Overview of Nikon 1 J1: Brand-new Nikon Mirroless Cameras
The Nikon 1 J1 is often a stylish compact system camera with a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor along with the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds all the way to 60 fps at full resolution, Full HD video capture, an ultra-fast hybrid auto-focus system, Smart Photo Selector plus a unique Motion Snapshot Mode, the portable Nikon J1 now offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, along with Metered Manual. Also fully briefed is often a built-in pop-up flash with a guide volume of 5, a 3 inch rear display as well as an electronic shutter. Priced at $649.95 / 549.99 using a 10-30mm zoom lens, $699.95 / 599.99 which has a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 within a double-lens kit together with the 10-30mm and 30-110mm zoom lenses, the Nikon 1 J1 is scheduled to take a sale later this month.
The Nikon 1 J1 is generally made out of aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is therefore heavier than you would think dependant on its size alone, weighing in at 234g for your body only. What’s more, it feels better quality as opposed to official product shots maybe have you believe. Through an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 can be quite much a two-handed affair that needs you to hold the camera’s weight from the left-hand, clutching the lens, and employ your right hand for balance and operating the controls. A great a good thing mainly because it pushes you to pay attention to holding the camera properly, which goes a considerable ways towards avoiding shake-induced blur within your photos.
The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is covered with the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. As an alternative to like a scaled-down version with the classic F mount, it’s really a fresh design providing you with 100% electronic communication relating to the attached lens as well as the camera body, for 12 contacts. Exactly like about the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, we have a white dot for easy lens alignment, though it has moved from the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) up of the mount. The lenses themselves feature a short silver ridge around the lens barrel, which ought to be in alignment with said dot to enable one to be able to attach the lens to the camera. Even though this might need a little becoming accustomed to, it really makes changing lenses quicker and easier.
Without the need of lens attached, you can observe the sensor sitting directly behind the plane on the bayonet mount. Just like the mount itself, the sensor is brand new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has quantity surface area of the most popular imagers found in compact and bridge cameras like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only most the location of a standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip carries a 1.36x longer diagonal compared to Nikon CX imager. Considering the fact that Four Thirds features a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” ends up to about 2.72, meaning that a 10mm lens has approximately a similar angle of view being a 27.2mm lens while on 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 in terms of its angle-of-view range.
The other Nikon J1’s faceplate is virtually empty, featuring just the lens release, a receiver to the optional ML-L3 infrared handheld control, two narrow slits with the microphone each side with the lens, with an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is no grip in any way within the front of the Nikon 1 J1.
There are 2 options for powering around the Nikon 1 V1. Either make use of the on/off button sitting next to the shutter release or, when you have a collapsible-barrel zoom lens attached, you can simply press the unlocking button on the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an action which causes the camera to switch on automatically. It is an ingenious solution that you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes approximately a second - nothing to write home about but nevertheless decent and entirely adequate.
You can frame your shots utilizing the rear screen - there isn’t any electronic viewfinder as around the V1 model, an important distinction between the two. The LCD screen can be 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, in a choice of bright sunlit conditions or with all the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding you around eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and get away from trembling camera.
The control layout is pretty peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 has a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks many of the shooting modes that happen to be usually seen on similar dials - particularly P, A, S and M - even though it has enough room to allow for them. These modes can be purchased within the J1 however, you must dive to the rather long-winded and never entirely logical menu to find them. The J1’s mode dial just has four settings, Photo, Video, Motion Snapshot and Smart Photo Selector. The four-way controller also has 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 fact that there’s no ISO button will doubtlessly result in a lot of photographers enthusiastic about purchasing the Nikon J1 being unhappy.
There is a button within the rear labelled “F” but alas, this isn’t a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it means that you can quickly select from the continuous shooting modes, while in Video mode it lets you toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s 2 more valuable controls within the back in the camera, together with a scroll wheel around the four-way pad and a rocker switch marked with a loupe icon. The scroll wheel can be used to set the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (after you have found them within the menu, that is), even though the rocker switch controls the aperture. Precisely why it’s a loupe icon beside it truly is that this control can be used to focus by using an image to test for critical concentrate Playback mode. Lastly, you can find four small buttons throughout the navigation pad, flush resistant to the rear panel of the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.
So what on earth are the ones shooting modes on the mode dial all about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked having a green camera icon, is to try and may wish to be most of the time. While using mode dial set for this position, you can pick your required exposure mode on the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a smart auto mode the location where the camera analyses the scene in front of its lens and picks exactly what thinks may be the right mode for that one scene. You can even select one from the conventional PASM modes, which supply you with full menu access along with the power to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift can be found in P mode). ISO and white balance can also be manually selected, but only in the menu, as mentioned above.
Obviously there’s AWB and auto ISO at the same time, using the latter coming in three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) allowing you to specify how high you wish the camera to go when the light gets low. You can also pick from three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, when the camera takes control over exactly what focusses on (this is not a terrific mode to have as your default as being the camera obviously can’t read the mind and will target something else than your actual subject); Single Point, in places you can make one among 135 AF points beginning with hitting OK after which moving the active AF point about the frame while using four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, in places you pick your subject, press OK and allow you to trace that subject since it moves around, providing it does not leave the frame certainly.
The Nikon 1 J1 has a intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that mixes contrast- and phase-difference detection in a similar fashion as the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This enables the Nikon 1 J1 to target extremely quickly in good light, even using a moving subject. This company claims the Nikon 1 system cameras would be the fastest-focusing machines on earth, which matches our experience - as long as there’s enough light. When light levels drop, your camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster than on most cameras, isn’t as quickly as the opposite method. It is usually your camera that decides which AF method to use - an individual doesn’t have affect on this.
Most of the time, the J1 will often only make use of contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, we had been able to take sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J1 certainly does not disappoint here. Manual focusing can be possible, however the Nikon 1 lenses do not have focus rings. If you would like focus manually, you firstly should hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and then makes use of the scroll wheel to adjust focus. To help you on this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central portion of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale over the right side in the frame - but those will be the only focusing aids you get. There is absolutely no peaking function available as on some rival models.
The J1 posseses an electronic shutter (the V1 has a mechanical shutter). Itrrrs very silent (the focus confirmation beep is usually disabled in the menu) and allows the utilization of shutter speeds as quickly as 1/16,000th of an second and, using the Electronic Hi setting selected, enables you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 frames per second. Note however that while it is a major achievement, it’s restricted to a buffer that could only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the use of this mode precludes AF tracking - you need to lower the frame rate to 10fps if you wish that -, and also the viewfinder goes blank while the pictures are being taken. One application we can easily visualize where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really come in handy is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. With this rate, several 5 bracketed shots may be drawn in 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 type of feature - in reality no offer autoexposure bracketing by any means.
Moving on to film mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. Most notably, the digital camera might be set to shoot Full HD footage, therefore you even be able to select from 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, depending on whether you prefer to assist progressive or interlaced video. If you don’t need Full HD, in addition there are 720p @ 60fps, and that is really smooth and still counts as hi-def. Secondly, you receive full manual treating exposure in video mode. It is really an option; you don’t need to shoot in M mode however, you can if that is what you need. Thirdly, you get fast, continuous AF in video mode, and delay well, specially in good light. Movies are compressed with all the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. You will find separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and due to this - plus the massive processing power with the Nikon J1 - you may take multiple full-resolution stills while recording HD video. This works in reversed order too - it is possible to capture a movie clip even though the mode dial is with the Still Image position, merely by pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve learned that in this instance the camera will forever record the playback quality at 720p/60fps.
And also being capable of shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 may shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is less as well as the aspect ratio is an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, however the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and stuff like that. These videos are played back at 30fps, that is more than 13x slower as opposed to capture speed of 400fps, allowing you to get creative and show the world several interesting phenomena which happen too rapidly to watch in real time. The Nikon J1 goes a little more forward by offering a 1200fps video mode, though the resolution and overall quality is way too poor for the to become genuinely useful.
Another icon about the mode dial is short for Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows you to capture at the very least 20 photos at a single press with the shutter release, including some that have been taken before fully depressing the button. The camera analyses anyone pictures inside the series and discards 15 ones, keeping only the five which it thinks would be better with regard to sharpness and composition. This feature might be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.
Finally, there is a so-called Motion Snapshot mode where the camera records a concise high-definition movie - whose buffering starts at the half-press with the shutter release, so again includes events that have happened prior to button was fully depressed - and in addition requires a still photograph. The movie plus the still image are residing in separate files even so the camera can combine them to a single slow-motion clip with music. It’s fun but we simply cannot really envision people employing this shooting mode regularly. (In the event you look at the video on a computer, it is going to play back at normal speed, without sound, and this mode is basically only interesting in the event you look at the clip in-camera or hook your camera up to an HDTV via an HDMI cable.)
The Nikon J1 stores pics and vids on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and supports the fastest UHS-I speed class. The digital camera operates on a smaller EN-EL20 battery to its V1 big brother, which is consequently capable of producing even less shots about the same charge, managing around 230, even though it helps to make the camera body scaled-down. The camera’s tripod socket consists of metal and is found in line with the lens’ optical axis. This also ensures that changing batteries or cards isn’t likely while the J1 is attached with a tripod, since the hinges on the battery/card compartment door are far too near the tripod mount.
So, how did we like while using Nikon 1 J1? Similarly, we liked it a lot. In good light, its auto-focus strategy is indeed faster than virtually anything we’ve used until now, the ability to track and lock target numerous truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding lots of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates never been very good. 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 the reason is modest guide number might suggest, using the clever design minimising red-eye.
Conversely, the Nikon J1 has its own share of frustrating idiosyncrasies beginning from the consumer interface that forces you to dive into the menu to get into functions as easy as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to a finished product, they can no less than make “F” button customisable using a firmware update. Also, while there is a devoted button for exposure compensation - the advantage - Some be capable of activate an active histogram, even though it would have made exposure compensation considerably more useful and straightforward to make use of. Again, this can oftimes be fixed in firmware.
We missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, particularly bright light or when using the telephoto lens which does not lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J1 has only a glass dust shield since it is defense against unwanted debris, as opposed to the more proactive sensor cleaning unit how the V1 offers, as well as the smaller battery ensures that you’ll need to buy another one to go through the day’s heavy shooting. The possible lack of an accessory port shows that almost not one of the Nikon 1 accessories are works with the J1, for example the external flash and GPS unit.
One more thing we didn’t like was that the camera would always show the picture just taken for a couple of seconds onscreen, and now we would not are able to turn this instant postview function completely off (even though you can at any rate cancel it via a half-press of the shutter release). Finally, as the camera is generally fast and responsive, your camera takes overly long to arise from sleep mode if it is idle for a short time, producing quite a few missed shots.
With that said, the Nikon 1 J1 can be a small, and compact, high-performance system camera that like its big brother might use a couple of tweaks to its user interface to raised suit the requirements serious amateurs. The intended marketplace of casual users will require to it for the sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight as well as the fun features it provides. Let’s now see how the Nikon 1 J1 fared inside the image quality department.
Tags: j1, mirroless cameras, nikon, nikon 1, nikon 1 j1, nikon 1 v1, nikon cameras, nikon1, v1