Review of Nikon 1 J1: Brand new Nikon Mirroless Digital slr cameras
The Nikon 1 J1 is really a stylish compact system camera featuring a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor and the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds of up to 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 offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, along with Metered Manual. Also aboard is usually a built-in pop-up flash having a guide volume of 5, a 3 inch rear display and an electronic shutter. Charging $649.95 / 549.99 having a 10-30mm zoom lens, $699.95 / 599.99 that has a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 inside a double-lens kit while using 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 certainly caused by made from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is therefore heavier than what you know already depending on its size alone, coming in at 234g to the body only. What’s more, it feels better quality compared to the official product shots maybe have you believe. Through an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is incredibly much a two-handed affair that needs one to secure the camera’s weight within the left hand, clutching the lens, and make use of your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is certainly the good thing because it forces you to be aware of holding your camera properly, which inturn goes a long way towards avoiding shake-induced blur inside your photos.
The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is dominated by the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Rather than to be a scaled-down version from the classic F mount, it’s a completely new design that gives 100% electronic communication between attached lens along with the camera body, due to 12 contacts. Similar to for the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, there exists a white dot for easy lens alignment, although it has moved in the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the top level in the mount. The lenses themselves include a short silver ridge for the lens barrel, which has to be in alignment with said dot to enable one to have the capacity to attach the lens towards the camera. Even though this may necessitate a certain amount of acclamating yourself with, it really makes changing lenses quicker and easier.
Without lens attached, you will notice the sensor sitting right behind the plane from the bayonet mount. Such as the mount itself, the sensor is fresh. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has double the area of the most popular imagers utilized in compact and bridge cameras like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, only about 50 % the region of an standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip carries a 1.36x longer diagonal compared to Nikon CX imager. Provided that Four Thirds incorporates a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” calculates to around 2.72, which means a 10mm lens has approximately exactly the same angle of view to be a 27.2mm lens by using an FX or 35mm film camera. The Nikon 1 Nikkor 10-30mm standard zoom is thus comparable to a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens when it comes to its angle-of-view range.
The rest of the Nikon J1’s faceplate is almost empty, featuring just the lens release, a receiver to the optional ML-L3 infrared handheld control, two narrow slits for your microphone spare on both with the lens, plus an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is not any grip at all within the front in the Nikon 1 J1.
There’s two ways of powering on the Nikon1 J1. You can either makes use of the on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, for those who have a collapsible-barrel zoom lens attached, you can easily press the unlocking button within the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an act that causes the digital camera to interchange on automatically. It is really an ingenious solution that you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes just over a 2nd - not write home about but still decent and entirely adequate.
It is possible to frame your shots while using the rear screen - there’s no electronic viewfinder as for the V1 model, a key distinction between both. The LCD screen is a three-inch, 460,000-dot display that features wide viewing angles, great definition and accurate colours only so-so visibility in strong daylight. We missed the EVF aided by the J1 alongside the V1, in a choice of bright sunlit conditions or with all the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding the digital 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 features a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks a lot of the shooting modes that happen to be usually available on similar dials - most notably P, A, S and M - eventhough it has enough room to support them. These modes are available around the J1 but you should dive to the rather long-winded and never entirely logical menu to discover them. The J1’s mode dial merely has four settings, Photo, Video, Motion Snapshot and Smart Photo Selector. The four-way controller has four functions mapped onto its Up, Right, Down and Left buttons; including AE/AF-Lock, exposure compensation, flash mode and self-timer, respectively. Although this is not a bad range of functions, the reality that there is absolutely no ISO button will doubtlessly produce a wide range of photographers thinking about getting the Nikon J1 to get unhappy.
There’s a button for the rear labelled “F” but alas, this isn’t a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it enables you to quickly choose between the continuous shooting modes, while in Video mode it helps you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s two more vital controls about the back on the camera, together with a scroll wheel around the four-way pad as well as a rocker switch marked which has a loupe icon. The scroll wheel can be used setting the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (once you’ve found them inside the menu, which is), while the rocker switch controls the aperture. The reason why it’s a loupe icon beside it’s that this control is employed to focus with an image to check for critical concentrate Playback mode. As a final point, you will find four small buttons around the navigation pad, flush up against the rear panel in the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.
So what on earth are the ones shooting modes within the mode dial exactly about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked which has a green camera icon, is where you would want to be most of the time. While using mode dial set to the position, you’ll be able to pick your required exposure mode through the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a smart auto mode the place that the camera analyses the scene when in front of its lens and picks just what it thinks is the right mode for that exact scene. It’s also possible to pick one in the conventional PASM modes, which offer you full menu access plus the ability to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift will come in P mode). ISO and white balance may also be manually selected, only in the menu, as already mentioned.
Naturally there’s AWB and auto ISO also, with all the latter arriving three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) enabling you to specify how high you wish you to go if the light gets low. You can also choose from three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, where the camera takes management of exactly what it focusses on (it’s not an excellent mode to obtain because your default as being the camera obviously can’t read your mind and will consentrate on something else than your actual subject); Single Point, that you can come up considered one of 135 AF points starting with hitting OK and then moving the active AF point across the frame while using four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, that you pick your subject, press OK and permit you to trace that subject mainly because it moves around, as long as doesn’t necessarily leave the frame of course.
The Nikon 1 J1 posseses an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that mixes contrast- and phase-difference detection in a similar way because the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This gives the Nikon 1 J1 to concentrate extremely quickly in good light, even on the moving subject. The business claims the Nikon 1 system cameras would be the fastest-focusing machines on earth, and this matches our experience - as long as there’s enough light. When light levels drop, the camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster than you are on most cameras, isn’t nearly as soon as additional method. It is your camera that decides which AF method to use - the person doesn’t have a impact on this.
Normally, the J1 usually only use contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, i was able to take sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J1 certainly doesn’t disappoint here. Manual focusing can be possible, although Nikon 1 lenses would not have focus rings. If you need to focus manually, you first of all have to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and utilize the scroll wheel to adjust focus. To help you out on this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central the main image and displays a rudimentary focus scale down the right side in the frame - but those are definitely the only focusing aids you get. There is no peaking function available as on some rival models.
The J1 has a electronic shutter (the V1 has an analog shutter). It is absolutely silent (the target confirmation beep might be disabled from your menu) and allows the usage of shutter speeds you wish 1/16,000th of the second and, together with the Electronic Hi setting selected, allows you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 fps. Note however that while this is a major achievement, it’s on a a buffer that can 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 need that -, as well as the viewfinder goes blank as you move the pictures are now being taken. One application we are able to consider where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really prove useful is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. As of this rate, a few 5 bracketed shots could be consumed lower than 0.1 second, rendering small movements which could otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown in the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 doesn’t offer this kind of feature - in fact this doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing in any respect.
Getting to the video mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. To start with, the digital camera can be set to shoot Full HD footage, therefore you even be able to pick from 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, dependant upon whether you’d like to assist progressive or interlaced video. If you do not need Full HD, additionally, there are 720p @ 60fps, that is really smooth but still counts as high-definition. Secondly, you obtain full manual treating exposure in video mode. It is deemed an option; it’s not necessary to shoot in M mode but you can if that’s what you require. Thirdly, you will get fast, continuous AF in video mode, and delay pills work well, particularly in good light. Movies are compressed using the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. You will discover separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and because of this - and also the massive processing power with the Nikon J1 - you may take multiple full-resolution stills at the same time recording HD video. This works in reversed order too - you’ll be able to capture a motion picture clip even when the mode dial is with the Still Image position, just by pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve learned that in such cases your camera will usually record the playback quality at 720p/60fps.
Not only is it competent at shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 may also shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is lower and also the aspect ratio is surely an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, nevertheless the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and stuff like that. These videos are replayed at 30fps, which is over 13x slower as opposed to capture speed of 400fps, helping you to get creative and show the world a range of interesting phenomena that happen too rapidly to watch in real time. The Nikon J1 goes further by providing a 1200fps video mode, even so the resolution and overall quality is just too poor with the being genuinely useful.
The third icon about the mode dial stands for Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows the camera to capture at the least 20 photos at the single press on the shutter release, including some that were taken before fully depressing the button. You analyses anyone pictures in the series and discards 15 of those, keeping exactly the five who’s thinks should be with regards to sharpness and composition. This feature may be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.
Finally, we have a so-called Motion Snapshot mode where the camera records a brief high-definition movie - whose buffering starts at the half-press in the shutter release, so again includes events which had happened prior to button was fully depressed - and as well requires a still photograph. The film along with the still image are stored in separate files even so the camera can combine them in a single slow-motion clip with music. It’s fun but we’re not able to really envision people applying this shooting mode frequently. (In the event you view the video over a computer, it’s going to play back at normal speed, without sound, this mode is basically only interesting if you observe the clip in-camera or hook the camera as much as an HDTV by using an HDMI cable.)
The Nikon J1 stores pics and vids on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and props up fastest UHS-I speed class. Your camera runs on an inferior EN-EL20 battery to the V1 larger, and is also consequently capable of producing considerably less shots about the same charge, managing around 230, while it helps to produce your camera body more compact. The camera’s tripod socket consists of metal and is particularly positioned in line together with the lens’ optical axis. And also this means that changing batteries or cards is not possible as the J1 is attached to a tripod, because the hinges in the battery/card compartment door are far too near to the tripod mount.
So, how did we love to with all the Nikon 1 J1? On one hand, we liked it a good deal. In good light, its auto-focus system is indeed faster than pretty much anything we’ve used until now, to be able to track and lock focus on an array of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding a great deal of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates haven’t ever been quite high. Additionally, its high-speed continuous shooting modes have allowed us to capture interesting moments that we’d have surely missed as we had used a slower camera. The built-in pop-up flash proved more useful that its modest guide number might suggest, together with the clever design minimising red-eye.
Conversely, the Nikon J1 has its own share of frustrating idiosyncrasies starting with the person interface that pushes you to dive in to the menu gain access to functions as common as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to a finished product, they can at least result in the “F” button customisable using a firmware update. Also, nevertheless there is a dedicated button for exposure compensation - which is a a valuable thing - I didnrrrt try to activate a live histogram, although it would have made exposure compensation considerably more useful and simple make use of. Again, this will probably be fixed in firmware.
We missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, specially in bright light or with all the telephoto lens which does not lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J1 just has a glass dust shield because it is defense against unwanted debris, as opposed to the more proactive sensor cleaning unit that this V1 offers, along with the smaller battery means that you should buy an additional someone to get to the day’s heavy shooting. Having less an accessory port means that almost no Nikon 1 accessories are suitable for the J1, such as the external flash and GPS unit.
Something else we would not like was that the camera would always show the picture just taken a couple of seconds onscreen, and we did not are able to turn this instant postview function completely off (even if you can at any rate cancel it with a half-press of the shutter release). Finally, as the camera is usually fast and responsive, you takes overly long to arise from sleep mode if this continues to be idle for a short time, resulting in a number of missed shots.
All things considered, the Nikon 1 J1 is usually a smaller than average and compact, high-performance system camera they enjoy its our government might use a couple of tweaks to the graphical user interface to higher suit the requirements serious amateurs. The intended marketplace of casual users will enjoy it due to its sheer speed, built-in flash, compact size plus the fun features it includes. Allow us to now discover how the Nikon 1 J1 fared from the image quality department.
Tags: j1, mirroless cameras, nikon, nikon 1, nikon 1 j1, nikon 1 v1, nikon cameras, nikon1, v1