Article on Nikon 1 J1: Unique Nikon Mirroless Dslr cameras
The Nikon 1 J1 is usually a stylish compact system camera which has a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor plus the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds as high as 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 offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, in addition to Metered Manual. Also on board can be a built-in pop-up flash with a guide volume of 5, a 3 inch rear display along with an electronic shutter. Charging $649.95 / 549.99 having a 10-30mm zoom lens, $699.95 / 599.99 which has a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 inside a double-lens kit 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 created from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is therefore heavier than what you know already determined by its size alone, coming in at 234g for that body only. It also feels better made compared to official product shots maybe have you believe. With an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 can be quite much a two-handed affair that needs you to definitely hold the camera’s weight in the left-hand, clutching the lens, and use your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is certainly an excellent mainly because it forces you to pay attention to holding your camera properly, which often goes quite a distance 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 an alternative to to be a scaled-down version on the good old F mount, it’s really a brand-new design that delivers 100% electronic communication between the attached lens and also the camera body, due to twelve contacts. Just like on the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, there exists a white dot for simple lens alignment, although it has moved in the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the top from the mount. The lenses themselves include a short silver ridge within the lens barrel, which ought to be in alignment with said dot in order for someone to have the capacity to attach the lens towards the camera. While this may require a little bit of becoming accustomed to, this task makes changing lenses quicker and easier.
Without lens attached, you can see the sensor sitting right behind the plane of 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 floor of the largest imagers employed in compact and bridge cameras such as Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only most the vicinity of your standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip carries a 1.36x longer diagonal compared to the Nikon CX imager. Considering that Four Thirds features a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” works out to about 2.72, meaning that a 10mm lens has approximately exactly the same angle of view to be 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.
The remainder of the Nikon J1’s faceplate is virtually empty, featuring only the lens release, a receiver for your optional ML-L3 infrared handheld remote control, two narrow slits with the microphone each side from the lens, along with an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is no grip in any respect about the front in the Nikon 1 J1.
There’s 2 methods for powering about the Nikon 1 V1. You can either utilize the on/off button sitting next to the shutter release or, in case you have a collapsible-barrel the len’s attached, you can simply 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 approximately a 2nd - not write home about yet still decent and entirely adequate.
You can frame your shots while using rear screen - there is not any electronic viewfinder as for the V1 model, a key difference between both. The LCD screen is often 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 with all the J1 alongside the V1, in both bright sunlit conditions or aided by the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding the camera as much as eye-level helped to stabilise the lens avoiding trembling camera.
The control layout is rather peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 includes a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks a lot of the shooting modes which can be usually situated on similar dials - such as P, A, S and M - though it has enough room to accommodate them. These modes can be found for the J1 and you must dive into the rather long-winded but not entirely logical menu to discover them. The J1’s mode dial only has four settings, Photo, Video, Motion Snapshot and Smart Photo Selector. The four-way controller also offers 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 isn’t a bad number of functions, the reality that there’s no ISO button will doubtlessly cause a great deal of photographers thinking about getting the Nikon J1 to be unhappy.
There exists a button within the rear labelled “F” but alas, this isn’t a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it allows you to quickly pick from the continuous shooting modes, when it is in Video mode it lets you toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There are two more important controls for the back from the camera, together with a scroll wheel round the four-way pad as well as a rocker switch marked with a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is used to set the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (after you have found them inside menu, that may be), as you move the rocker switch controls the aperture. The reason it provides a loupe icon beside it’s that this control is utilized to zoom in upon an image to confirm for critical concentrate Playback mode. As a final point, you will discover four small buttons about the navigation pad, flush from the rear panel in the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.
Just what exactly are the ones shooting modes within the mode dial information on? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked that has a green camera icon, is where you will want to be most likely. With all the mode dial set to the present position, it is possible to pick your desired exposure mode on the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a brilliant automatic mode where the camera analyses the scene when in front of its lens and picks what it really thinks is the right way of that one scene. It’s also possible to select 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 comes in P mode). ISO and white balance may also be manually selected, but only from your menu, as stated previously.
Obviously there’s AWB and auto ISO too, with all the latter coming in three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) allowing you to specify how high you wish you to go when the light gets low. You can also choose between three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, the place that the camera takes management of what it focusses on (it is not a terrific mode to get as your default since the camera obviously can’t read your head and could consentrate on something else than your actual subject); Single Point, in places you can select one of 135 AF points by first hitting OK and then moving the active AF point throughout the frame while using the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, in which you pick your subject, press OK and let the camera to track that subject as it moves around, providing it doesn’t leave the frame obviously.
The Nikon 1 J1 comes with an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that combines contrast- and phase-difference detection in a similar way since the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This enables the Nikon 1 J1 to focus extremely quickly in good light, even using a moving subject. The corporation claims the Nikon 1 system cameras will be the fastest-focusing machines on the planet, and also this matches our experience - given that 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 you’d like additional method. It is usually your camera that decides which AF method to use - the user has no relation to this.
Generally speaking, the J1 will most likely only turn to 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 isn’t going to disappoint here. Manual focusing can also be possible, even though the Nikon 1 lenses will not have focus rings. If you need to focus manually, you initially need to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK then use the scroll wheel to modify focus. To be of assistance with this particular, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central the main image and displays a rudimentary focus scale across the right side in the frame - but those would be the only focusing aids you get. There is absolutely no peaking function available as on some rival models.
The J1 comes with a electronic shutter (the V1 also has a mechanical shutter). It’s absolutely silent (the target confirmation beep could be disabled from your menu) and allows the use of shutter speeds as soon as 1/16,000th of your second and, with the Electronic Hi setting selected, permits you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 frames per second. Note however that while this is the major achievement, it’s restricted by a buffer that may only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the application of this mode precludes AF tracking - you should lower the frame rate to 10fps if you need that -, as well as the viewfinder goes blank as you move the pictures are being taken. About the only application you can consider where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really come in useful is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. At this rate, some 5 bracketed shots might be taken in less than 0.1 second, rendering small movements that can otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown from the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 isn’t going to offer this sort of feature - the truth is it doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing at all.
Selling it to film mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. First of all, the camera may be set to shoot Full HD footage, and you even be able to choose between 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, based on whether you want to work together with progressive or interlaced video. If you don’t need Full HD, there is also 720p @ 60fps, which can be really smooth nevertheless counts as high-definition. Secondly, you will get full manual treatments for exposure in video mode. It is really an option; you won’t need to shoot in M mode and you can if that’s what you require. Thirdly, you have fast, continuous AF in video mode, and delay pills work well, specifically 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 because of this - as well as the massive processing power on the Nikon J1 - you can take multiple full-resolution stills whilst recording HD video. This works the opposite way round too - you may capture a movie clip regardless of whether the mode dial is with the Still Image position, just by pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve found out that in this case you will forever record the video at 720p/60fps.
As well as being able to shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 may 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, nevertheless the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and stuff like that. These videos are played back at 30fps, and that is greater than 13x slower as opposed to capture speed of 400fps, enabling you to get creative and show the world a multitude of interesting phenomena which happen prematurely to see or watch in real time. The Nikon J1 goes even further by a 1200fps video mode, even so the resolution and overall quality is just too poor for the to be genuinely useful.
The 3rd icon about the mode dial symbolizes Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows you to capture at the least 20 photos at a single press on the shutter release, including some that have been taken before fully depressing the button. The digital camera analyses the person pictures inside the series and discards 15 of which, keeping the five who’s thinks would be better when it comes to sharpness and composition. This feature is usually genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.
Finally, there’s a so-called Motion Snapshot mode the location where the camera records a concise high-definition movie - whose buffering starts with a half-press in the shutter release, so again includes events that have happened ahead of the button was fully depressed - and in addition uses a still photograph. The movie plus the still image are residing in separate files but the camera can combine them to a single slow-motion clip with background music. It’s fun but we can not really envision people employing this shooting mode regularly. (When you view the video over a computer, it’ll play back at normal speed, without sound, and this mode is very only interesting when you comprehend the clip in-camera or hook your camera around an HDTV with 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. The digital camera runs using a smaller EN-EL20 battery to its V1 big brother, and is consequently able to produce even less shots about the same charge, managing around 230, even though it does help for making you body small. The camera’s tripod socket consists of metal which is situated line while using lens’ optical axis. This also implies that changing batteries or cards isn’t likely as you move the J1 is mounted on a tripod, since the hinges with the battery/card compartment door are extremely close to the tripod mount.
So, how did we love to using the Nikon 1 J1? On one hand, we liked it a lot. In good light, its auto-focus method is indeed faster than essentially anything we’ve used so far, being able to track and lock consentrate on an array of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding a lot of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates have not been quite high. Additionally, its high-speed continuous shooting modes have allowed us to capture interesting moments that we’d have surely missed when we had used a slower camera. The built-in pop-up flash proved more useful that the modest guide number might suggest, using the clever design minimising red-eye.
In contrast, the Nikon J1 have their own share of frustrating idiosyncrasies applying the user interface that makes you dive into the menu to gain access to functions as easy as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to some finished product, they are able to at least have the “F” button customisable via a firmware update. Also, you will find a passionate button for exposure compensation - the industry great thing - I didnrrrt find a way to activate a live histogram, community . might have made exposure compensation far more useful and easy to utilize. Again, this may oftimes be fixed in firmware.
We missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, specially in bright light or while using the telephoto lens which doesn’t lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J1 has only a glass dust shield as it’s defense against unwanted debris, as opposed to the more proactive sensor cleaning unit the V1 offers, and also the smaller battery ensures that you’ll need to buy another you to definitely arrive at the day’s heavy shooting. The 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.
Another thing we would not like was that the camera would always show the image just taken for a couple of seconds onscreen, and now we wouldn’t find a way to turn this instant postview function completely off (even if you can at least cancel it via a half-press from the shutter release). Finally, while the camera is normally fast and responsive, the camera takes much too long to awaken from sleep mode in the event it has become idle for quite a while, leading to numerous missed shots.
With that said, the Nikon 1 J1 is usually a small, and compact, high-performance system camera that they like its big brother are able to use a few tweaks to its gui to better suit the requirements serious amateurs. The intended target market of casual users will like it because of its sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight and also the fun features there is. Let’s now observe how the Nikon 1 J1 fared in the image quality department.
Tags: j1, mirroless cameras, nikon, nikon 1, nikon 1 j1, nikon 1 v1, nikon cameras, nikon1, v1