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Nikon D3200 photo samples and analysis

While the D3200 has very good photo quality, overall it's not much better than the D3100.

Lori Grunin
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
Lori Grunin
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1 of 14 Matthew Fitzgerald/CNET

Noise

The D3200 delivers solid quality images and relatively artifact-free noise reduction in its JPEGs up through ISO 400. Where many manufacturers choose to agressively blur rather than have color noise, Nikon favors the opposite approach. As a result you see quite a bit of color noise as low as ISO 800, but it retains more detail than its cohorts through ISO 3200. That said, I probably wouldn't shoot JPEG above ISO 400.
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2 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

ISO 100, JPEG

The D3200 produces naturalistic images without oversharpening.

(1/250, f5.6, ISO 100, AWB, pattern metering, 18-55mm lens at 55mm)
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3 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

Automatic mode

This is just an example of the reason why you should rarely use multiarea autofocus: it never focuses on what you want, in this case, the center of the flower. Otherwise, the D3200's full auto mode isn't bad.

(1/125, f5.6, ISO 320, AWB, pattern metering, 18-55mm lens at 55mm)
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4 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

Sharpness



(1/250, f9, ISO 100, AWB, pattern metering, 18-55mm lens at 55mm)
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5 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

ISO 400, JPEG

For distant detail in an ISO 400 JPEG, this is quite good (usually the building detail is quite mushy).

(1/80, f5, ISO 400, AWB, pattern metering, 18-55mm lens at 18mm)
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6 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

ISO 800, JPEG

You can see noise artifacts even when scaled down to 50 percent, but it looks good displayed smaller than that. I couldn't get a better version by processing the raw -- just one with less noise, but not as sharp.

(1/80, f5.6, ISO 800, AWB, pattern metering, 18-55mm lens at 46mm)
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7 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

ISO 1600, JPEG

Depending upon the lighting in the scene, you can eke some decent performance out of ISO 1600. In this relatively bright scene you can see some artifacts at 100 percent, but it looks OK scaled down.

(1/100, f4.5, ISO 1600, AWB, pattern metering, 24-70mm lens at 55mm)
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8 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

ISO 1600, raw vs. JPEG

By ISO 1600 I could start eking out some unambiguously better image equality by processing raw.

(1/50, f5.6, ISO 1600, AWB, pattern metering, 24-70mm lens at 24mm)
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9 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

ISO 3200, JPEG

I wouldn't shoot any higher than ISO 3200 unless you're planning to use the photos at small sizes.

(1/60, f5, ISO 3200, AWB, pattern metering, 24-70mm lens at 52mm)
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10 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

Video

I wasn't terribly impressed with the video quality from the D3200. It's OK for personal vacation-type use, but even in good light it's fairly soft and there are a variety of annoying edge-based artifacts (look at the seat of the chair on the right). In dim light it's quite noisy.
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11 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

Shadow detail

For its class, the D3200 retains a good amount of recoverable shadow detail.

(1/250, f5.6, ISO 100, AWB, pattern metering, 18-55mm lens at 55mm)
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12 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

Highlight detail

The D3200 preserves a lot of highlight detail as well.

(1/100, f4, ISO 200, AWB, pattern metering, 18-55mm lens at 35mm)
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13 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

Standard vs. Neutral Picture Control

The Standard Picture control (default) bumps up the saturation a little bit, but not egregiously. It also increases the contrast, though, which results in lost shadow detail in JPEGs.

(1/100, f22, ISO 100, AWB, pattern metering, 18-55mm lens at 52mm)
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14 of 14 Lori Grunin/CNET

Color

The camera delivers reasonably accurate colors.

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