Outstanding camera produces excellent results
Pros:
Easy to use, stylish, superb picture quality, great battery life.
Cons:
Isn't as aggressive at automatically using the flash as I would like.
The Bottom Line:
Not much bad to say about it. It's a great camera. You won't be disapointed. Good for beginners and enthusiasts alike.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
About 8 months prior to this review, I bought my wife one of these for our anniversary. We had a Minolta DiMage 7i that was a great camera, but was so big and bulky you had to plan on takng it places (kind of like a kid). It was just too big to be readily available at a moment's notice. Anyway, after about a week of using the Coolpix 3200, we just plain fell in love with it. It's so small and light my wife just keeps it in her purse so she can pull it out and capture the moment whenever one pops up. It's very easy to use, and the results are outstanding.
I'll go into a little more detail about some of the features and their pros and cons.
Batteries - takes 2 AA batteries that are cheaply available at any gas station. Or you can do like I did and get NiMH rechargeables. Either way, the battery life is great. I didn't think 2 little AA batteries would run this camera with the LCD viewer in the back for very long. I guess I was wrong.
Media - Compact Flash (CF). Cheapest of all the memory cards. I already had CF cards from the previous camera. I like the CF cards better than some other types because they are exceptionally durable too.
Ease of use - Turn it on, aim, push the button... next! It's that easy in the normal auto everything mode. It also has easy to understand and use settings for portrait, action, etc but rarely do I ever have to use them. Lag time is next to nothing so it's easy to get the shot you want too. Flash is very good, and the focus is quick and reliable. The only thing I don't like is the flash doesn't always come on when lighting is mediocre and the subject is moving (inside the house with a squirmy 8 month old). No trouble though... you see the pictures you take on the display and know when it happens, so you choose one of the other settings and keep taking photos. If you don't know which one to use, try a couple and use the one you like best. It only takes a few seconds to try them all out.
Picture quality - excellent!!! Color reproduction is perfect. I'm very picky about picture quality too. I thought 3 megapixel might not be enough for cropped shots or 8x10, but when printed on my printer, or at a kiosk, I don't notice any difference from the 5 megapixel Minolta I had.
Styling - looks very nice and feels good in the hands. Not blocky and angular like some of the other small cameras.
I haven't found anything to dislike about it. We liked it so much I sold the Minolta Dimage 7i for $500 (bought it for $1000) simply because I realized we never used it any more after getting the Nikon. I'm actually thinking about getting one for myself to keep with me too.
