Nikon Coolpix 3200 Review

Overall Rating

Compact, good ergonomics, high quality optics, good focus in low light, good image quality most of the time, 640x480 pixels movie, powered by standard cells.

Limited controls, small display, not enough information given in the display, slow flash recycle times.

I got a Nikon Coolpix 3200 as a second, "go everywhere" camera for those occasions where taking my Olympus C5050 would be impractical. After taking about 200 pictures, I have to say that I like the small Coolpix 3200. The camera is compact but all controls are well placed and easily accessible. Although it's made of plastic it feels well built and quite sturdy.
There is only a limited amount of manual overrides. It is a point and shot camera. If you like manual controls the 3200 is probably not for you. The scene modes, if used cleverly can give you some additional amount of control, but overall it's a fully automatic camera aimed at users with limited experience in photography.
The camera delivers sharp well exposed pictures most of the time. The metering and auto white balance work well. The 3x zoom lens is also of high quality, as can be expected from Nikon. I couldn't find a single frame that showed purple fringing, that's impressive. Distortions are also kept well under control save for some mild barrel distortion at the wide end of the zoom. The camera focuses very well in low light due to the focus assist lamp.
The 3200 is powered by 2 standard AA cells. This is IMO much better than the LiIon batteries used on so many cameras today. First batteries are cheap and second you can always use single use batteries in case of emergency (although don't expect them to last very long).
On the negative side, I wished the camera would display some exposure information (speed, f-number). The display is only average. It is nice and sharp but difficult to view in bright sunlight. It could have been bigger too. Many users have complained about the auto ISO gain that automatically sets the camera to ISO 200 in low light, which in turn yields grainy images. While I would have preferred a manual ISO control, there is a way to cancel this auto gain by setting the camera to twilight or sunset mode.
All in all a nice camera, perhaps not the best 3MP camera out there but considering the price and overall performance not bad at all.