Nikon D3200 Samples

Here, the Nikon D3200 is compared to the Pentax K-5
Pentax K-5 which is the best performing cropped-sensor DSLR to date. All images below are 100% unmodified crops from their respective cameras. Both these cameras were set to F/5.6 in aperture-priority mode with fixed ISO and custom white-balance. As usual, each of these cameras was calibrated to give the highest quality and most realistic results possible.

These crops help determine which ISO settings can be acceptably used on these cameras. As image noise increases, most cameras compensate with noise reduction which introduces softness. The point at which a print become unacceptably noisy is a matter of personal taste.

Nikon D3200	Pentax K-5
The D3200 starts impressively close to the quality of the K-5, despite having 50% more pixels using the same sensor size. This is an incredible acheivement by all means. ISO 100 & 200 are quite interchangeable between these two cameras.	ISO 80
ISO 100	ISO 100
ISO 200	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 1600
ISO 3200	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 6400
ISO 12800	ISO 12800
As higher sensitivities are reached, the Nikon D3200 produces more softness to images and much more color noise, allowing the K-5 to peform maginally better in low-light conditions. The K-5 also has two additional extended sensitivities which, as can be seen here, are more of a marketing statement than capability.	ISO 25600
	ISO 51200