New low end dSLRs from Nikon to have camcorder features

Nikon announced on Thursday that it would make an entry level dSLR which can record video with continuous focus. The Nikon D3100 D-SLR is the successor to D3000, last year’s entry level camera from this company. the D3100 has continuous auto-focus, special HD video recording feature that no other DSLR has offered to date.

Till today, the dSLRs could just auto-focus on command but it was quite slot because the processor of the camera had to capture the image info, save and display it on the screen and also auto-focus. The D3100 will be carrying a Expeed 2, a new image processor which can accomplish this easily. But the company didn’t give any specific information about the processor or clock speed. The D3100’s autofocus feature is similar to that of a camcorder but we expect some limitations here because the lens noise will be audible when you refocus or zoom in and out. The only cameras to offer a lens with auto-focus and silent zooming as the Micro Four Thirds. They are much smaller than the dSLRs. The examples here include Sony Alpha NEX-3 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 but the former doesn’t feature silent zooming.

Users of the D3100 will get options of recording the video in different frame rates and HD sizes. The 1080p captures will be available at 24 fps or frames per second. And the 720p will let you capture at 30 or 24 fps. But this camera cannot record 60 fps in either of these resolutions.

The image sensor on the D3100 will be different from D3000. It is still the size of APS-C but it will be CCD vs CMOS. CMOS sensors are usually preferred over the CCD ones because they can output the information to the CPU faster. They are also more sensitive to light and this gives you better quality of image.