Report on Nikon 1 J1: Latest Nikon Mirroless Dslr cameras
The Nikon 1 J1 can be a stylish compact system camera with a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor plus 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 plus 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 aboard is usually a built-in pop-up flash with a guide amount of 5, a 3 inch rear display plus an electronic shutter. Costing $649.95 / 549.99 that has a 10-30mm standard zoom lens, $699.95 / 599.99 using a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 in 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 mostly crafted from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts which is therefore heavier than what you know already according to its size alone, weighing 234g for your body only. Additionally, it feels higher quality compared to official product shots maybe have you believe. By having an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 can be quite much a two-handed affair that really needs you to definitely retain the camera’s weight inside left hand, clutching the lens, and employ your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is an excellent mainly because it makes you look closely at holding the digital camera properly, which in turn goes a considerable ways towards avoiding shake-induced blur as part of your photos.
The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is dominated by the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. As an alternative to as a scaled-down version in the out of date F mount, it’s a brand spanking new design that provides 100% electronic communication between your attached lens and also the camera body, thanks to endless weeks of frustration contacts. Similar to on the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, you will find there’s white dot for convenient lens alignment, though it has moved in the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) up from the mount. The lenses themselves feature a short silver ridge around the lens barrel, which ought to be in alignment with said dot in order for that you be able to attach the lens to the camera. Even though this may require a bit of acclamating yourself with, it actually makes changing lenses quicker and much easier.
Without the need of lens attached, you can observe the sensor sitting directly behind the plane with the bayonet mount. Much like the mount itself, the sensor is brand-new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has twice the expanse of the largest imagers employed in compact and bridge cameras much like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only most the area of any standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip features a 1.36x longer diagonal compared to Nikon CX imager. Since Four Thirds incorporates a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” breaks down to to about 2.72, and therefore a 10mm lens has approximately a similar 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 equal to a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens when it comes to its angle-of-view range.
The rest of the Nikon J1’s faceplate is virtually empty, featuring exactly the lens release, a receiver for your optional ML-L3 infrared handy remote control, two narrow slits for the microphone either side from the lens, as well as an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is no grip in any way on the front with the Nikon 1 J1.
There’s 2 ways of powering on the Nikon 1 J1. You may utilize on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, for those who have a collapsible-barrel standard zoom lens attached, you can simply press the unlocking button within the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an action that causes your camera to change on automatically. This is an ingenious solution because you require to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes approximately another - absolutely nothing to write home about but nonetheless decent and entirely adequate.
You are able to frame your shots while using the rear screen - there isn’t any electronic viewfinder as on the V1 model, an important difference between both the. The LCD screen can be 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 the J1 alongside the V1, in bright sunlit conditions or while using the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding the camera up to 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 the majority of the shooting modes which might be usually available on similar dials - especially P, A, S and M - community . has enough room to match them. These modes can be obtained around the J1 nevertheless, you have to dive into your rather long-winded instead of entirely logical menu to get them. The J1’s mode dial merely has four settings, Photo, Video, Motion Snapshot and Smart Photo Selector. The four-way controller boasts 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 isn’t a bad range of functions, the reality that there’s no ISO button will doubtlessly create a wide range of photographers enthusiastic about acquiring the Nikon J1 to get unhappy.
You will find there’s button on the rear labelled “F” but alas, it’s not a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it lets you quickly make a choice from the continuous shooting modes, while in Video mode it enables you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s 2 more vital controls around the back with the camera, including a scroll wheel about the four-way pad and also a rocker switch marked using a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is used to put the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (once you’ve found them inside menu, that is), as the rocker switch controls the aperture. The reason it’s got a loupe icon close to it truly is this control is needed to focus on an image to check for critical concentrate Playback mode. Last but not least, you’ll find four small buttons across the navigation pad, flush from the rear panel with the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.
Just what exactly are those shooting modes for the mode dial information about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked using a green camera icon, is the place you should be most of the time. Together with the mode dial set for this position, you can pick your desired exposure mode from the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a smart automatic mode the location where the camera analyses the scene facing its lens and picks what it thinks would be the right way of that particular scene. You can also choose one in the conventional PASM modes, which offer you full menu access and also the capacity 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 through the menu, as stated earlier.
Of course there’s AWB and auto ISO also, with the latter being released three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) allowing you to specify how high you want the digital camera to go when the light gets low. You may also select from three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, the location where the camera takes control of just what it focusses on (this is not an excellent mode to obtain as your default because the camera obviously can’t read the mind and may give attention to something else than your actual subject); Single Point, that you can come up considered one of 135 AF points starting with hitting OK and moving the active AF point about the frame using the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, the place you pick your subject, press OK and permit your camera to track that subject because it moves around, providing it doesn’t leave the frame naturally.
The Nikon 1 J1 comes with an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that mixes contrast- and phase-difference detection in a similar way since the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This enables the Nikon 1 J1 to concentrate extremely quickly in good light, even on a moving subject. The business claims the Nikon 1 system cameras are the fastest-focusing machines in the world, this also matches our experience - so long as there’s enough light. When light levels drop, the camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster than on most cameras, isn’t you wish the other method. It certainly is you that decides which AF technique to use - an individual doesn’t have any affect on this.
Usually, the J1 will often only make use of contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, we were capable of taking sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J1 certainly won’t disappoint here. Manual focusing is also possible, however the Nikon 1 lenses will not have focus rings. If you would like focus manually, first you should hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK after which utilize the scroll wheel to focus. To help you using this type of, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central the main image and displays a rudimentary focus scale on the right side in the frame - but those would be the only focusing aids you get. There is no peaking function available as on some rival models.
The J1 has an electronic shutter (the V1 also has an analog shutter). It’s absolutely silent (the attention confirmation beep is usually disabled in the menu) and allows the usage of shutter speeds you wish 1/16,000th of an second and, together with the Electronic Hi setting selected, permits you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 fps. Note however that while this is a major achievement, it’s restricted by a buffer that may only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the use of this mode precludes AF tracking - you must lower the frame rate to 10fps if you wish that -, and also the viewfinder goes blank as you move the pictures are being taken. The linksys e2000 application we can think of where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really be useful is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. As of this rate, a series of 5 bracketed shots might be used under 0.1 second, rendering small movements that could otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown inside the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 will not offer a real feature - actually this doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing whatsoever.
Trying out it mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. Above all, the camera could be set to shoot Full HD footage, so you even be able to choose from 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, according to whether you’d like to use progressive or interlaced video. If you do not need Full HD, additionally, there is 720p @ 60fps, that is really smooth yet still counts as hi-d. Secondly, you receive full manual control of exposure in video mode. It becomes an option; you don’t need to shoot in M mode but you can in the event that’s the thing you need. Thirdly, you obtain fast, continuous AF in video mode, and delay pills work well, specifically in good light. Movies are compressed utilizing 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 on the Nikon J1 - you can take multiple full-resolution stills even while recording HD video. This works the opposite too - you are able to capture a movie clip even when the mode dial influences Still Image position, by simply pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve found that in such cases the camera will forever record the video at 720p/60fps.
And also being effective at shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 also can shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is lower as well as the aspect ratio is definitely an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, however the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo etc. These videos are played back at 30fps, and that is more than 13x slower compared to capture speed of 400fps, helping you to get creative and show the world an array of interesting phenomena which happen too soon to see or watch in real time. The Nikon J1 goes a little more forward through providing a 1200fps video mode, nevertheless the resolution and overall quality is way too poor for the to be genuinely useful.
Another icon around the mode dial symbolizes Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows the camera to capture at the very least 20 photos for a single press with the shutter release, including some that have been taken before fully depressing the button. You analyses the person pictures within the series and discards 15 ones, keeping exactly the five which it thinks are best when it comes to sharpness and composition. This feature is usually genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.
Finally, we have a so-called Motion Snapshot mode when the camera records a shorter high-definition movie - whose buffering starts in a half-press in the shutter release, so again includes events which in fact had happened ahead of the button was fully depressed - as well as requires a still photograph. The film as well as the still image are saved in separate files though the camera can combine them to a single slow-motion clip with music. It’s fun but we not able to really envision people by using this shooting mode on a regular basis. (In case you view the video using a computer, it’ll play back at normal speed, without sound, which means this mode is really only interesting in case you view the clip in-camera or hook you approximately an HDTV via an HDMI cable.)
The Nikon J1 stores photos and videos on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and sports ths fastest UHS-I speed class. You operates on a reduced EN-EL20 battery to its V1 our government, and it is consequently able to produce much less shots on one charge, managing around 230, even though it helps to produce you body smaller sized. The camera’s tripod socket is constructed of metal and is particularly situated in line using the lens’ optical axis. And also this means that changing batteries or cards isn’t feasible while the J1 is mounted on a tripod, since the hinges in the battery/card compartment door are so towards the tripod mount.
So, how did we like while using Nikon 1 J1? On one side, we liked it a good deal. In good light, its auto-focus product is indeed faster than pretty much anything we’ve used until now, being able to track and lock target an array of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding lots of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates haven’t been very 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 it is modest guide number might suggest, with the clever design minimising red-eye.
Conversely, the Nikon J1 does have it’s share of frustrating idiosyncrasies beginning from anyone interface that can make you dive in to the menu gain access to 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 least make the “F” button customisable via a firmware update. Also, nevertheless there is a devoted button for exposure compensation - the industry advantage - I didnrrrt be capable of activate an active histogram, though it could have made exposure compensation additional useful and easy to utilize. Again, this will probably be fixed in firmware.
We missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, particularly in bright light or while using 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’s defense against unwanted debris, as opposed to the more proactive sensor cleaning unit that the V1 offers, plus the smaller battery ensures that you should buy an added one to arrive at the day’s heavy shooting. The possible lack of an accessory port implies that almost not one of the Nikon 1 accessories are appropriate for the J1, such as external flash and GPS unit.
Something more important we failed to like could be that the camera would always show the photo just taken for a couple of seconds onscreen, and we did not are able to turn this instant postview function completely off (while you can at any rate cancel it by using a half-press of the shutter release). Finally, even though the camera is generally fast and responsive, the digital camera takes far too long to awaken from sleep mode if this has become idle for a while, contributing to several missed shots.
In fact, the Nikon 1 J1 is usually a smaller than average and compact, high-performance system camera they enjoy its larger are able to use some tweaks to the gui to improve suit the requirements serious amateurs. The intended marketplace of casual users will like it for the sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight as well as the fun features it provides. Why don’t we now discover how the Nikon 1 J1 fared in the image quality department.