Is the Nikon D3200 better than my old Nikon D40x?

I still love my D40x and get nice photos from it, but it is 9 years old and I'm wondering how it compares to the 3200 or around that price range… Not sure if I should upgrade… I'm looking at a nice black friday deal on a D3200. I shoot at professional levels with the D40x, engagement shoots, newborn shoots, modeling tests, etc. I'd like to shoot for magazines some day, so should I just wait and save up for something like the 750? I don't want to waste money, I just really LOVE photography, it's like breathing for me, and it excites me. I'm going through chemo right now so shooting professionally again is going to be a while. I did the engagement shoots and newborn shoots etc during college. Then I got sick… I'm hoping to aim for my dream and step it up once I get better, but that'll be about a year from now, most likely.

So… Thoughts?

I wish you well with your health - seriously - but your question gives you away as entirely clueless when it comes to photography.

You shoot at "professional levels" and you don't know whether a camera from 2012 is better than one from "nine years ago"? Or whether a brand new full frame model is going to better than that?

(note: it's actually only 7 years old. The D40x was released in 2007, so unless you got a preproduction model two years before everyone else, your math is off).

I'm guessing facebook photographer here. But to answer a question which absolutely no "professional" photographer would even have to ask, yes the D3200 will be a significant improvement on the D40x in pretty much every conceivable metric, and the D750 will be a significant step up from the D3200.

As you can tell by this spec comparison, the sensor has changed. There are some upgrades there, but nothing earth shattering. IOW, I don't see any real reason to make this change.
http://www.dpreview.com/...ikon_d3200

If you were to get the D3200 the things that you'd notice would be:
ISO performance would be hugely improved.
AF performance would be improved and you can shoot at a faster frame rate.
Image quality in terms of technical sharpness would be greatly improved as would be the overall tonality and dynamic range. This is due to a better 24MP sensor vs the older 6MP in your current camera.
You can now make videos where your current camera can't.

BlackFriday

I have a D60 which is basically same as your D40x. Same 10 megapixel entry level DSLR. I believe the sensors are basically the same, and associated electronics as well.

A biggest improvement between our camera and D3200 will be the sensor itself. D40x/D60 uses CCD sensor where as D3200 uses CMOS. The difference is low light capability. Our camera will create quite a noisy photograph at ISO800 and higher. I hesitate to go higher than 400 or 640 because of it. With CMOS sensor, you can usually go up to 1600 and still have usable images.

Also, newer sensors have wider dynamic range. CCD sensors usually go up to around 8 stops and latest CMOS can go 12 and above. So if you can often recover shadow and highlight. It comes in handy if you are shooting in broad daylight.

The resolution is also better on D3200. I believe it is a 24 Mega Pixel camera. HOWEVER, when you go beyond 10 mega pixels, improvement on actual image will start to depend on the lenses you are using. So unless you have better lenses, your actual image may not improve in terms of detail resolution. You can create a quality16x20 enlargement from 10MP images. (I do it all the time)

If you are happy with the result you are getting with your current camera, I'd say keep it. Obviously, you are getting the most out of your current camera.