Nikon Coolpix 3200 (new)

[diginewbie]

I just bought this camera one week ago and I'm thinking about changing for another one.

The price and the design were really good, I can almost do everything with only one hand but I have this problem that I don't like: I feel like the picture sare too noisy if I'm indoor or that sometimes I'm seeing pixels. It is worse when I'm using the zoom (without going into the digital zoom).
I don't know if it is because I cannot use the camera or because of the quality.
If I should change, which one should I take?
Thanks.

[Jake Conner]

What's happening is this: in low light, the camera is boosting the ISO in order to use faster shutter speeds. Unfortunately, your camera is auto ISO only, so you can't keep it from doing this. If you exchange it (and I think you should), make sure you get one with manually adjustable ISO speed.

Jake

[Rhys]

I just bought this camera one week ago and I'm thinking about changing for another one.

The price and the design were really good, I can almost do everything with only one hand but I have this problem that I don't like: I feel like the picture sare too noisy if I'm indoor or that sometimes I'm seeing pixels. It is worse when I'm using the zoom (without going into the digital zoom).
I don't know if it is because I cannot use the camera or because of the quality.
If I should change, which one should I take?
Thanks.

The 3200 is good if you want a pocket-friendly camera. Having said that, there are better pocket-sized cameras such as the Minolta Dimage X series. The predecessor, the 3100, was better because it took Compact Flash. In fact, Compact Flash was the main recommendation for the camera - that and AA batteries. Since Nikon moved to SD, the 3200 has no appeal to this 3100 user.

The Dimage X20 is agood pocket-friendly camera that takes AA batteries and an SD card although it is limited to 2 megapixels.

The Canon A70/A75 is a good equivalent to the 3200 but takes Compact Flash instead of Secure Digital. It is, however, a little too big for shirt-pocket portability (which is why I bought my 3100).

The 3100/3200 is definietly not an indoor camera. It's excellent for holiday photos and for outdoors. Having said that I have taken some super night and indoor photos with it.

[blr]

There is actually a way to turn the auto ISO gain off. It's stated in the manual. If you switch the camera to twilight mode the ISO is locked to 50 even in low light situations. The problem with this is that the WB is also locked i.e. if you shoot indoors with mixed lighting the images will have color cast.

[Rhys]

There is actually a way to turn the auto ISO gain off. It's stated in the manual. If you switch the camera to twilight mode the ISO is locked to 50 even in low light situations. The problem with this is that the WB is also locked i.e. if you shoot indoors with mixed lighting the images will have color cast.

Hmm. Now that's an interesting idea. Having said that I'm quite partial to the noisy images my 3100 takes in the evenings. They seem to add interest to the picture.

As regards colour-cast, this should be fairly straightforward to rectify with photoshop or whatever package you use although identifying the kind of cast to rectify could be trickier - fld, flw, tungsten etc.