 100-3,200, expandable to ISO 12,800, the Nikon D3100 is well suited to most lighting conditions. Aimed at the complete beginner, the Nikon D3100 is available for £429.99 / $579.95 in the UK and the USA, respectively.

Ease of Use

Like last year's D3000, the new Nikon D3100 is a rather small DSLR camera, although it does come with a fairly chunky right-hand grip that makes it better suited to hand-held shooting than some of its competitors. Still, expect having to find a place for your little finger under the camera if you have larger-than-average hands.

The body itself is mainly plastic, but while the camera certainly doesn't feel as robust as some of the company's higher specified models, it still exudes a degree of quality you might not expect at this price point. This is helped by the surprisingly classy rubber coating on the grip, which also appears on the thumb rest in the back of the camera.

The Nikon D3100's body is a new design, 30 grams lighter than that of its predecessor, but the designers have gone to great lengths to make sure most controls are in the same places as before. The most notable changes to the outside of the camera include the omission of the infrared remote sensor that used to be in the grip of the D3000 (the Nikon D3100 accepts a wired remote release cable only), the appearance of a built-in monaural microphone on the front plate and an all-new drive-mode lever at the top (which we love because it makes setting and checking the current drive mode very easy and straightforward), plus a spring-loaded lever in the back that takes you to Live View mode at the flick of a thumb. Said lever encircles a red button that acts as a movie shutter release, enabling one-touch video recording when you are in Live View.

Nikon D7000 Nikon D7000
Front Rear

The 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR kit lens that Nikon supplied feels fairly well-balanced - if a tad front-heavy - on the Nikon D3100 and it fits into place with a reassuring mechanical click. It also adds the very important advantage of Vibration Reduction. Nikon bodies don't offer any form of in-camera image stabilisation, unlike similar models from Sony, Pentax and Olympus, so the affordable 18-55mm VR lens is a good investment.

The Nikon D3100 follows conventional DSLR design in having a shooting mode dial on the top of the camera, which allows you to select either one of the advanced modes like Manual, Aperture- or Shutter-priority, or a number of scene modes. The Guide mode first seen in the D3000 has also been carried over, and enhanced to include reference photos that demonstrate the effect of each exposure setting. The main purpose of the Guide mode remains the same as on the D3000, namely to teach beginners about what settings to use in a number of shooting situations, and how these settings influence the final output. We feel that Nikon deserves kudos for this, as a mode like this can teach beginners a lot more about the basics of photography than the green Auto mode in which the camera assumes control of almost everything. Speaking of which, we think we have found a bug with the green Auto mode - to wit, it appears to always choose a high ISO speed in low light, even when you use the flash (the cat pictures in our Samples gallery are good examples of this).

The Exposure Compensation button is thoughtfully positioned next to the shutter release. Hold down this button with your right forefinger and spin the control wheel on the top-rear of the camera with your thumb to adjust its settings - simple and intuitive. In M mode, this easy-to-reach button allows you to toggle between aperture and shutter speed settings, making the lack of a second control wheel less problematic. The other button sitting next to the shutter release, labelled 'info', is arguably at the heart of the Nikon D3100's ease-of-use, as the camera lacks the monochromatic status LCD of the D7000, so Nikon had to provide a different way to check vital shooting information without having to look into the viewfinder. Enter the info button - pressing it displays virtually all of the camera's main settings on the large rear screen.

Unlike the D3000, where this screen functions only as a status panel and menu display  while shooting, the D3100 also uses it for Live View and movie recording. As noted above, the Nikon D3100 has a spring-loaded lever in the back, which makes entering Live View a very easy and simple affair - just flick this lever with your thumb, and the camera goes into Live View without further ado. By default, the D3100 quits this mode after only 30 seconds (you can see an overlaid timer counting down), although a tap on the shutter release or a change in exposure settings resets the counter - we are not quite sure why this automatic termination of Live View has been implemented in the first place, as we have not seen anything like this before.

Nikon D7000 Nikon D7000
Front

Top

In Live View the camera autofocusses using the contrast detect method. Depending on the AF mode set, you can either initiate this via a half-press of the shutter release, or have the camera keep focussing continuously. The first method is noticeably faster than on earlier models like the D90, though still not nearly as quick as the phase detection method used outside Live View. The other autofocus mode, called full-time AF, can be more of an annoyance than a benefit, as the picture might go out of focus just before you wanted to take a shot (though you can at least lock focus by half-pressing the shutter release when you think focus is where it should be).

Of course you can also focus manually while in Live View mode. As with earlier LV-enabled models, it is possible to magnify into the live image by repeatedly pressing the button labelled with a loupe icon - however, due to the combination of a large but relatively low-resolution screen and what appears to be a lo-res live view feed, this magnification is not much help. On a related note, it is getting a bit annoying that Nikon still doesn't offer a live histogram to help you get the exposure right when working in Live View.

Also new to the Nikon D3100 is its 1080p Full HD “D-movie” mode. At the highest resolution setting, the camera can record movies at cine standard 24fps; while at  1280x720 pixels you can choose from 24, 25 or 30 frames per second. The Nikon D3100 is the first true DSLR camera to offer full-time autofocus in movie mode, but you may quickly decide to turn this feature off. For one thing, the sound of the focus motor in the lens gets picked up by the microphone. For another, the subject may go out of focus for no apparent reason. If you really want to make sure an erratically moving subject stays sharp throughout the clip, you had better stop down the lens for enough depth of field to work with, and leave all shallow-DOF trickery to static or predictably moving subjects.

With the Nikon D3100, you are not getting much in the way of exposure control when shooting movies. The aperture can be pre-set before you start filming, but gain and shutter speed will be controlled by the camera. By default, exposure changes with subject luminance while capturing a clip, although you can at least lock exposure by holding down the AE Lock button. The camera does not provide any special feedback on focus or highlight blow-out (i.e. no “peaking” or “zebras” like in professional video cameras), and there is no manual control over audio levels, either. Sound is recorded by way of the built-in monaural microphone, with no way to hook up an optional external stereo mic to improve audio quality. Videos are compressed using the H.264 codec and stored in a MOV container. Movie quality is, thankfully, good with excellent resolution and good dynamic range; although your footage may suffer from various “rolling shutter” effects when doing quick pans or shooting hand-held with a telephoto lens.

Nikon D7000 Nikon D7000
Memory Card Slot Battery Compartment

Of course the Nikon D3100 is first and foremost an SLR, so Live View and video recording are add-on features, more than anything else. The camera's primary function is to take still photographs, and for that, you do not have to use Live View. Like all SLRs, the D3100 has a proper through-the-lens optical viewfinder too, albeit it lacks the on-demand grid lines of the D3000. The viewfinder is not as large as that of a D300s, for example, but you wouldn't expect it to be at this price point anyway. The positions of the 11 autofocus sensors are permanently but unobtrusively marked on the focusing screen with 11 tiny dots. In single-point AF mode - in which you can specify which AF point the camera should use -, the active autofocus point lights up in red upon a half-press of the shutter release. The other available AF area modes include Auto Area, Dynamic Area and 3D Tracking; all of which work in a similar fashion to the respective AF area modes of the D5000 and the D90. Autofocus speeds with the kit zoom weren't stellar, but focussing with the optical viewfinder was still a lot faster than in Live View mode. Focus accuracy left a bit to be desired, especially when using one of the off-centre focus points. (AF point selection is done by way of the four-way pad, a simple and intuitive solution.)

We need to note that just like most other entry-level Nikon dSLRs, the Nikon D3100 lacks a body-integral focus motor, so it can only autofocus with AF-S and AF-I lenses, which have the AF motor built in. Other AF Nikkors can be used in manual-focus mode only, although the AF sensors remain active and can at least provide focus confirmation via the green dot in the in-finder LCD. There is also an “electronic rangefinder” function that can be enabled via the menu; this tells you how far you are from perfect focus, and which way you need to rotate the focus ring to acquire it. Manual-focus AI and AI-s lenses without a CPU can only be used in M mode, and the camera will refuse to provide any form of metering, so you will either have to use an external meter or take a few test shots to determine the optimal exposure. Focus confirmation, however, works with these lenses too, via the green dot; albeit the afore-mentioned “electronic rangefinder” functionality is disabled. One interesting thing I have found is that if you shoot a D-movie using a non-CPU lens, the camera will adjust exposure normally, so the lack of metering only applies to stills.

For the images already captured, the Nikon D3100 offers a broad range of retouching tools, including post-capture D-lighting (useful if you forgot to turn on Active D-lighting before capture), red-eye correction, trimming, monochrome conversion, different filter effects, colour balancing, image resizing, image overlay, in-camera raw processing,  distortion correction, and a miniature effect that mimics a look that can otherwise only be achieved with a tilt lens. Many of these functions make it unnecessary to buy specialised computer programs or plug-ins and spend hours in front of a computer to achieve a desired/popular effect.

The Nikon D3100 is powered by a proprietary Lithium-ion battery and ships with a cordless charger that plugs directly into a mains socket. For storage, the camera uses SD, SDHC and, for the first time in a Nikon DSLR, SDXC memory cards. As far as connectivity goes, there are A/V Out, mini HDMI and USB terminals and a proprietary connector for an optional cable release or GPS unit.

This concludes our evaluation of the Nikon D3100's ergonomics, handling and features - let's now move on to that all-important aspect of a digital camera: image quality.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 14.2 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.

The Nikon D3100 produced images of excellent quality during the review period. The out-of-camera JPEGs are soft at the default settings, but switch to raw image capture, and you'll see just how much detail the fourteen-megapixel sensor can record. Along with the increase in the number of pixels came a welcome improvement in high-ISO performance. The settings of ISO 100 through ISO 400 are as good as indistinguishable from each other. The slightest hint of noise starts to creep in at ISO 800 but the images are still very clean at that setting. ISO 1,600 and ISO 3,200 show progressively more noise, but both are eminently usable, even for very large prints. At the two “boosted” sensitivity settings the JPEGs are already full of chroma noise but the raw files only show some finely grained luminance noise that allows even the ISO 12,800 setting to produce printable results. The night photograph was excellent even with long-exposure noise reduction turned off. Red-eye was not a common occurrence with the built-in flash.

Noise

The standard sensitivity settings on the Nikon D3100 range from ISO 100 to ISO 3,200, with expanded (boosted) settings of ISO 6,400 and ISO 12,800 also available. The following 100% crops show the noise levels for each setting. The raw files have been converted with Adobe Camera Raw 6.3 Release Candidate.

JPEG

RAW

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 12800 (100% Crop)

ISO 12800 (100% Crop)

File Quality

The file quality settings available on the Nikon D3100 are Basic, Normal and Fine for JPEGs, with raw capture also at your disposal. The following crops demonstrate the differences in quality. Note how much sharper the raw output is (again straight from ACR 6.3 RC).

Fine (7.5Mb) (100% Crop)

Normal (3.9Mb) (100% Crop)

   

Basic (1.9Mb) (100% Crop)

RAW (14.4Mb) (100% Crop)

Sharpening

The out-of-camera JPEGs are soft at the default settings, and benefit from further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. Here are a couple of 100% crops - the right-hand images have had some sharpening applied. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level by altering the Picture Controls if you don't like the default look.

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

   

Focal Range

The Nikon D3100's 18-55mm VR kit lens offers a fairly versatile focal range, as illustrated by these examples:

27mm

82.5mm

Chromatic Aberrations

The Nikon D3100's 18-55mm VR kit lens handled chromatic aberrations quite well during the review, with some purple fringing present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Chromatic Aberrations 1

Chromatic Aberrations 2

Flash

The flash settings on the Nikon D3100 are Auto, Auto with red-eye reduction, Fill-flash, Auto slow sync, Auto slow sync with red-eye correction, and Rear curtain with slow sync. These shots of a white coloured ceiling were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (27mm)

Flash On - Wide Angle (27mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64
   

Flash Off - Telephoto (82.5mm)

Flash On - Telephoto (82.5mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On or the Red-eye-Reduction settings caused any noticeable red-eye.

Flash On

Flash On (100% Crop)
   

Red-eye Reduction

Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Nikon D3100 lets you dial in shutter speeds of up to 30 seconds and has a Bulb mode as well for exposure times of practically any length, which is very good news if you are seriously interested in night photography. There is an optional long-exposure noise reduction function that can be activated to filter out any hot pixels that may appear when extremely slow shutter speeds are used. Do note that this works by way of dark frame subtraction, which effectively doubles the exposure time. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 30 seconds, aperture of f/11 at ISO 200, with noise reduction turned off in the menu. We've included a 100% crop for you to see what the quality is like.

Night Shot

Night Shot (100% Crop)

Vibration Reduction

The Nikon D3100 does not offer body-integral image stabilisation, but the 18-55mm kit lens bundled with the camera features Vibration Reduction, Nikon's proprietary lens-based optical stabilisation system. This allows you to take sharp hand-held photos at slower shutter speeds than with lenses that lack this function. To illustrate this, I took two photos at the long end of the zoom, with VR turned on and off. There is a noticeable difference, even though the one taken with VR on also has a hint of blur to it.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length

Image Stabilisation Off (100% Crop)

Image Stabilisation On (100% Crop)

1/20th / 82.5mm

Picture Controls

Nikon’s Picture Controls are akin to Canon’s Picture Styles in being preset combinations of sharpening, contrast, brightness, saturation and hue. The available choices are Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait and Landscape. The following examples demonstrate the differences across these options.

Standard

Neutral

   

Landscape

Vivid

   

Portrait

Monochrome

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon D3100 camera, which were all taken using the 14.2 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The Nikon D3100 enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some Nikon RAW (NEF) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movie & Video

The Nikon D3100 can record Full HD video in the MOV format. This is a sample movie at the highest quality setting of 1920x1280 pixels at 24 frames per second. Please note that this 19 second movie is 44.7Mb in size.

Product Images

Nikon D7000

Front of the Camera

 
Nikon D7000

Isometric View

 
Nikon D7000

Isometric View

 
Nikon D7000

Rear of the Camera

 
Nikon D7000

Top of the Camera

 
Nikon D7000

Bottom of the Camera

 
Nikon D7000

Side of the Camera

 
Nikon D7000

Side of the Camera

 
Nikon D7000

Memory Card Slot

 

Nikon D7000

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

If you’ve read the entire review, you will probably agree that the Nikon D3100 produces image quality that defies its entry-level status. Compared to the one-year-old D3000, Nikon has managed to simultaneously increase the pixel count and improve quality at high sensitivity settings, with the D3100 enjoying at least one stop of advantage over its predecessor.

In terms of handling, there are a few welcome enhancements - most notably the inclusion of an ingenious drive mode lever, a separate movie record button and a spring-loaded Live View switch. All of these have brought about enhanced functionality as well as handling improvements - the available drive modes now include the Quiet mode first seen on the D5000, which allows you to delay the mirror return until you let go of the shutter release; while the movie record button and Live View switch provide access to features absent from the D3000. As to the implementation of these features, we definitely see room for improvement: the Live View mode desperately needs a live histogram and a higher-resolution live feed, while the movie mode is not complete without full exposure control, not to mention a truly well-working full-time AF feature.

As regards the Nikon D3100's ergonomics as a traditional DSLR camera, it's not bad at all, but we would have liked to see separate buttons for ISO and WB, both of which can be mapped onto the handy Fn button, but alas not at the same time. Focusing speed and accuracy - especially in low light - could also be improved, as neither was optimal with the kit lens.

That said, the Nikon D3100 is a surprisingly well-featured and complete package for an entry-level digital SLR camera, and at the current market prices of £429.99 / $579.95 for the body, it also represents good value for the money.

4.5 stars

Ratings (out of 5)
Design 3.5
Features 4
Ease-of-use 4.5
Image quality 4.5
Value for money 4

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Nikon D3100 from around the web.

cameralabs.com »

Nikon's D3100 is the company's latest entry-level DSLR. Announced in August 2010, it's the successor the best-selling D3000 and makes several key upgrades to that model. Most notably the new D3100 now features Live View and video recording facilities – indeed it becomes the first Nikon DSLR (hotly followed by the D7000) to offer 1080p video recording in addition to 720p. To satisfy market demands, the resolution has also received boost from 10 to 14 Megapixels and there's a number of tweaks to the controls and ergonomics.
Read the full review »

popphoto.com »

It’s been a very busy year indeed for Nikon. On top of nine new lenses in 2010, last fall it announced two more camera bodies: the midlevel D7000 and entry-level D3100. The 14.2MP D3100 ($640, street, with 18–55mm f/3.5–5.6 lens) was the first to find its way to the Popular Photography Test Lab—look for our test of the D7000 next month.
Read the full review »

cameras.about.com »

The D3100 is Nikon's replacement for the D3000. Aimed squarely at the entry-level DSLR camera market, it's certainly going to be a wake-up call for other manufacturers. The D3100 has 14.2MP and full HD movie mode. In general though, Nikon has made entry-level cameras that lack specifications, but are fun and easy to use. How does the D3100 measure up?
Read the full review »

kenrockwell.com »

The Nikon D3100 is a very competent and ultra-lightweight DSLR. It is small and light, but doesn't feel dinky. It feels like the precision product it is. The D3100 is Nikon's lightest SLR, ever, and probably their smallest, too.
Read the full review »

neocamera.com »

The D3100 is Nikon's latest entry-level DSLR camera which brings full 1080p HDTV video recording with autofocus to DSLRs. This is a relatively compact DSLR camera with a 14 megapixels sensor, a Nikon electronic-only lens mount and most features usually found among such entry-level cameras.
Read the full review »

Specifications

 
Type Single-lens reflex digital camera
Lens mount Nikon F mount (with AF contacts)
Effective angle of view Approximately 1.5x lens focal length (Nikon DX format)
Image sensor 23.1 x 15.4 mm CMOS sensor
Effective pixels 14.2 million pixels
Total pixels 14.8 million pixels
Dust-reduction system Image sensor cleaning, Image Dust Off reference data (optional Capture NX 2 software required)
Image size (pixels) 4,608 x 3,072 (L); 3,456 × 2,304 (M); 2,304 × 1,536 (S)
File format NEF (compressed RAW); JPEG: JPEG-Baseline compliant with fine (approx. 1 : 4), normal (approx. 1 : 8), or basic (approx. 1 : 16) compression; Simultaneous recording of compressed RAW and JPEG fine image possible
Media SD (Secure Digital), SDHC, SDXC, and Eye-Fi memory cards
Picture Control System Can be selected from Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Landscape, Portrait; selected Picture Control can be modified
Viewfinder Eye-level pentamirror single-lens reflex viewfinder
Frame coverage Approx. 95% horizontal and 95% vertical
Magnification Approximately 0.8× (50mm f/1.4 lens at infinity, -1.0 m-1)
Eyepoint 18 mm (-1.0 m-1)
Diopter adjustment -1.7 to +0.5 m-1
Focusing screen Type B BriteView Clear Matte Mark VII screen
Reflex mirror Quick return type
Lens aperture Instant return, electronically controlled
Compatible lenses AF-S or AF-I NIKKOR: All functions supported. Type G or D AF NIKKOR without built-in autofocus motor: All functions except autofocus supported. Other AF NIKKOR without built-in autofocus motor: All functions supported except autofocus and 3D color matrix metering II. IX NIKKOR and F3AF: Not supported. Type D PC lenses: All functions supported except autofocus and some shooting modes. AI-P NIKKOR: All functions supported except autofocus and 3D color matrix metering II. Non-CPU: Autofocus not supported. Can be used in exposure mode M, but exposure meter does not function. Electronic rangefinder can be used if lens has a maximum aperture of f/5.6 or faster.
Shutter Type Electronically controlled, vertical-travel focal-plane shutter
Shutter Speed 1/4000 to 30 s in steps of 1/3 EV, bulb
Flash sync speed X=1/200 s; synchronizes with shutter at 1/200 s or slower
Release mode Single frame, continuous, self-timer, quiet shutter release
Frame advance rate Up to 3 fps (manual focus, mode M or S, shutter speed 1/250 s or faster, and other settings at default values)
Self-timer 2 s, 10 s
Metering TTL exposure metering using 420-pixel RGB sensor
Metering method Matrix: 3D color matrix metering II (type G and D lenses); color matrix metering II (other CPU lenses); Center-weighted: Weight of 75% given to 8-mm circle in center of frame; Spot: Meters 3.5 mm circle (about 2.5 % of frame) centered on selected focus point
Range (ISO 100, f/1.4 lens, 20 °C/68 °F) Matrix or center-weighted metering: 0 to 20 EV; Spot metering: 2 to 20 EV
Exposure meter coupling CPU
Mode Auto modes (auto, auto (flash off); scene modes (portrait, landscape, child, sports, close up, night portrait); programmed auto with flexible program (P); shutter-priority auto (S); aperture-priority auto (A); manual (M)
Exposure compensation -5 to +5 EV in increments of 1/3 EV
Exposure lock Luminosity locked at detected value with AE-L/AF-L button
ISO sensitivity (Recommended Exposure Index) ISO 100 to 3200 in steps of 1 EV; can also be set to approx. 2 EV above ISO 3200 (ISO 12800 equivalent); auto ISO sensitivity control available
Active D-Lighting Can be selected from on or off
Autofocus Nikon Multi-CAM 1000 autofocus sensor module with TTL phase detection, 11 focus points (including one cross-type sensor), and AF-assist illuminator (range approx. 0.5–3 m/1 ft. 8 in.–9 ft. 10 in.)
Detection range -1 to +19 EV (ISO 100 at 20°C/68°F)
Lens servo Autofocus (AF): Single-servo AF (AF-S); continuous-servo AF (AF-C); auto AF-S/AF-C selection (AF-A); predictive focus tracking activated automatically according to subject status. Manual focus (MF): Electronic rangefinder can be used
AF-area mode Single-point AF, dynamic-area AF, auto-area AF, 3D-tracking (11 points)
Focus lock Focus can be locked by pressing shutter-release button halfway (single-servo AF) or by pressing AE-L/AF-L button
Built-in flash Guide number of approximately 12/39, 13/43 with manual flash (m/ft, ISO 100, 20°C/68°F); Auto, portrait, child, close up, night portrait: Auto flash with auto pop-up; P, S, A, M: Manual pop-up with button release
Flash control TTL: i-TTL balanced fill-flash and standard i-TTL flash for digital SLR using 420-pixel RGB sensor. i-TTL balanced fill-flash is available with built-in flash and SB-900, SB-800, SB-600, or SB-400 when matrix or center-weighted metering is selected. Standard i-TTL is available with built-in flash and SB-900, SB-800, SB-600, or SB-400 when spot metering is selected (Flash mode can be set using Speedlight controls with SB-900, SB-800, and SB-600). Auto aperture: Available with SB-900/SB-800 and CPU lens. Non-TTL auto: Supported flash units include SB-900, SB-800, SB-80DX, SB-28DX, SB-28, SB-27, and SB-22S. Distance-priority manual: Available with SB-900 and SB-800
Angle of coverage Sufficient to illuminate the angle of view of an 18 mm lens. Picture edges may be slightly dark depending upon conditions, such as the lens used and the aperture setting.
Flash mode Auto, portrait, child, close up: Auto, auto with red-eye reduction, off available with built-in flash; Fill-flash and red-eye reduction available with optional flash units. Night portrait: Auto slow sync, auto slow sync with red-eye reduction, off available with built-in flash; Slow sync and slow sync with red-eye reduction available with optional flash units. Landscape, sports: Fill-flash and red-eye reduction available with optional flash units. P, A: Fill-flash, rear-curtain with slow sync, slow sync, slow sync with red-eye reduction, red-eye reduction. S, M: Fill-flash, rear-curtain sync, red-eye reduction
Flash compensation -3 to +1 EV in increments of 1/3 EV
Flash-ready indicator Lights when built-in flash or optional flash unit such as SB-900, SB-800, SB-600, SB-400, SB-80DX, SB-28DX, or SB-50DX is fully charged; blinks for 3 s after flash is fired at full output
Accessory shoe ISO 518 hot-shoe with sync and data contacts and safety lock
Sync terminal AS-15 sync terminal adapter (available separately)
Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) Advanced Wireless Lighting supported with SB-900, SB-800, or SU-800 as commander. Flash color information communication supported with built-in flash and all CLS-compatible flash units
White balance Auto (TTL white balance with main image sensor and 420-pixel RGB sensor); incandescent, fluorescent (7 types), direct sunlight, flash, cloudy, shade, preset manual, all except preset manual with fine tuning.
Live View - Lens servo Autofocus (AF): Single-servo AF (AF-S); full-time-servo AF (AF-F). Manual focus (MF)
Live View - AF-area mode Face-priority AF, wide-area AF, normal-area AF, subject-tracking AF
Autofocus Contrast-detect AF anywhere in frame (camera selects focus point automatically when face-priority AF or subject-tracking AF is selected)
Scene auto selection Available in auto and auto flash off modes
Movie recording File format: MOV
Movie recording Frame size/rate: 1920 × 1080, 24 fps; 1280 × 720, 30 fps
Movie Recording Video compression: H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding
Movie Recording Audio recording format: Linear PCM
Movie Recording Audio (Sound): Monaural microphone built in. Can be set to on or off.
Movie Recording Metering: TTL exposure metering using main image sensor
Monitor 3-in. (7.5cm)., approx. 230k-dot TFT LCD with brightness adjustment
Playback Full-frame playback; Movie playback; Thumbnail (4, 9, or 72 images or calendar) playback; Slide show; Histogram display; Highlights display; Auto image rotation; Image comment (up to 36 characters)
Retouch functions D-Lighting, red-eye correction, trim, monochrome, filter effects, color balance, small picture, image overlay, NEF (RAW) processing, quick retouch, straighten, distortion control, fisheye, color outline, perspective control, miniature effect, edit movie
USB Hi-Speed USB
HDMI output Type C HDMI connector
Accessory terminal Remote cord: MC-DC2 (available separately); GPS unit: GP-1 (available separately)
Supported languages Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Battery One rechargeable Li-ion EN-EL14 battery (supplied)
AC adapter EH-5a AC adapter; requires EP-5A power connector (available separately)
Dimensions (W × H × D) Approx.124 × 96 × 74.5 mm (4.9 × 3.8 × 2.9 in.)
Weight Approx. 505 g (1 lb. 1.8 oz.) with battery and memory card but without body cap
Durability Body and shutter unit both durable up to approximately 100,000 cycles.

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