At last, the hotly anticipated D3300 replacement is unveiled in the guise of the Nikon D3400
Aimed at novice photographers, the Nikon D3000-series is designed to create an attractive, easy-to-use route to DSLR photography. It needs to strike a balance between enticing features and an attractive price. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that Nikon hasn’t pushed the pixel count of the D3400 up from the 24 million of the D3300. However, the standard sensitivity setting range that been boosted to ISO 100-25,600.
For many the only significant introduction is Nikon’s SnapBridge technology which was first seen in the Nikon D500 announced in January this year. This enables the D3400 to be connected wirelessly to a smartphone or tablet for image transfer. A low-power Bluetooth connection is maintained between the camera and the phone to enable images to be transferred automatically without the need to reconnect even if the camera has to be turned-off.
Keen videographers will appreciate the fact that the Nikon D3400 is able to shoot Full HD movies at frame rates up to 60fps, but so can the D3300.
Nikon’s Guide Mode has been an important feature for recent D3000-series cameras, enabling novice photographers to take control over their camera without getting bogged down in photographic terminology.
The D3400 doesn’t make much of an upgrade upon the D3300 but the introduction of SnapBridge technology keeps it fresh and it’s still likely to be one of the best entry-level DSLR cameras around.
Nikon D3400 availability and price
In the UK the Nikon D3400 will be sold body only for £399 or with either the VR or Non-VR AF-P 18-55mm lens for £489.99 and £469.99 respectively.
In the US it is sold in one or two lens kit options (adding the AF-P 70-300mm for extra reach) for $649 and $999 respectively.
The Nikon D3400 will go on sale on 15th September 2016.