Overview of Nikon 1 J1: Latest Nikon Mirroless Dslr cameras

The Nikon 1 J1 is usually a stylish compact system camera which has a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor and also 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 along with 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 on board can be a built-in pop-up flash using a guide volume of 5, a 3 inch rear display plus an electronic shutter. Coming in at $649.95 / 549.99 that has a 10-30mm the len’s, $699.95 / 599.99 which has a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 in a very double-lens kit with all the 10-30mm and 30-110mm zoom lenses, the Nikon 1 J1 is scheduled to be sale later this month.

The Nikon 1 J1 is usually made from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts which is therefore heavier than what you know already depending on its size alone, coming in at 234g to the body only. In addition, it feels better quality as opposed to official product shots would have you believe. Having an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is very much a two-handed affair that really needs you to contain the camera’s weight in the left hand, clutching the lens, and employ your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is really the good thing because it can make you take note of holding the camera properly, which often goes a considerable ways towards avoiding shake-induced blur inside your photos.

The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is covered with the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Rather then like a scaled-down version on the out of date F mount, it’s a brand spanking new design that delivers 100% electronic communication between the attached lens along with the camera body, for a dozen contacts. Similar to on the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, there’s a white dot for easy lens alignment, though it has moved on the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) up in the mount. The lenses themselves feature a short silver ridge for the lens barrel, which must be in alignment with said dot for you to be able to attach the lens to your camera. While this may necessitate a certain amount of getting used to, it really makes changing lenses quicker and easier.

Without lens attached, you can see the sensor sitting directly behind the plane of the bayonet mount. Like the mount itself, the sensor is new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has double surface area of the largest imagers found in compact and bridge cameras just like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only most of the area of a standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip has a 1.36x longer diagonal than the Nikon CX imager. Considering the fact that Four Thirds features a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” calculates to around 2.72, meaning that a 10mm lens has approximately precisely the same angle of view as being a 27.2mm lens with an FX or 35mm film camera. The Nikon 1 Nikkor 10-30mm standard zoom is thus the same as a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens with regard to its angle-of-view range.

The rest of the Nikon J1’s faceplate is almost empty, featuring exactly the lens release, a receiver for your optional ML-L3 infrared remote control, two narrow slits with the microphone either sides in the lens, as well as an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is absolutely no grip in any way for the front with the Nikon 1 J1.

The two main strategies to powering around the Nikon 1 V1. You may make use of the on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, when you have a collapsible-barrel zoom lens attached, just press the unlocking button around the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an act that creates your camera to change on automatically. It is really an ingenious solution as you have to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes approximately an additional - not write home about but still decent and entirely adequate.

It is possible to frame your shots while using the rear screen - there isn’t any electronic viewfinder as for the V1 model, an essential difference between the 2. 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 with the J1 alongside the V1, either in bright sunlit conditions or when using the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding your camera up to eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and get away from camera shake.

The control layout is rather peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 carries a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks most of the shooting modes that are usually found on similar dials - most notably P, A, S and M - although it has enough room to fit them. These modes are offered about the J1 nevertheless, you must dive into your rather long-winded rather than 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 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 collection of functions, the truth that there’s no ISO button will doubtlessly result in a wide range of photographers serious about buying the Nikon J1 to be unhappy.

You will find there’s button within the rear labelled “F” but alas, this is not a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it allows you to quickly choose from the continuous shooting modes, whilst in Video mode it permits you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s two more vital controls for the back with the camera, including a scroll wheel throughout the four-way pad along with a rocker switch marked that has a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is utilized to put the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (once you’ve found them in the menu, that may be), even though the rocker switch controls the aperture. The reason it has a loupe icon alongside it truly is until this control can be used to zoom in by using an image to check for critical focus in Playback mode. Last but not least, you’ll find four small buttons across the navigation pad, flush resistant to the rear panel in the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

What exactly are the type shooting modes for the mode dial information on? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked with a green camera icon, is to try and should be more often than not. With all the mode dial set to the present position, it is possible to pick your desired exposure mode from the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a great auto mode when the camera analyses the scene facing its lens and picks what it thinks may be the right mode for that specific scene. It’s also possible to pick one from the conventional PASM modes, which present you with full menu access and the capability to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift will come in P mode). ISO and white balance can be manually selected, only through the menu, as stated previously.

Certainly there’s AWB and auto ISO at the same time, with all the latter being released three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) allowing you to specify how high you would like the camera to visit if the light gets low. It’s also possible to choose from three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, when the camera takes control over what it really focusses on (this is not an incredible mode to get since your default as being the camera obviously can’t read your thoughts and may focus on something else entirely than your actual subject); Single Point, where you can make one of 135 AF points starting with hitting OK and after that moving the active AF point around the frame with all the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, that you pick your subject, press OK and invite the digital camera to follow that subject as it moves around, so long as it does not leave the frame needless to say.

The Nikon 1 J1 has a intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that mixes contrast- and phase-difference detection likewise as the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This enables the Nikon 1 J1 to target extremely quickly in good light, even using a moving subject. The business claims the Nikon 1 system cameras are the fastest-focusing machines in the world, which matches our experience - so long as there’s enough light. When light levels drop, the digital camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster than on most cameras, isn’t as quickly as additional method. It’s always you that decides which AF solution to use - an individual has no impact on this.

Most of the time, the J1 will often only turn to 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 doesn’t disappoint here. Manual focusing is additionally possible, although Nikon 1 lenses will not have focus rings. In order to focus manually, you first of all should hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK then utilize scroll wheel to focus. To assist you using this type of, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central portion of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale across the right side from the frame - but those are the only focusing aids you get. There’s no peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 has an electronic shutter (the V1 also offers an analog shutter). It’s completely silent (the attention confirmation beep could be disabled through the menu) and allows the utilization of shutter speeds as soon as 1/16,000th of a second and, while using Electronic Hi setting selected, helps you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 frames per second. Note however that although that is a major achievement, it’s limited by a buffer that will only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the usage of this mode precludes AF tracking - you need to lower the frame rate to 10fps if you would like that -, and also the viewfinder goes blank whilst the pictures are now being taken. The linksys e2000 application we are able to visualize where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really be convenient is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. With this rate, several 5 bracketed shots may very well be consumed less than 0.1 second, rendering small movements which could otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown inside the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 won’t offer this kind of feature - the truth is it doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing in any respect.

Selling it to the recording mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. First of all, the camera could be set to shoot Full HD footage, and you also even reach pick from 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, determined by whether you want to work together with progressive or interlaced video. If you do not need Full HD, additionally, there is 720p @ 60fps, and that is really smooth and still counts as high definition. Secondly, you obtain full manual control of exposure in video mode. It is an option; you won’t have to shoot in M mode however you can in the event that’s things you need. Thirdly, you get fast, continuous AF in video mode, and it works well, specially in good light. Movies are compressed with all the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. You’ll find separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and thanks to this - plus the massive processing power of the Nikon J1 - it is possible to take multiple full-resolution stills even when recording HD video. This works in reversed order too - you may capture a show clip even though the mode dial is with the Still Image position, by simply pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve learned that in this instance you will forever record the recording at 720p/60fps.

In addition to being efficient at 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 surely an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, nevertheless the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and so forth. These videos are played back at 30fps, that’s over 13x slower than the capture speed of 400fps, helping you to get creative and prove to the world a range of interesting phenomena that happen straight away to observe in real time. The Nikon J1 goes a little more forward through providing a 1200fps video mode, but the resolution and overall quality is way too poor for your for being genuinely useful.

The next icon on the mode dial means Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows you to capture a minimum of 20 photos for a single press from the shutter release, including some that have been taken before fully depressing the button. Your camera analyses the person pictures in the series and discards 15 of which, keeping merely the five so it thinks would be better regarding sharpness and composition. This feature can be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, we have a so-called Motion Snapshot mode the location where the camera records a shorter high-definition movie - whose buffering starts for a half-press on the shutter release, so again includes events that had happened prior to button was fully depressed - as well as requires a still photograph. The movie and the still image are stored in separate files nevertheless 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 frequently. (In the event you see the video on the computer, it can play back at normal speed, without sound, and this mode is actually only interesting should you view the clip in-camera or hook the camera nearly an HDTV through an HDMI cable.)

The Nikon J1 stores pics and vids on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and props up the fastest UHS-I speed class. You runs on a reduced EN-EL20 battery to the V1 larger, and is also consequently able to produce much less shots on one charge, managing around 230, while it does help to produce you body scaled-down. The camera’s tripod socket consists of metal and is in line using the lens’ optical axis. This actually also means that changing batteries or cards isn’t likely as the J1 is installed on a tripod, as being the hinges from the battery/card compartment door are extremely near the tripod mount.

So, how did we like while using Nikon 1 J1? On one hand, we liked it a good deal. In good light, its auto-focus system is indeed faster than basically anything we’ve used thus far, the ability to track and lock target a range of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding a great deal 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 if we had used a slower camera. The built-in pop-up flash proved more useful that it is modest guide number might suggest, with the clever design minimising red-eye.

However, the Nikon J1 have their share of frustrating idiosyncrasies beginning with the consumer interface that forces you to dive into the menu gain access to functions as easy as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons with a finished product, they can at the very least have the “F” button customisable with a firmware update. Also, as there is a dedicated button for exposure compensation - that is a positive thing - I did not are able to activate an active histogram, though it can have made exposure compensation much more useful and easy to use. Again, this will probably be fixed in firmware.

We also missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, specially in bright light or with the telephoto lens which doesn’t 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, rather than the more proactive sensor cleaning unit which the V1 offers, plus the smaller battery signifies that you’ll want to buy a supplementary one to arrive at the day’s heavy shooting. Lacking an accessory port signifies that almost no Nikon 1 accessories are that will work with the J1, like the external flash and GPS unit.

Something more important we didn’t like was that the camera would always show the picture just taken for a couple seconds onscreen, and now we wouldn’t are able to turn this instant postview function completely off (even though you can at any rate cancel it with a half-press from the shutter release). Finally, even though the camera is generally fast and responsive, your camera takes far too long to get up from sleep mode gets hotter has become idle for a short time, causing several missed shots.

All things considered, the Nikon 1 J1 is a small , compact, high-performance system camera they like its big brother might use a few tweaks to its gui to raised suit the needs of serious amateurs. The intended marketplace of casual users will cherish it due to the sheer speed, built-in flash, compact size along with the fun features there is. Why don’t we now find out how the Nikon 1 J1 fared inside image quality department.

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