Nikon D3400 camera review: Wireless connectivity comes to entry-level DSLRs

*Lightweight
*Decent battery life
*Easy connectivity options

NEW DELHI: Nikon has been one of the pioneers in the Indian camera market. Since years, it has been known for its DSLRs, point-and-shoot cameras, lenses and other accessories serving a wide range of audience. The Japanese company has spread its DSLR lineup across D3xx, D5xx series and above, with the former being the most low-priced DSLR range for novice photographers. Nikon D3400 is the latest addition to the range.

Nikon's D3400 entry-level DSLR camera is priced at Rs 27,990 (with basic AF P DX 18-55mm lens). Successor to D3300, the camera boasts of better innards. Also, one key highlight of D3400 is the wireless connectivity, which until now was confined to high-end models.

We used Nikon D3400 DSLR camera since past few weeks in different conditions, let's check out if it ticked all the right boxes or not ...

Design
If you look at the complete D3xx range of Nikon DSLR cameras, it will be quite obvious that all of them sport almost similar design language. The D3400 in particular looks strikingly similar to its predecessor with some minimal tweaks here and there.

Nikon D3400 has a large grip area as compared to its overall body. Since the DSLR camera has a compact form factor, it's lightweight at 395 gram approximately and easy to carry around. Also, the command dial, shutter button and other operational buttons placed on the side of the display are easily accessible.
Since D3400 is an entry-level DSLR camera, one won't find dual-mode dials, touchscreen display or even a secondary display on top. But nonetheless, all the basic functions are present. Buttons to zoom in/out, navigate, select, lock focus, Live View, playback, menu and more are within your thumb's reach.

Like other Nikon cameras the D3400 also has a SD card slot on the right side, battery slot on the underside, and connectivity ports on the left. Lens eject button is on the front-side right besides the area where the camera lens are attached.

As for the display, the D3400 has a 3-inch 921k-dot rear LCD screen, which unfortunately is non-touchscreen or rotational. So in case you want a shot from an extremely low or high angles, it can be difficult. However, the viewfinder is large enough and like other entry-level models, covers 95% frame instead of the full frame. This might not make much of a difference for ameture phtographers but can be a great deal for professionals.

So all in all, if you have already used a Nikon DSLR, the D3400's design won't be rocket science for you. Those working on DSLR for the first time or those who are switching from Canon entry-level cameras, might take some time to get used to. Although it's kind of boring, the compact design comes with its own plus points.

However, there are couple of drawbacks in the D3400 as compared to the D3300. There is no external microphone jack from the side. This might be a deal breaker for many, especially those who like to make videos. Secondly, the camera also ditches the D3300's ultrasonic sensor cleaning system. So expect the device's digital image sensor to attract dust and show it in images at times.
Performance
Nikon DLSR cameras, specially the entry-level models are not bad when we talk about the performance. They have an easy-to-use interface, right amount of the basic image tinkering options and a decent video recording performance.

The D3400 features 24.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, the same used in D3300. For starters, this is not bad at all. Right now in India this is one of the highest pixel count you can get in a DSLR under Rs 30,000. Also, the native ISO range has been expanded from 100 to 25,600. The 25600 ISO range was there in the D3300 but when expanded (not native). The native ISO count ranged from 100-12,800. This change however, won't being much difference to end users.

We clicked some shots during the night time and the resulting images were decent. The colours stay intact and there is not much noise. Of course, users can have a greater control over their images using the manual mode. The images in daylight are crisp and saturated. RAW image editing options are also good. Users can tweak the brightness, contrast, colours, saturation levels and more right inside the camera and save the resulting image in JPEG format.

There are five on-screen options in the D3400 namely the Playback menu, Shooting menu, Setup menu, Retouch Menu and Recent settings. All of them are easy to navigate using the four-directional keys on the right side. While the Playback menu lets you delete files, and tweak other options, rotate images and more, the Shooting menu lets you play with Noise Reduction, select Focus mode, control metering, colour space, image size, quality and others.

Setup menu controls the time and date options, display information, language, monitor brightness and more. However, most users would use the Retouch menus more often than any other menus. The section includes RAW image processor, trimming options, resize, quick retouch and other options.
Autofocus and metering performances are impressive in most of the shooting environments and modes. It also has 11 focus points, which is nothing when we talk about high-end cameras for instance Nikon D5, which has 72 focus points. But 11 autofocus points are enough to capture sharp images. There are also different modes like portrait, night mode, sports mode, landscape mode and others besides the usual P - Program, S-Shutter, A-Aperture, M-Manual modes.

As far as capturing frames per second is concerned, the D3400 can shoot up to 5 frames in one second in both JPEG or RAW format. Also, it can shoot videos in up to full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) resolution at 60fps.

While all these features are impressive, Nikon has brought a completely new function to the D3400 that is also one of the USPs of the camera -- wireless connectivity. Yes. Now you can click anything and get it on your smartphones or tablets using Bluetooth connectivity. Using the Nikon SnapBridge service users can connect their D3400's with the smart devices and transfer images wirelessly, making the process really easy.

For this, they would need to download the SnapBridge app on their handsets or tablets and set it up to connect with the DSLR. In D3400, the option to connect can be found under the Setup menu.

You can select images manually from the D3400 and send it to the connected device or set it up on auto, giving the DLSR the ability to send all the clicked images to the handset without prompting every time. Users can either download images in full resolution or in 2MP resolution, which is good enough to share on social media websites.

The concept of SnapBridge is not new as it has been there in high-end Nikon cameras. The latest DSLR to enter in India with this feature is the D5600. Since SnapBridge has entered the D3xx series, we can expect more entry-level DSLRs to feature the same wireless connectivity in future.

Nikon's rival Canon has been using its Canon Connect app in basic DSLR cameras such as the 1300D, which costs Rs 30,000.

On the battery front, the D3400 is pretty decent and can shoot around 1100 shots before switching off. Activating SnapBridge wireless service also takes up some amount of power as the wireless connectivity stays active even when the camera is switched off.

Verdict

Nikon D3400 is a perfect DSLR for those who want to upgrade from mere smartphone cameras. It has all the basic controls one needs to learn for manual photography and moreover has a wireless connectivity now for easy sharing of images. In addition, the fact that it is priced almost Rs 28,000 in the country, makes it one of the most affordable DSLRs in the market.

Of course there are options available in the market such as the Canon 1300D or even its own sibling, the D5600. Both are priced at around Rs 28,000 and come with (18-55mm kit lens).

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