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The Nikon 1 J1 is a stylish compact system camera using a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor along with the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds up to 60 fps 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 now offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, in addition to Metered Manual. Also aboard is really a built-in pop-up flash using a guide variety of 5, a 3 inch rear display and an electronic shutter. Priced at $649.95 / 549.99 which has a 10-30mm zoom lens, $699.95 / 599.99 using a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 in a double-lens kit using the 10-30mm and 30-110mm zoom lenses, the Nikon 1 J1 is scheduled to take sale later this month.

The Nikon 1 J1 is generally constructed from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is therefore heavier than what you know already based on its size alone, coming in at 234g with the body only. In addition, it feels better quality versus the official product shots would have you believe. With the essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 can be quite much a two-handed affair that requires one to secure the camera’s weight from the left hand, clutching the lens, and make use of your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is the best thing as it makes you take note of holding your camera properly, which in turn goes further 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. Instead of as being a scaled-down version from the out of date F mount, it’s really a new design that can offer 100% electronic communication between your attached lens and also the camera body, due to endless weeks of frustration contacts. Similar to for the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, there is a white dot for easy lens alignment, even though it has moved in the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the top with the mount. The lenses themselves feature a short silver ridge about the lens barrel, which should be in alignment with said dot for you to definitely be capable of attach the lens to the camera. Of course this might need some acclamating yourself with, this process makes changing lenses quicker and simpler.

Without the need of lens attached, you can view the sensor sitting right behind the plane on the bayonet mount. Such as the mount itself, the sensor is brand-new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has double surface area of the biggest imagers utilised in compact and bridge cameras much like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, only most the area of an standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip features a 1.36x longer diagonal as opposed to Nikon CX imager. Given that Four Thirds has a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” works out to about 2.72, which means a 10mm lens has approximately a similar angle of view like a 27.2mm lens on 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 regarding its angle-of-view range.

Other Nikon J1’s faceplate is almost empty, featuring the lens release, a receiver for the optional ML-L3 infrared handheld control, two narrow slits for your microphone either side from the lens, and an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There’s no grip by any means around the front of the Nikon 1 J1.

There are two methods for powering within the Nikon J1. You may make use of the on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, in case you have a collapsible-barrel the len’s attached, you can just press the unlocking button around the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an action which causes you to interchange on automatically. It is an ingenious solution that you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes approximately a second - not write home about yet still decent and entirely adequate.

You can frame your shots while using rear screen - there’s no electronic viewfinder as within the V1 model, an integral difference between both. The LCD screen is usually 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 the J1 alongside the V1, in a choice of bright sunlit conditions or while using the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding the camera nearly eye-level helped to stabilise the lens avoiding trembling camera.

The control layout is rather peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 incorporates a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks most of the shooting modes that happen to be usually seen on similar dials - most notably P, A, S and M - though it has enough room to support them. These modes are available for the J1 but you ought to dive in the rather long-winded and not entirely logical menu to seek out them. The J1’s mode dial only 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. Of course this is not a bad range of functions, the fact that there isn’t a ISO button will doubtlessly create a large amount of photographers considering purchasing the Nikon J1 to become unhappy.

You will find there’s button within the rear labelled “F” but alas, it’s not a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it allows you to quickly make a choice from the continuous shooting modes, whilst in Video mode it lets you toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There are two more vital controls for the back in 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 employed to put the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (when you’ve found them inside menu, which is), as the rocker switch controls the aperture. The key reason why it’s got a loupe icon close to it truly is that this control is needed to focus upon an image to check for critical concentrate Playback mode. As a final point, you will find four small buttons about 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 around the mode dial exactly about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked having a green camera icon, is where you will want to be more often than not. Using the mode dial set to this particular position, it is possible to pick your required exposure mode on the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a smart automatic mode the place that the camera analyses the scene facing its lens and picks just what it thinks could be the right mode for any particular one scene. It’s also possible to pick one on the conventional PASM modes, which offer you full menu access as well as the ability to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift can be purchased in P mode). ISO and white balance may also be manually selected, but only from the menu, as mentioned previously.

Obviously there’s AWB and auto ISO likewise, with the latter being released in three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) helping you to specify how high you would like you to look when the light gets low. You can also select three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, when the camera takes control over what it focusses on (it is not a terrific mode to get as the default as being the camera obviously can’t read the mind and could focus on another thing than your actual subject); Single Point, the place you can select considered one of 135 AF points first by hitting OK after which moving the active AF point throughout the frame utilizing the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, in places you pick your subject, press OK and allow you to monitor that subject as it moves around, provided that this doesn’t happen leave the frame naturally.

The Nikon 1 J1 comes with an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that mixes contrast- and phase-difference detection likewise as the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This allows the Nikon 1 J1 to concentrate extremely quickly in good light, even on the moving subject. The organization claims the Nikon 1 system cameras would be the fastest-focusing machines on the globe, 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 than you are on most cameras, isn’t as soon as another method. It is usually you that decides which AF method to use - an individual doesn’t have a influence on this.

Generally speaking, the J1 will often only head for 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 can also be possible, even though the Nikon 1 lenses do not possess focus rings. In order to focus manually, first you must hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and after that makes use of the scroll wheel to alter focus. To help you out with this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central the main image and displays a rudimentary focus scale down the right side with the frame - but those are the only focusing helps you get. There is absolutely no peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 has a electronic shutter (the V1 also has an analog shutter). Itrrrs very silent (the focus confirmation beep may be disabled on the menu) and allows the utilization of shutter speeds you’d like 1/16,000th of your second and, with the Electronic Hi setting selected, enables 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 will only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, using this mode precludes AF tracking - you must lower the frame rate to 10fps if you wish that -, along with the viewfinder goes blank as you move the pictures are now being taken. The only application you can think about where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really be convenient is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. As of this rate, a few 5 bracketed shots could be used a lot less than 0.1 second, rendering small movements that can otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown in the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 doesn’t offer this sort of feature - in fact it doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing whatsoever.

Selling it to the playback quality mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. First of all, the digital camera might be set to shoot Full HD footage, and you also even reach select 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, dependant upon whether you would like to work with progressive or interlaced video. If you do not need Full HD, there is also 720p @ 60fps, that is really smooth whilst still being counts as hi-d. Secondly, you receive full manual treating exposure in video mode. It is an option; you don’t have to shoot in M mode however you can if that’s what exactly you need. Thirdly, you receive fast, continuous AF in video mode, and it works well, specifically in good light. Movies are compressed with all the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. There are separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and because of this - and also the massive processing power of the Nikon J1 - you’ll be able to take multiple full-resolution stills while recording HD video. This works the opposite too - you are able to capture a motion picture clip even if the mode dial is within the Still Image position, by simply pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve discovered that in such cases the camera will invariably record it at 720p/60fps.

And also being efficient at shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 can also shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is less and also the aspect ratio is an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, nevertheless the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo etc. These videos are played back at 30fps, that is over 13x slower versus the capture speed of 400fps, enabling you to get creative and display to the world a multitude of interesting phenomena that happen prematurely to see instantly. The Nikon J1 goes a step forward by offering a 1200fps video mode, however the resolution and overall quality is simply too poor to the being genuinely useful.

The 3rd icon about the mode dial stands for Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows the camera to capture at least 20 photos at a single press of the shutter release, including some that have been taken before fully depressing the button. You analyses the average person pictures within the series and discards 15 ones, keeping only the five it thinks are best with regard to sharpness and composition. This feature can be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, there is a so-called Motion Snapshot mode the location where the camera records a short high-definition movie - whose buffering starts in a half-press in the shutter release, so again includes events that have happened before the button was fully depressed - and also takes a still photograph. The film along with the still image are trapped in separate files however the camera can combine them in to a single slow-motion clip with music. It’s fun but we can not really envision people by using this shooting mode all the time. (If you view the video on a computer, it’ll play back at normal speed, without sound, which means you mode is very only interesting in case you view the clip in-camera or hook the digital camera approximately an HDTV through an HDMI cable.)

The Nikon J1 stores photos and videos on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and props up fastest UHS-I speed class. You runs on an inferior EN-EL20 battery to the V1 your government, and is consequently capable of producing even less shots on a single charge, managing around 230, though it does help to produce you body smaller sized. The camera’s tripod socket is made of metal and is also situated line while using lens’ optical axis. This means that changing batteries or cards isn’t likely as you move the J1 is installed on a tripod, since the hinges of the battery/card compartment door are way too nearby the tripod mount.

So, how did we love to while using Nikon 1 J1? On one hand, we liked it a lot. In good light, its auto-focus product is indeed faster than virtually anything we’ve used up to now, being able to track and lock consentrate on a variety of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding a great deal of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates have never been high. Additionally, its high-speed continuous shooting modes have allowed us to capture interesting moments that we’d have surely missed after we had used a slower camera. The built-in pop-up flash proved more useful that its modest guide number might suggest, with all the clever design minimising red-eye.

Conversely, the Nikon J1 has its own share of frustrating idiosyncrasies beginning with anyone interface that pushes you to dive in the menu gain access to functions as common as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to your finished product, they might at the least make the “F” button customisable by using a firmware update. Also, nevertheless there is a dedicated button for exposure compensation - the industry positive thing - I didnrrrt find a way to activate a live histogram, eventhough it could have made exposure compensation far more useful as well as simple to make use of. Again, this will probably be fixed in firmware.

We also missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, especially in bright light or with the telephoto lens which does not lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J1 merely has a glass dust shield because it is defense against unwanted debris, instead of the more proactive sensor cleaning unit that the V1 offers, and the smaller battery signifies that you will have to buy an added anyone to get to the day’s heavy shooting. Having less an accessory port implies that almost none of the Nikon 1 accessories are appropriate for the J1, including the external flash and GPS unit.

Something more important we didn’t like could be that the camera would always show the image just taken for some seconds onscreen, and that we would not be capable of turn this instant postview function completely off (although you can at any rate cancel it by way of a half-press from the shutter release). Finally, as the camera is often fast and responsive, your camera takes far too long to get up from sleep mode when it has been idle for some time, contributing to several missed shots.

That being said, the Nikon 1 J1 is often a small, and compact, high-performance system camera that like its big brother could use a couple of tweaks to the gui to better suit the requirements serious amateurs. The intended target market of casual users will like it for its sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight along with the fun features it provides. Allow us to now find out how the Nikon 1 J1 fared in the image quality department.