The Nikon D3200: A Perfect Camera For Beginners.
Everyone has a camera on their phone, which is great. I used my phone’s camera for a long time. Then it occurred to me that every time I had to take a photo of something specific, it never looked good. Trying Wildlife photography? Good luck with identifying the blurry blob that’s a hundred feet away. Taking photos of yourself? I guess a camera phone suffices for an Instagram selfie, but not much more.
Phone cameras can’t change anything that might need changing. It’s point and shoot, and that’s all.
When I started thinking about photography as a writer, and using a camera for professional reasons, I knew I needed to upgrade.
Enter the Nikon D3200
My major reason for buying the Nikon versus a similar Canon, Pentax or Sony camera was that my sister had a camera with compatible lenses. I also picked the camera because it was affordable yet still versatile, it was obviously better than my phone’s camera as well as the old Vivitar point and shoot that I used previously, and it is user-friendly for beginners.
I’m getting into review territory here, so let’s make it official and move onto the advantages and disadvantages of the Nikon D3200.
Good Parts of the Nikon D3200
If you’ve been taking photos on your five-thousand-pound camera with a two-thousand dollar lens, then this section is probably not for you. It’s a list of the things I’ve found particularly useful in the last few weeks of owning a Nikon D3200.
Every Photo Looks Good
In niche hobbies, there tends to be elitism about equipment. It was true when I was a musician, and it’s true of photography. You can spend hours reading forums and blog posts and get the impression that you’ll never be able to take a photo unless you have a two-thousand pound lens on a five-thousand dollar camera.
However, when you get a Nikon D3200, you’ll notice immediately that even if you have the worst shot of something in the world, the photograph will be a lot better than anything you’ve ever shot on a phone camera or cheap point-and-shoot.
Because of the way the DSLR takes photos, more light is let in, the sensor is better (It has 24 million pixels!) and these both lead to clearer, brighter and more detailed photos.
It Takes Video
You can shoot video with the Nikon D3200. This is an important feature in my mind, because if we’re looking at photography as part of a box of tricks that we can use as marketers and writers, we don’t want to be limited to just photos. You might want to create a video sales letter or start a YouTube channel. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to shoot a full-length feature film on an SLR camera, but for the things I just mentioned the D3200 is ideal.
You Can Upgrade The D3200 With Better Lenses
Some people will think that you need a beginner camera whilst you’re a beginner, and that you need to upgrade when you become intermediate. They’ll suggest that good lenses with a beginner camera is unacceptable. They’ll say that you need to be a beginner with beginner lenses and then when you’re an intermediate, you’ll have to get rid of all the equipment and upgrade everything.
That simply isn’t true. You can easily upgrade the lenses, allowing for better performance of the Nikon D3200. Good lenses are good lenses, and they’ll improve whatever camera you put them in front of. Can you get the high quality, professional results that you’d get with a $5k camera? Probably not. But that’s comparing oranges and apples.
There’s a Complete Guide To Using It (See Further Down This Page)
Buying a new camera is always scary, especially if you are upgrading from point-and-shoot cameras to a DSLR for the first time. I know that when I got the D3200, I spent hours trying to get it to do anything. It was during that seven hour period that I found a video online that basically goes through absolutely everything you need to know about the controls for the Nikon D3200. I’ve embedded that video towards the end of this review.
You Can’t Lose Money
Whenever I take up a new hobby, I try to find second-hand equipment. Not because I’m cheap, but because you can tell a lot about something based on its resale value and the amount of use a used item shows.
What I found when I started looking into photography gear is that it holds its value exceptionally well. Lenses lose practically no value. Cameras lose a bit more value as the technology improves in newer models, but even so, you aren’t going to get 50% off by buying a used item. Where I looked, used camera equipment generally sold for 80-90% of its original retail value.
That means you aren’t losing money by buying one – you can always resell it. It would cost more than ten percent of the value to rent the camera, so your costs are negligible. Also, when you specifically buy a Nikon D3200 or other beginner camera, you know that there are always going to be new would-be photographers everywhere, so there’ll always be someone for you to sell it to.
Cons of the Nikon D3200
Again, I’m writing this as a complete amateur. If you’re a professional photographer, you’re going to laugh at some of these things.
It’s Large
One inevitable drawback of the Nikon D3200 as opposed to using a camera phone is that it is large. It’s quite nice to hold, but you have to plan around taking it anywhere. It also gets heavy after lugging the camera and associated gear around for the day.
You’ll Need To Think About Upgrading Your Media Backup Stuff
This is something that I didn’t see anywhere when looking for information about starting photography. When you have a decent camera, the photos take up a lot more space. Your hard drive will be swamped pretty quickly. If I take a hundred photos on a day out and a couple of videos, then I’ll either have to do a massive purge, or I’ll lose about a GB of space on my PC. This adds up pretty quickly. I don’t shoot raw photos or particularly high quality (pixel wise) images either. So if you’re looking for professional portfolio types of shots, you’re looking at storage costs of ten times as high at least.
When you have to budget for extra hard drives, then that’s something worth noting.
You Can’t (As Far As I Know) Use The Remote For Shooting Video
With any product review, you can tell if the writer has used the thing before they review it. The way to find this out is to see if they point out annoying, niggling flaws that seem inconsequential. If they have, then they’ve tried the product. If they haven’t, then they probably haven’t.
This niggling little flaw really bugs me. Using the remote is awesome. It means you can take pictures of yourself without it looking like you have no friends.
However, I can’t do the same with video. You have to switch into the live-view, and then you can’t trigger the camera to take video as opposed to photos. It’s not enough to put many people off buying the camera, but it’s just one of those things that I imagine could be solved easily.
I Only Have A Small Brain (How To Get Your First Decent Photo In Less Than 5 Hours)
It took me about seven hours before I realised I should have removed a filter on the front of my lens. Then I couldn’t work out how to put the auto-focus on.
The fact is, if you’re used to working with a phone camera that has one button, then you’re going to find a DSLR complicated. The Nikon D3200 is probably no more complex than any other beginner’s DSLR, but it is plenty enough difficult for someone whose only other experience with photography is “Press-Button-See-Photo.”
During my hours of torture, I came across this helpful video that explains every single control and every single option on the D3200. I still refer to it when I’ve never done something before:
Conclusion
I can recommend this camera without any reservations. As I’ve written numerous times, the camera you buy should fit your goals, and if you have friends who are also into photography, then you should allow that to influence your decision.
Most people do have Nikon compatible lenses, so if in doubt, the Nikon D3200 is a reasonably safe bet. This goes for repairs as well – most camera shops are going to be able to fix your camera.
The Nikon D3200 is a well-priced piece of equipment, and if you are making money online as a writer or content marketer, it is probably going to meet your needs. You can get one in most camera stores, but to be honest; buying online is probably going to be where you get it cheapest. Here are the current prices on Amazon US and Amazon UK:
