Nikon 3100D vs Nikon D5000

Many people tend to compare the  Nikon 3100D vs Nikon D5000. The  market is a little confused on where to place the Nikon 3100D in the DSLR camera line, but if you’re looking for Nikon D3100 review that’s to-the-point and honest, then read on.

What’s Good:  Excellent picture quality, well-designed lay-out of controls, manual video capture, and a Guide mode that’s interesting enough to keep your attention.
What’s Bad: Viewfinder is a little small, bracketing is missing, and over-all it’s a bit slower than most of the dSLR competition.

Bottom line: The Nikon 3100D is a quality camera in its class, the entry-level DSLRs. Its Nikon lenses assure excellent photo quality and it has a streamlined body that veteran photographers can appreciate, but it’s not intimidating at all for a beginning photographer. Its only shortcoming is in terms of performance – where it lags a little behind the competition, but bottom line, it’s still a good buy.

Picture sharpness is dependent is dependent on the lens, and I felt pretty good in testing the different models because my shots turned out sharp, but not too sharpened. I shot using the new pro-level 28-300 mm f3.5-5.6 ED VR, with the ever reliable 18-55mm VR kit lens, as well as the familiar 35mm f1.8 lens.

Optically, the 28-300mm is a great Nikon 3100D lens, but the zoom-ring felt a bit flat, it’s too tight and a bit inconsistent, plus its weight is too much for the D3100’s light body. The 55-300mm is a better fit, but it has a tendency to fringing, not quite as sharp, and it’s slower. However, it’s a good choice for a second lens and it will satisfy you for the money you’ll pay for it, since it’s relatively cheap. There’s a little fringing along the backlit edges and some slight asymmetrical distortion on the right. But as far as Nikon 3100D deals go, it’s great value for the lens.

The video quality is typical among its class, but there seems to be more rolling shutter artefacts on average (note that when shooting video, the VR lens makes a big difference). The audio is pretty good, though the full-time AF finds it a bit difficult at locking on the right subject, and it’s loud as well. However, the camera offers full manual exposure when capturing movies. An interesting feature is, at the upper left side on the display, you’ll find a 30-second countdown-to-shutoff timer when the camera is idle at the Live View/movie mode.

Performance-wise, this camera works just fine, but the Nikon D3000 is faster overall, though not as fast as its competitors. Power on and shoot takes about 0.4 second and, in good light, focus and shoot takes about the same time. If the light is dim, the speed is still good – 0.6 second, and still better than the previous model. Bottom line for your money – the Nikon D5000 is likely a better deal for the same price. Among the DSLR line, the Nikon 3100D is a very good camera, but so long as its price competes with the D5000, the latter is still the better deal.