The following images were taken with a Nikon D3100 equipped with the Nikkor DX 18-55mm VR kit lens. The D3100 was set to its best quality Large Fine JPEG mode. White Balance and Active D-Lighting were set to their default Auto and 'On' modes, while noise reduction was also left at the defaults. Vibration Reduction was enabled for all these handheld images.

Since the camera is aimed primarily at those upgrading from point-and shoot models, we've taken crops from the in-camera JPEGs below, but we also have a RAW comparison in our results pages.

The individual exposure mode, file sizes, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO and lens focal length are listed for each image. The crops are taken from the original files, reproduced at 100% and saved in Adobe Photoshop CS4 as JPEGs with the Very High quality preset, while the resized images were made in Photoshop CS4 and saved with the default High quality preset. The three crops are typically taken from far left, central and far right portions of each image. Some of the images below can be downloaded for further analysis; please respect our copyright and only use those images for personal use. Note the clock was set incorrectly when taking the images below, so don't be alarmed to discover them stamped January 2010! They were in fact taken during October 2010.

Note: you may wish to open a number of galleries for direct comparison of detail and noise: Sony Alpha SLT-A33 sample images, Canon EOS 550D / T2i sample images, Canon EOS 1000D / XS sample images, Nikon D5000 sample images.