Sometimes won't drive autofocus & will shoot flash and take picture when turned on.

Yes it is. The system is simply measuring the flash to meter the exposure.

That depends on what you compare it with.

It's larger and heavier than a point-and-shoot camera, but it's smaller and lighter than an high-end DSLR.

It has a smaller sensor than a high-end DSLR, giving poorer results, especially in low-light situations. It has a larger sensor than a point-and-shoot camera, giving better results, especially in low-light situations.

It's more complex than a point-and-shoot camera, requiring more time to learn how to use it well. It's simpler than a high-end DSLR, requiring less time to learn how to use it well.


It doesn't give you as much control over picture-taking settings as a high-end DSLR will, and many of the settings require going through menus instead of simple buttons and dials. This can make the D3100 slower in operation. It gives you more control over picture-taking settings than a point-and-shoot camera, and provides access to some of those controls through buttons and dials, instead of going through menus. This can make the D3100 quicker in operation.

The D3100 won't focus with lenses without an autofocus motor. Higher-end DSLRs will autofocus with any autofocus lens.

No two camera models are identical. Only YOU can decide which features are most important to YOU. How important is the weight of the camera? Do you want a camera that's easy to learn, or one that's easy to control?

Open your aperture or lower your shutter speed. That should let more light in to the camera.

Press the Info button to bring up the Information display. Press the <i> button to place the cursor in the information display. Highlight the current release mode and press OK. Select the Continuous mode and press OK.

This lets you shoot at up to about three frames a second, depending on the shutter speed, noise reduction settings, and autofocus settings. You cannot use this with the flash.

The camera will shoot pictures as long as you hold down the shutter release button (until the buffer and/or memory card fills up). As you shoot, the viewfinder will show rNN where NN is the approximate number of further pictures you can shoot until the buffer fills up. In JPEG mode you should be able to take a hundred pictures before the buffer fills. The number will be smaller in RAW.

In AF-S and AF-A, the camera will not shoot the next picture until focus is acquired, so when shooting moving subjects or panning the camera, you may not get full speed. Even in AF-C, the camera may "hiccup" occasionally.

nikon r09,r11, etc . it mean memory buffer of your camera. memory buffer is a temporary memory for your captured images before it store to memory card.
if r00 it mean, you can't take a picture, even 1 picture... that because the camera buffer memory is full.
the number of memory buffer will also drop if noise reduction on

The blinking red light means that the flash is charging. All compact digital cameras have a delay when the shutter release button is pressed. Press it halfway down to autofocus, then all the way down when you are ready to take a picture.

You have the red eye reduction turned on. The double flash you are seeing is to reduce the "red eyes" you sometimes see in your pictures. Consult your owners manual for turning off this feature

U1-U9: these are technician codes indicating that there is a malfunction in the zoom mechanism of your camera, most likely electronic in nature - a defective IC chip and/or bad circuit board. Repair cost would easily exceed the value of the camera. You should be aware that, just as with today's small digital cameras, both mechanics and electronics of smaller point-and-shoot 35mm cameras consist for the most part of light-duty plastic and fragile electronics. If they last a couple of years they're doing well.

1. Typical problem subjects for autofocus 1) Very low-contrast subjects 2) Overlapping nearby and distant objects 3) Very bright subjects in the center 4) Subjects moving very fast 5) Subjects through glass Focus on an object that is at the same distance as the desired subject, apply Focus Lock, and then recompose the picture. Or set the lens focus mode switch to (or), and focus manually. (Manual focus is only possible with cameras providing this feature.) 2. Attempting to take pictures out of the camera's shooting distance: When taking pictures out of the camera's shooting distance, the subject will be out of focus. The shooting distance differs from each camera model. Please check the specifications of your camera in the instruction manual to determine the shooting distance.

1. Typical problem subjects for autofocus 1) Very low-contrast subjects 2) Overlapping nearby and distant objects 3) Very bright subjects in the center 4) Subjects moving very fast 5) Subjects through glass Focus on an object that is at the same distance as the desired subject, apply Focus Lock, and then recompose the picture. Or set the lens focus mode switch to (or), and focus manually. (Manual focus is only possible with cameras providing this feature.) 2. Attempting to take pictures out of the camera's shooting distance: When taking pictures out of the camera's shooting distance, the subject will be out of focus. The shooting distance differs from each camera model. Please check the specifications of your camera in the instruction manual to determine the shooting distance.