Nikon D3100 Un-Box and Video

I got my hands on a D3100 for a few minutes today to un-box and get a few minutes of video thanks to Allen and Allen’s Camera 215.547.2841. Be sure to call Allen if you wold like to pick up one of these bad boys.

This camera pretty much feels like the D3000 felt like in your hands. The new buttons feel really responsive and the dedicated video lever is a really smart and functional design. The new batter will definitely come in handy when you are taking 10 minute long videos and doing a lot of playback Who is this camera for, this camera is for someone just starting out looking to capture more still images than video. It is going to capture some solid images though right now I can not open the RAW file because ACR has not been updated yet.

If you are looking to do video more than photos than you will want to step up to the D7000 when it comes out. Take a look at the unboxing below and what I think it smells like.

I did a few minutes of test video using the Nikon 35 1.8 and 70-200 VR2. As you can see in some of the videos there is a major jello effect when you are panning. When you are still and focused on a subject the quality seems to be really nice. The audio of course is lacking as its a built in mic with no inputs for using external mics.

The Autofocus seemed to be pretty responsive, it is not lighting fast but being the first Nikon to offer such a feature I think it did a great job with it. If i were to use this camera for VIDEO it would be on a tripod where it would not be panning. Keep in mind this is a $600 body, I think the video quality will be very usable as long as you know how to use it.

For a starter camera you get a lot of bang for your buck!!!