Writeup on Nikon 1 J1: New Nikon Mirroless Digital slr cameras

The Nikon 1 J1 is a stylish compact system camera with a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor plus the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds as high as 60 frames per second at full resolution, Full HD video capture, an ultra-fast hybrid auto-focus system, Smart Photo Selector and a unique Motion Snapshot Mode, the portable Nikon J1 even offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, along with Metered Manual. Also on board is often a built-in pop-up flash with a guide volume of 5, a 3 inch rear display along with an electronic shutter. Coming in at $649.95 / 549.99 with a 10-30mm zoom lens, $699.95 / 599.99 that has a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 in the double-lens kit together with the 10-30mm and 30-110mm zoom lenses, the Nikon 1 J1 is scheduled to be on sale later this month.

The Nikon 1 J1 is mainly created from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is therefore heavier than you would think determined by its size alone, coming in at 234g to the body only. In addition, it feels better quality compared to official product shots maybe have you believe. Having an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is incredibly much a two-handed affair that requires one to support the camera’s weight inside left hand, clutching the lens, and make use of your right hand for balance and operating the controls. A great the good thing as it pushes you to take note of holding the digital camera properly, which in turn goes far towards avoiding shake-induced blur in your photos.

The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is covered with the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Rather than as a scaled-down version in the good old F mount, it is a brand-new design that can offer 100% electronic communication between the attached lens plus the camera body, courtesy of twelve contacts. The same as on the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, there exists a white dot for convenient lens alignment, although it has moved on the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the top level from the mount. The lenses themselves use a short silver ridge within the lens barrel, which ought to be in alignment with said dot in order for that you be able to attach the lens to your camera. While this might require a little getting used to, this task makes changing lenses quicker and simpler.

Without the need of lens attached, you can view the sensor sitting right behind the plane of the bayonet mount. Such as mount itself, the sensor is new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has twice the floor of the biggest imagers used in compact and bridge cameras like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only about 50 % of the vicinity of an standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip carries a 1.36x longer diagonal as opposed to Nikon CX imager. Considering that Four Thirds includes a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” calculates to around 2.72, which means that a 10mm lens has approximately a similar angle of view to be a 27.2mm lens upon an FX or 35mm film camera. The Nikon 1 Nikkor 10-30mm standard zoom is thus equal to a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens when it comes to its angle-of-view range.

The remainder of the Nikon J1’s faceplate is actually empty, featuring merely the lens release, a receiver for your optional ML-L3 infrared handy remote control, two narrow slits for the microphone both sides from the lens, and an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There’s no grip whatsoever around the front from the Nikon 1 J1.

There are two methods for powering within the Nikon J1. You may use the on/off button sitting next to the shutter release or, for those who have a collapsible-barrel contact attached, you can simply press the unlocking button on the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an act that triggers you to interchange on automatically. It becomes an ingenious solution because you require to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes approximately an additional - nothing to write home about but still decent and entirely adequate.

It is possible to frame your shots while using rear screen - there is absolutely no electronic viewfinder as for the V1 model, a vital distinction between both. The LCD screen is really a three-inch, 460,000-dot display that boasts wide viewing angles, great definition and accurate colours only so-so visibility in strong daylight. We missed the EVF when using the J1 alongside the V1, either in bright sunlit conditions or aided by the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding the camera as much as eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and prevent camera shake.

The control layout is quite peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 has a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks most of the shooting modes which might be usually seen on similar dials - that include P, A, S and M - though it has enough room to fit them. These modes can be found for the J1 however, you have to dive in the rather long-winded but not entirely logical menu to get them. The J1’s mode dial only has four settings, Photo, Video, Motion Snapshot and Smart Photo Selector. The four-way controller even offers four functions mapped onto its Up, Right, Down and Left buttons; including AE/AF-Lock, exposure compensation, flash mode and self-timer, respectively. Even if this is not a bad number of functions, the reality that there isn’t any ISO button will doubtlessly create a wide range of photographers enthusiastic about purchasing the Nikon J1 being unhappy.

There’s a button about the rear labelled “F” but alas, this isn’t a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it permits you to quickly choose from the continuous shooting modes, whilst in Video mode it helps you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There are 2 more vital controls about the back of the camera, together with a scroll wheel around the four-way pad and a rocker switch marked that has a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is employed to create the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (when you’ve found them inside the menu, which is), as you move the rocker switch controls the aperture. Precisely why it’s a loupe icon next to it is until this control can be used to zoom in while on an image to confirm for critical focus in Playback mode. Last of all, you will discover four small buttons throughout the navigation pad, flush against the rear panel in the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

Just what exactly are the types shooting modes within the mode dial information about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked which has a green camera icon, is the place you will want to be more often than not. Using the mode dial set to the present position, it is possible to pick your required exposure mode from your menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a smart auto mode the location where the camera analyses the scene facing its lens and picks exactly what thinks could be the right way of that particular scene. It’s also possible to find out on the conventional PASM modes, which present you with full menu access and also the power to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift will come in P mode). ISO and white balance can even be manually selected, only from the menu, as already mentioned.

Certainly there’s AWB and auto ISO likewise, using the latter being released in three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) letting you specify how high you need the camera to visit when the light gets low. It’s also possible to choose between three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, the location where the camera takes control of just what it focusses on (it is not a terrific mode to get when your default since the camera obviously can’t read your thoughts and might focus on something else entirely than your actual subject); Single Point, in which you can pick one of 135 AF points by first hitting OK and moving the active AF point round the frame while using the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, the place you pick your subject, press OK and invite the digital camera to monitor that subject because it moves around, given that doesn’t necessarily leave the frame naturally.

The Nikon 1 J1 has an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that mixes contrast- and phase-difference detection likewise since the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This allows the Nikon 1 J1 to concentrate extremely quickly in good light, even on the moving subject. This company claims the Nikon 1 system cameras are the fastest-focusing machines in the world, this also matches our experience - provided that there’s enough light. When light levels drop, the digital camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster compared to most cameras, isn’t you’d like the other method. It is usually the digital camera that decides which AF strategy to use - the consumer doesn’t have affect this.

Normally, the J1 usually only resort to contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, we were able to take sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J1 certainly doesn’t disappoint here. Manual focusing is also possible, although Nikon 1 lenses will not have focus rings. If you wish to focus manually, you initially need to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK after which make use of the scroll wheel to regulate focus. To work with you with this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central part of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale across the right side of the frame - but those include the only focusing helps you get. There is no peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 comes with a electronic shutter (the V1 boasts a mechanical shutter). It’s absolutely silent (the focus confirmation beep may be disabled through the menu) and allows the utilization of shutter speeds as quickly as 1/16,000th of any second and, with all the Electronic Hi setting selected, lets you shoot full-resolution stills at 60 frames per second. Note however that although this can be a major achievement, it’s on a a buffer that could only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the utilization of this mode precludes AF tracking - you will need to lower the frame rate to 10fps if you wish that -, and also the viewfinder goes blank as you move the pictures are increasingly being taken. One application we can easily visualize where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really prove useful is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. As of this rate, several 5 bracketed shots could possibly be consumed under 0.1 second, rendering small movements that can otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown inside the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 won’t offer a real feature - in reality no offer autoexposure bracketing in any respect.

Moving on to it mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. To start with, the camera may be set to shoot Full HD footage, so you even arrive at pick from 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, depending on whether you want to assist progressive or interlaced video. Unless you need Full HD, additionally, there is 720p @ 60fps, that is really smooth yet still counts as hd. Secondly, you obtain full manual control over exposure in video mode. It becomes an option; you don’t have to shoot in M mode and you can if that’s things you need. Thirdly, you have fast, continuous AF in video mode, and delay pills work well, specially in good light. Movies are compressed utilizing the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. You’ll find separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and due to this - and also the massive processing power from the Nikon J1 - you can take multiple full-resolution stills at the same time recording HD video. This works the opposite way round too - you may capture a film clip even though the mode dial is within the Still Image position, by just pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve learned that in cases like this the camera will invariably record film at 720p/60fps.

And also being effective at shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 may shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is less and the aspect ratio is undoubtedly an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, nevertheless the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and stuff like that. These videos are replayed at 30fps, that is more than 13x slower than the capture speed of 400fps, enabling you to get creative and display to the world several interesting phenomena which happen too rapidly to look at in real time. The Nikon J1 goes even more by providing a 1200fps video mode, even so the resolution and overall quality is too poor to the to be genuinely useful.

The next icon on the mode dial means Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows your camera to capture at least 20 photos with a single press on the shutter release, including some which are taken before fully depressing the button. The digital camera analyses the person pictures in the series and discards 15 of which, keeping only the five which it thinks would be better in terms of sharpness and composition. This feature may be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, you will find there’s so-called Motion Snapshot mode the location where the camera records a shorter high-definition movie - whose buffering starts for a half-press in the shutter release, so again includes events that have happened prior to button was fully depressed - and also takes a still photograph. The film and also the still image are trapped in separate files nevertheless the camera can combine them into a single slow-motion clip with background music. It’s fun but we can not really envision people using this shooting mode frequently. (If you observe the video on the computer, it’ll play back at normal speed, without sound, this mode is very only interesting in case you look at the clip in-camera or hook your camera around an HDTV via an HDMI cable.)

The Nikon J1 stores photos and videos on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and props up the fastest UHS-I speed class. Your camera is run on a lesser EN-EL20 battery to the V1 our government, and is particularly consequently capable of producing much less shots for a passing fancy charge, managing around 230, although it does help for making the camera body more compact. The camera’s tripod socket is made from metal and it is situated line with all the lens’ optical axis. This also implies that changing batteries or cards isn’t likely as the J1 is placed on a tripod, as being the hinges of the battery/card compartment door are too near to the tripod mount.

So, how did we love to with all the Nikon 1 J1? Similarly, we liked it a whole lot. In good light, its auto-focus method is indeed faster than essentially anything we’ve used to date, to be able to track and lock consentrate on an array of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding lots of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates never been very high. Additionally, its high-speed continuous shooting modes have allowed us to capture interesting moments that we’d have surely missed whenever we had used a slower camera. The built-in pop-up flash proved more useful what has modest guide number might suggest, using the clever design minimising red-eye.

However, the Nikon J1 has its own share of frustrating idiosyncrasies starting with an individual interface that makes you dive into your menu to access functions as basic as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons with a finished product, they might at the very least make “F” button customisable using a firmware update. Also, you will find a separate button for exposure compensation - a advantage - Some try to activate a live histogram, although it would’ve made exposure compensation considerably more useful and to use. Again, this might oftimes be fixed in firmware.

We missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, particularly bright light or with the telephoto lens which doesn’t lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J1 merely has a glass dust shield because it’s defense against unwanted debris, rather than the more proactive sensor cleaning unit the V1 offers, plus the smaller battery means that you will have to buy an extra you to definitely go through the day’s heavy shooting. The lack of an accessory port shows that almost no Nikon 1 accessories are works with the J1, including the external flash and GPS unit.

Another thing we would not like could be that the camera would always show the photo just taken for a couple of seconds onscreen, and that we didn’t find a way to turn this instant postview function completely off (even if you can at least cancel it by using a half-press from the shutter release). Finally, as you move the camera is generally fast and responsive, the digital camera takes way too long to wake from sleep mode when it has been idle for a time, producing several missed shots.

In fact, the Nikon 1 J1 is a small, and compact, high-performance system camera they enjoy its larger could use a couple of tweaks to the interface to increase suit the requirements serious amateurs. The intended target market of casual users will enjoy it for its sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight along with the fun features it gives you. Let us now observe how the Nikon 1 J1 fared inside the image quality department.

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