Nikon D3100- Yay or Nay

[LKabstract]

Hi,
I've narrowed it down to a Nikon D3100, not an easy feat given the selection. If you know of any reason why I should not purchase this model, please speak now!
Thanks for your time and expertise.
Leana

[jiro]

Yay for me.

[Sahil]

Hi Leana!

D3100 is a very good camera, to begin with. I assume that its gonna be your first DSLR. From my personal experience, you would want to upgrade to next level camera once you are little high on learning curve. Once you would start getting hang of the camera you would feel restricted by a few things. (High Noise at not so very high ISO, Manual focusing with a few lenses, etc.)
I feel the first DSLR is just to get hang of DSLR cameras & manual settings. You very soon feel like upgrading the camera body.

If you go through this thread, things will be much more clearer.

Pardon me if for asking this, but do you have a budget constraint? If so, how about spending lesser that what you are going to spend on D3100 and getting yourself a second hand gear, which you can part with comfortably, when you decide (& comfortable) to buy the higher level model?
Hope this helps.

[Shadowman]

A yay for me. Just make sure that the lenses you buy suit your shooting (manual focus or AF) style.

[dshelton]

I have the D3000 for beginners which I know is a bit similar. It's good for now until I get better at what I am doing. When I upgrade, that will be the hard decision, I have no idea yet.

[tclune]

The big omissions in the D3100 to my mind are:
No intervalometer
No exposure bracketing
No support for IR remote triggering
No built-in focusing motor
No pentaprism
No in-camera commander mode.

For the first three, you would need to move up to the D5100 (or the D5000). For the full list, you would need to move up to the D7000 (or the D90). If you won't miss those things, the D3100 is probably the right choice. FWIW

[RonH]

I have the D3000 and am very pleased with the results. However exposure bracketing would be useful to have so maybe consider the new D5100 if budget is not a major issue. If I upgrade sometime it will be towards the D5100 or its replacement whatever that may be.

[tclune]

There is one more omission from the D3100 that I forgot about -- mirror lock-up. You can accomplish essentially the same thing if you are shooting in Live mode, but the only auto-focusing in that mode is the relatively slow and less accurate contrast focusing. I use live view when I do macro shooting, as the fully-zoomed live view is the best way to manually focus for macro in my experience. However, for general-purpose shooting from a tripod (landscape photography and the like), you want to be able to eliminate the mirror slap vibration by delaying the shutter after the mirror has withdrawn. The D5100 (and D5000) has an "exposure delay" mode that waits a second after the mirror has come up to allow the vibration to dissipate, so you can use the preferable phase mode auto-focusing and still avoid mirror slap vibration. There is nothing comparable in the D3100, which is an unfortunate omission to my way of thinking. Again, if you aren't likely to avail yourself of this feature, there's no point in considering the more expensive cameras.