Nikon D3100, Live View? - 1

With a nikon d3100 can you take pictures in live view or is it just for video?

Yes, but it's a horrible habit for a photographer to not be familiar with using the eyepiece.

I don't think it is a horrible habit myself, but it is pretty frustrating when using a Nikon or Canon body that have a distinct delay between shutter press and release when using live view. Neither is actually very good for such shots.

I guess you can, but why would you want to?

Turning a $700 camera into a P&S camera seems to be counter productive to me.

I use live view from time to time when my camera is connected to a telescope (it could be a microscope) or when I'm shooting product shots in the studio with the camera on a tripod and shooting many similar products in the same lighting and setup.

Live view uses a lot of battery power and will cause the CMOS sensor to heat up. It will eventually shut off to protect itself.

Holding a 2 pound camera at arm's length can add blur to your images. If you hold the camera like shown on page 25 of the user manual, you can hold the camera more steady, reducing the chance of blur

Look on pages 37 to 39 for more on live view

Yes and it's really good for capturing pictures where you can't get at the angle you want. I find it helpful.

I used to think it was just a gimmick, but I have found several situations in which liveview is extremely useful. You can take a look at an article I wrote about it here: http://www.altitudegallery.com/?p=316