Nikon Coolpix · announced January 2004

The Nikon Coolpix 3200: a first digital camera with the manual taken out

In 2004 Nikon sold a 3.2-megapixel pocket camera that overlaid outline figures on its screen to show you where to put your subject, and left almost every exposure decision to the camera.

Launched

January 2004

Sensor

3.2 MP CCD

Lens

38–115 mm, 3×

Card

SD

Battery

2x AA

Specs and sources

Meet the camera

Nikon announced the Coolpix 3200 on 8 January 2004, together with a 2-megapixel sibling, the Coolpix 2200. Its press release promised US sales in February at a list price of $299.95.¹ Imaging Resource listed availability as March 2004 and a suggested price of $279.95 in a review dated 24 May,² and CNET gave a release date of 15 March.⁴ By August Imaging Resource was quoting $249.95, with a $20 mail-in rebate bringing it to $229.95.³ Reviewed printed $199.95 as the list price,⁵ which is the figure Nikon's release gave the 2200, not the 3200.¹ We treat $299.95 as the launch price and the rest as the camera sliding down the shelf.

Imaging Resource called it an incremental update to the Coolpix 3100 that swapped that camera's CompactFlash slot for a smaller, lighter SD one and dropped the manual mode.² CNET's verdict was that it eased a first-time buyer into digital photography with fun, simple features, acceptable 3.2-megapixel quality, a pocketable body and a modest price.⁴

Why this one was interesting

Outlines on the screen

Imaging Resource described four "Framing Assist" modes on the dial (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Portrait) that overlay bold yellow outlines on the monitor, such as a single figure, a pair of people or a mountain line, so you line the subject up with what the exposure and focus systems expect.² Nikon's release called the same idea Scene Assist.¹ The reviewer thought it a nearly foolproof way to frame a shot, provided you take the time to learn the modes.² CNET found the guidance a little wacky at times but useful.⁴

Fifteen scene modes, almost no controls

CNET counted 15 scene modes, among them separate sunset and dusk settings, fireworks, night landscape and a panorama helper,⁴ and said the shutter speed, aperture, focus and ISO were out of the user's hands.⁴ Imaging Resource's trade-off was plain: the camera ran mostly on automatic, so the interface was easy to learn.² Reviewed went further and called it almost too easy to use and a perfect camera for a first-time point-and-shoot user.⁵

The price of a low price

CNET's warning was that Nikon had kept the price down by turning essentials into extras: no memory card in the box, and only alkaline AAs, so rechargeables and a charger were your problem.⁴ The built-in 14.5 MB held only nine full-resolution pictures, by CNET's count,⁴ and Imaging Resource recommended at least a 64 MB card, preferably 128 MB.² CNET added that if 2 megapixels would do, the nearly identical Coolpix 2200 cost about $100 less.⁴

For the Nikon low end two years earlier, a swivel-bodied CompactFlash camera, see our Coolpix 2500 retrospective.

Contrast, and a resolution number nobody agreed on

Imaging Resource liked the colour and white balance and called its indoor handling of incandescent light unusually good, but said the pictures were more contrasty than it preferred: bright and snappy-looking in average light, but with highlight detail lost and a harsher look in strong daylight.² CNET also saw whites and lighter tones washing out, and said it had seen better quality from a 3.2-megapixel camera, though pictures were generally crisp with rich colour and realistic skin tones.⁴

The resolution verdicts differ because the tests differ. Imaging Resource's chart showed strong detail out to at least 1,000 lines.² Reviewed's Imatest run found about 1.71 megapixels of real detail, 54 percent of the advertised 3.24, which that reviewer said put it near the bottom for picture quality and pixel count. It gave the noise a 4.24 score, calling that not great, and noted the camera has no manual ISO setting.⁵

How it drew the picture

Nine photos taken with this camera follow. The camera writes "E3200" into its EXIF data, which Commons treats as the same camera, and we checked each file's EXIF before using it.

Photos taken with this camera, from Wikimedia Commons, credited under each picture.

Three more at ISO 200, the camera's ceiling, are indoor scenes under station and museum lighting. Imaging Resource said low-light ability was somewhat limited: usable images down to about one foot-candle (11 lux), with a warm reddish cast and moderate noise in dimmer shots.²

On eBay right now

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The little wins

The Coolpix 3200 from the front. · Potatoman435 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

Macro to 4 cm

Imaging Resource called the macro exceptional: a minimum area of 1.21 by 0.91 inches, though the lens partly blocked the flash.²

Battery life

Imaging Resource measured a worst case of 140 minutes with the screen on, using 1,600 mAh NiMH cells; Nikon claimed up to 320 shots.²¹

A lamp that helps focus

CNET listed the autofocus-assist lamp among the good points, and Imaging Resource added that the self-timer lamp doubles as the focus-assist light; Nikon's release separately mentioned a new LED to reduce red-eye.⁴²¹

Best Shot Selector

It takes up to 10 shots and keeps the sharpest, said CNET; Imaging Resource added that it switches the flash off, since it is meant for low-light natural-light shots.⁴²

Where it let you down

Speed figures vary by tester. Start-up to first shot was 2.99 seconds at Reviewed and 4.29 at CNET;⁵⁴ shutter lag was 0.61 seconds at wide angle and 0.97 at telephoto for Imaging Resource, 1.31 for Reviewed, and 0.6 to 1.7 seconds for CNET depending on contrast.²⁵⁴ CNET waited about 8 seconds between flash pictures,⁴ and Imaging Resource found a buffer of about two shots.²

The optical viewfinder was tight, showing 82 to 84 percent of the frame by the three testers' counts, with no diopter adjustment and poor parallax correction, said CNET.²⁵⁴ CNET found the screen hard to see in full sun,⁴ and DigitalCameraInfo said the fingers of a left hand could rest in front of the lens, and that the microphone sat behind the shutter button where it could pick up finger noise.⁶ Reviewed called the port cover fragile and the 16-frame burst, which merges the frames into one picture of thumbnails, quite useless.⁵ On sound, sources disagree: Nikon's release listed sound for the 3200 and Reviewed called the playback audio poor, while Imaging Resource's own review contradicts itself, listing a microphone and speaker in one place and saying movies have no sound in another.¹⁵² CNET wished for better sound.⁴

What the reviewers said in 2004

The timeline

• 8 January 2004Nikon announces the Coolpix 3200 and 2200.¹
• 15 March 2004CNET's release date.⁴
• 24 May 2004Imaging Resource's review.²
• 2 August 2004US rebate of $20; MSRP quoted as $249.95.³
• 7 October 2004CNET's review.⁴

Should you buy one now?

Buy one if you want the look of an early-2000s 3-megapixel snapshot camera and can live with automatic everything. It launched at $299.95;¹ what it sells for now is a question for the sold listings, not for us. Before you bid, check these:

• The batteries. It runs on two AAs;¹ a set of rechargeables from Amazon ↗ is the sensible start.
• The card. It takes SD, and none came in the box.²⁴
• The port cover. Reviewed thought it looked fragile; check that the USB and video cover is intact.⁵
• The lens cover and screen. The lens has an automatic cover that opens on start-up;² check that it moves freely and that the screen is clean.
• The tripod mount. The battery door sits beside it, so you cannot change batteries on a tripod.²

If you are wondering why cameras like this are being hunted down again, we tell that story once, in Pictures that never left the card.

See recent sold prices on eBay ↗Shop on eBay ↗Rechargeable AAs ↗

Sources

1. Nikon Inc. press release, “Nikon Announces Next Evolution of its Incredibly Successful Compact Digital Cameras”, 8 Jan 2004, as reproduced by Photography Blog
2. Imaging Resource, Nikon Coolpix 3200 review (QuickLook dated 24 May 2004)
3. Imaging Resource, “Nikon USA announces Coolpix 3200, 8700 rebates” by Mike Tomkins (2 Aug 2004)
4. CNET Reviews, Nikon Coolpix 3200 review by David D. Busch (7 Oct 2004; six pages, read from the Internet Archive copy)
5. Reviewed, “Nikon Coolpix 3200 Digital Camera Review” by James Murray (page undated)
6. Photography Blog, “DigitalCameraInfo Reviews Nikon Coolpix 3200” (4 Nov 2004)

Camera photos by Potatoman435 (CC BY-SA 4.0); sample photographs are credited under each one, all via Wikimedia Commons. Reviewed's page is undated and does not mention DigitalCameraInfo; it credits James Murray, while Photography Blog's item on DigitalCameraInfo's November 2004 review names Mark Goldstein. Both note the microphone behind the shutter button, but we have not confirmed that they are the same review, so we cite them separately. Links to eBay and Amazon are affiliate links.