Overview of Nikon 1 J1: Completely new Nikon Mirroless Digital slr cameras
The Nikon 1 J1 is usually a stylish compact system camera with a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor plus 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 as well as a unique Motion Snapshot Mode, the portable Nikon J1 also provides more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, as well as Metered Manual. Also agreeable is a built-in pop-up flash using a guide volume of 5, a 3 inch rear display and an electronic shutter. Coming in at $649.95 / 549.99 with a 10-30mm the len’s, $699.95 / 599.99 with a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 in a very double-lens kit 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 certainly caused by created from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is particularly therefore heavier than you would think determined by its size alone, coming in at 234g to the body only. Furthermore, it feels better made than the official product shots maybe have you believe. With an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is incredibly much a two-handed affair that will need you to support the camera’s weight inside the left-hand, clutching the lens, and make use of your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is actually an excellent the way it forces you to look closely at holding the digital camera properly, which inturn goes a considerable ways towards avoiding shake-induced blur with your photos.
The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is dominated by the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. As opposed to being a scaled-down version of the good old F mount, it is a fresh design that can offer 100% electronic communication between your attached lens and the camera body, for endless weeks of frustration contacts. The same as on the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, we have a white dot for straightforward lens alignment, even though it has moved from your 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the top level in the mount. The lenses themselves come with a short silver ridge on the lens barrel, which has to be in alignment with said dot to ensure someone to have the ability to attach the lens to the camera. Of course this may require a certain amount of becoming accustomed to, it actually makes changing lenses quicker and much easier.
Without lens attached, you can observe the sensor sitting right behind the plane in the bayonet mount. Such as the mount itself, the sensor is new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has double surface area of the most popular imagers employed in compact and bridge cameras like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only most of the vicinity of an standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip carries a 1.36x longer diagonal compared to the Nikon CX imager. Provided that Four Thirds features a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” calculates to around 2.72, and thus 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 with regard to its angle-of-view range.
Other Nikon J1’s faceplate is practically empty, featuring just the lens release, a receiver for your optional ML-L3 infrared remote control, two narrow slits with the microphone both sides of the lens, plus an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There isn’t any grip at all around the front in the Nikon 1 J1.
There are two ways of powering around the Nikon1 J1. You may make use of the on/off button sitting next to the shutter release or, if you have a collapsible-barrel contact attached, you can just press the unlocking button about the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an act that causes the digital camera to exchange on automatically. It is an ingenious solution that you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes approximately an additional - not even attempt to write home about however decent and entirely adequate.
You may frame your shots while using rear screen - there’s no electronic viewfinder as around the V1 model, an integral difference between the 2 main. The LCD screen is often a three-inch, 460,000-dot display that features wide viewing angles, great definition and accurate colours but only so-so visibility in strong daylight. We missed the EVF with all the J1 alongside the V1, in bright sunlit conditions or with all the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding your camera around eye-level helped to stabilise the lens avoiding trembling camera.
The control layout is reasonably peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 has a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks many of the shooting modes that happen to be usually situated on similar dials - most notably P, A, S and M - even though it has enough room to allow for them. These modes are offered about the J1 however, you need to dive into your rather long-winded and never entirely logical menu to seek out 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. Of course this isn’t a bad selection of functions, the fact there isn’t a ISO button will doubtlessly result in a large amount of photographers thinking about buying the Nikon J1 for being unhappy.
There exists a button within the rear labelled “F” but alas, this is simply not a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it means that you can quickly choose between the continuous shooting modes, during Video mode it lets you toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. The two main more significant controls about the back in the camera, including a scroll wheel round the four-way pad plus a rocker switch marked using a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is used to line the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (when you have found them inside menu, which is), as you move the rocker switch controls the aperture. The reason why it has a loupe icon close to it is that control is employed to zoom in while on an image to evaluate for critical concentrate Playback mode. Last but not least, you will find four small buttons across the navigation pad, flush up against the rear panel in the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.
What exactly are shooting modes about the mode dial information on? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked which has a green camera icon, is where you may wish to be quite often. Using the mode dial set to the position, you can pick your desired exposure mode from your menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a smart auto mode the place that the camera analyses the scene in front of its lens and picks exactly what it thinks is the right mode for that particular scene. You can even make a choice in the conventional PASM modes, which provide you with full menu access and also the ability to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift is available in P mode). ISO and white balance can also be manually selected, only from the menu, as mentioned previously.
Of course there’s AWB and auto ISO too, with the latter arriving three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) letting you specify how high you wish the camera to go if the light gets low. You can even select three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, in which the camera takes power over exactly what it focusses on (this is not a great mode to obtain because your default as the camera obviously can’t read the mind and may even concentrate on something else than your actual subject); Single Point, where you can pick one of 135 AF points first by hitting OK after which moving the active AF point across the frame using the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, that you pick your subject, press OK and allow you in order to that subject as it moves around, provided that doesn’t necessarily leave the frame certainly.
The Nikon 1 J1 posseses an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that combines contrast- and phase-difference detection in a similar way as being the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This will give the Nikon 1 J1 to focus extremely quickly in good light, even on the moving subject. The corporation claims the Nikon 1 system cameras are definitely the fastest-focusing machines on earth, this also matches our experience - as long as there’s enough light. When light levels drop, the camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster compared to most cameras, isn’t nearly you wish additional method. It really is your camera that decides which AF technique to use - anyone doesn’t have impact on this.
Most of the time, the J1 in most cases only head for 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 will not disappoint here. Manual focusing is additionally possible, however the Nikon 1 lenses will not have focus rings. In order to focus manually, you first ought to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK after which utilize scroll wheel to modify focus. To assist you with this particular, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central the main image and displays a rudimentary focus scale down the right side from the frame - but those will be the only focusing aids you get. There is not any peaking function available as on some rival models.
The J1 comes with a electronic shutter (the V1 has an analog shutter). Itrrrs very silent (the attention confirmation beep might be disabled on the menu) and allows the use of shutter speeds you’d like 1/16,000th of the second and, while using Electronic Hi setting selected, lets you shoot full-resolution stills at 60 frames per second. Note however that although this 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 will need to lower the frame rate to 10fps if you wish that -, and the viewfinder goes blank whilst the pictures are now being taken. One application we are able to visualize where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really be convenient is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. At this rate, a number of 5 bracketed shots could be used under 0.1 second, rendering small movements that can otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown within the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 does not offer this kind of feature - in truth it does not offer autoexposure bracketing at all.
Selling it to film mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. First of all, your camera might be set to shoot Full HD footage, so you even arrive at pick from 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, dependant upon whether you would like to work together with progressive or interlaced video. If you don’t need Full HD, additionally, there are 720p @ 60fps, which can be really smooth yet still counts as high definition. Secondly, you will get full manual control over exposure in video mode. It is an option; you don’t need to shoot in M mode however you can in the event that’s the thing you need. Thirdly, you receive fast, continuous AF in video mode, and it works well, particularly good light. Movies are compressed utilizing 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 of the Nikon J1 - it is possible to take multiple full-resolution stills at the same time recording HD video. This works the opposite too - it is possible to capture your favorite shows clip regardless of whether the mode dial is in the Still Image position, simply by pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve learned that in this instance the digital camera will invariably record the video at 720p/60fps.
In addition to being capable of shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 could also shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is less and also the aspect ratio is definitely an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, however the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and so on. These videos are played back at 30fps, which is greater than 13x slower compared to the capture speed of 400fps, letting you get creative and display to the world a multitude of interesting phenomena that happen too quickly to watch instantly. The Nikon J1 goes even further by providing a 1200fps video mode, though the resolution and overall quality is just too poor for that to be genuinely useful.
The third icon for the mode dial symbolizes Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows your camera to capture a minimum of 20 photos in a single press on the shutter release, including some that have been taken before fully depressing the button. Your camera analyses anyone pictures within the series and discards 15 of these, keeping just the five which it thinks might be best regarding sharpness and composition. This feature may be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.
Finally, there is a so-called Motion Snapshot mode in which the camera records a short high-definition movie - whose buffering starts at a half-press with the shutter release, so again includes events which have happened prior to a button was fully depressed - and as well needs a still photograph. The movie and also the still image are residing in separate files but the camera can combine them in a single slow-motion clip with vocals. It’s fun but we can’t really envision people applying this shooting mode often. (If you look at the video over a computer, it will play back at normal speed, without sound, so this mode is absolutely only interesting in case you see the clip in-camera or hook the digital camera nearly 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. You runs on an inferior EN-EL20 battery to the V1 your government, and is also consequently capable of producing much less shots for a passing fancy charge, managing around 230, eventhough it helps to produce your camera body smaller sized. The camera’s tripod socket is made of metal and it is situated in line with all the lens’ optical axis. And also this shows that changing batteries or cards isn’t feasible whilst the J1 is placed on a tripod, because the hinges with the battery/card compartment door are so near the tripod mount.
So, how did we like using the Nikon 1 J1? On one side, we liked it a lot. In good light, its auto-focus strategy is indeed faster than essentially anything we’ve used to date, having the capacity to track and lock focus on a variety of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding many sharp images in situations where our keeper rates never been quite 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 that the modest guide number might suggest, while using clever design minimising red-eye.
Conversely, the Nikon J1 does have it’s share of frustrating idiosyncrasies starting with the user interface that forces you to dive into your menu to reach functions as easy as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to a finished product, they may at the least increase the risk for “F” button customisable by using a firmware update. Also, as there is an avid button for exposure compensation - that is a good thing - I didnrrrt be capable of activate a live histogram, though it might have made exposure compensation much more useful as well as simple to make use of. Again, this will apt to be fixed in firmware.
We missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, particularly bright light or aided by the telephoto lens which doesn’t lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J1 just has a glass dust shield as it’s defense against unwanted debris, as opposed to the more proactive sensor cleaning unit that the V1 offers, and also the smaller battery implies that you’ll need to buy an added you to definitely get through a day’s heavy shooting. Lacking an accessory port shows that almost none of the Nikon 1 accessories are works with the J1, like the external flash and GPS unit.
Something else we wouldn’t like was that the camera would always show the photo just taken for some seconds onscreen, and that we didn’t are able to turn this instant postview function completely off (although you can at any rate cancel it with a half-press on the shutter release). Finally, as the camera is generally fast and responsive, the camera takes overly long to get up from sleep mode if it continues to be idle for a while, causing several missed shots.
In fact, the Nikon 1 J1 is usually a small, and compact, high-performance system camera that like its larger are able to use a few tweaks to its graphical user interface to raised suit the requirements of serious amateurs. The intended target audience of casual users will like it due to the sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight and the fun features it includes. We will now find out how the Nikon 1 J1 fared within the image quality department.
Tags: j1, mirroless cameras, nikon, nikon 1, nikon 1 j1, nikon 1 v1, nikon cameras, nikon1, v1