Help me pick a camera!

Lenses are more important than the camera bodies.

Agreed that cell phones are basically as good as a dSLR for nearly all circumstances, especially casual shooting. Now the main thing is just knowing how to compose the shot, the phone will take care of the rest.

That said, there are niche areas where phones can't compete but if you're shooting those then you should already know what you need to get it done.

Usually it's the lens that is most important, but if you are shooting with flash then having control over that can be very important as well. I always did get a good laugh over people who shoot something from stadium stands with their flash though.

Just move up to the D5300 or D5500 and use your existing lenses.

She basically takes pictures of our kids, family events, and eventually sports.

I’ve looked up the d5600 and like how it has the movable screen and the WiFi. I’ve bought her two lenses for the 3200, the 18-55 and the70-300.

Her cousin also has a d3200 and has had similar issues, but I’m not sure it’s the camera or the lack of understanding.

Are Canon’s, Lumix, and Sony’s better? Or is it basically same stuff, different name?

You need better glass or learn to take advantage of Nikon's superb flash system or learn to post process or all 3. For a digital image sensor the higher you pump the ISO the more grain and noise you introduce into the image and the less dynamic range you capture in the image. At low ISO's phone cameras are pretty competitive to a dSLR. The key to good clean images is dynamic range of your image. That's the difference in value of the darkest color in the image to the brightest. You also have tonal range which is the number of "steps" or levels you can have between the darkest and lightest value. We've all seen the pictures with a super bright background where the person in the foreground is nearly completely dark. If you brighten the camera exposure so the person is properly expose the background is now nearly completely white. That is because the image sensor you are using doesn't have the dynamic range to capture the really bright information in the background and the dark information in the foreground. Have a camera with more dynamic range you can get both exposed properly.

A jpeg stores 256 tonal values for each color.
12bit RAW stores 4096 tonal values for each color.
14bit RAW stores 16k tonal values for each color.

Now when you snap a jpeg image look at how much information you are throwing out with each shutter press. To take advantage of that extra tonal range you need to post process the RAW files. If you aren't doing that you aren't taking advantage of the dSLR system so it is more difficult to get those professional looking images.

At low ISOs (say ISO100) the dynamic range your Nikon camera can capture is competitive is not equal to the best full frame sensors out today. At ISO 100 you can get about ~13 stops of dynamic range. The human eye can see about 20 stops of dynamic range. At ISO 1600 you are probably down to about 10 stops of dynamic range. A full frame dSLR is closer to 11+ then. Dynamic range is why you see more light information than what the camera can capture.

Most good modern phone cameras have an aperture of f1.8.

Your 18-55 has a variable aperture range of f3.5-5.6 depending on the zoom level.

At wide angle your D3200 is at f3.5 and the phone is at f1.8 which 2 stops of exposure difference the sensor/settings have to make up for.

When you zoom in at 55mm you are at f5.6 and that is 3.5 stops of exposure your camera has to make up with sensor performance or exposure settings.

So lets say you take your iphone out for a shot of your kids and the iphone chooses ISO100 with a shutter speed of 1/60sec. If you are zoomed out all the way your Nikon to get the same exposure will either have to pump the ISO to 400 Not too big if a difference sensor performance can make that up. Most people send to zoom in a lot with the 18-55 so if you are zoomed in all the way you will have and ISO of 1200-1600. Now you are in the ISO range where noise and grain is starting to show up. Now the more you zoom the more camera shake you introduce into the image. At 55mm that 1/60 second exposure speed might not be enough to keep camera shake out of the image. So now you have the bump the ISO to 3200 and the shutter speed to 1/120s and you are wondering why your phone image looks so much better than your expensive dSLR.

One thing that phones are doing to make up the difference is with software. Your iphone when you snap that picture actually captures about 6-7 images each with a different exposure. In our bright background example the phone would take some images with the background properly exposed, and some with the person in the foreground properly exposed, and in software stitch those all together to make a image with the background exposed and the foreground exposed with more dynamic range than what the sensor along can do. Now you look at the image from your phone and the one from your camera and wonder why your phone takes a lot better pictures than your camera.

In reality you haven't come anywhere near tapping the potential of the 24mp sensor in your Nikon body. To do so requires investing in better glass (that expensive f1.8 stuff), software to process the raw files to unleash the potential of the image sensor, and time and energy to learn to use this stuff properly. Buying another newer camera probably isn't going to make you wife's photography appreciably better unless there is something mechanically wrong with her camera. The simple fact you aren't able to pinpoint why the images seem blurry tells me you probably aren't going to have much luck going to another system.

A f2.8 zoom will give you 1-2 stops of performance over the stock 18-55. That will help you get images in challenging light like this this one in a dark well shaded woods.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 w/ 12-40f2.8


Nikon D50 w/ Nikkor 80-200 f2.8ED


f1.8 lenses will help you with low light photography. Everyone should own at least one f1.8 lens specifically to use in poor lighting conditions.

Fuji X100s @ f2.0


My recommendation for indoor photography is to use a flash. Photography is the art of capturing light and nothing is better than being able to control your lighting with flash(es). Every notice wedding photographers almost ALWAYS use flash? They don't get a second shot at getting the image and controlling the lighting with flashes is the best way to insure a good image. Nikon has THE best flash system of any manufacturer. Buying a proper tilt/swivel flash and learning to bounce the flash off the walls/ceiling is the single best investment anyone can make for indoor photography.

Nikon D5000 w/ 18-105 f3.5-5.6 w/ Nikon SB600 Speedlight


The sensor and capabilities of your D3200 is better than any of the cameras I used to take the previous images.

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With the two types of lenses she has, are those good enough to take clear pictures like the ones shown?

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Lenses and camera she has will take great pictures when there is good lighting.

To get better images in low lighting she either needs more light (Flash, not always good unless you are inside and can bounce the light off a wall) or a lens with a larger aperture that will capture more light. When you see a lens it will normally have two stats, the focal length (how much zoom there is) and the aperture size designated by a f-number. The smaller the f-number the larger the aperture and more light hits the sensor for brighter pictures.



Why she is getting blurry images would be troubling. if you could post an example I could tell you the reason why and how she could correct it with either methodology or with equipment.

A different camera can give you those features you want, like WiFi transfer, built in HDR photos, etc. But it probably won't make the image quality appreciably better unless there is something broken or wrong with the other setup.

If you want to use flash consider getting this

LINK

And read up on bounce flash like this.

LINK

Do any of y'all have an opinion on the Sony a6000? Sam's has what seems like a pretty good price for 2 lens bundle at $599.

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I’m it impressed how some phones take better quality pictures than this thing.

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She's doing it wrong.