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The Nikon 1 J1 is often a stylish compact system camera using a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor and 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 and also a unique Motion Snapshot Mode, the portable Nikon J1 also provides more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, along with Metered Manual. Also on board can be a built-in pop-up flash which has a guide variety of 5, a 3 inch rear display along with an electronic shutter. Charging $649.95 / 549.99 which 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 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 crafted from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is particularly therefore heavier than what you know already determined by its size alone, coming in at 234g with the body only. What’s more, it feels higher quality as opposed to official product shots would have you believe. With the essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is extremely much a two-handed affair that will need you to definitely contain the camera’s weight in the left hand, clutching the lens, and make use of your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is actually a very important thing mainly because it forces you to pay attention to holding you properly, which inturn goes further 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. Rather then being a scaled-down version of the ancient F mount, it’s actually a new design that can offer 100% electronic communication between attached lens as well as the camera body, for several contacts. Just like for the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, we have a white dot for convenient lens alignment, although it has moved on the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the peak on the mount. The lenses themselves include a short silver ridge on the lens barrel, which should be in alignment with said dot to ensure one to be capable of attach the lens to your camera. Even though this might need some becoming accustomed to, it actually makes changing lenses quicker and much easier.

Without the need of lens attached, you will notice the sensor sitting directly behind the plane on the bayonet mount. Much like the mount itself, the sensor is brand new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has double the surface area of the largest imagers used in compact and bridge cameras such as the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only about 50 % the vicinity of an standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip features a 1.36x longer diagonal than the Nikon CX imager. Considering 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 the identical angle of view like a 27.2mm lens by using an FX or 35mm film camera. The Nikon 1 Nikkor 10-30mm standard zoom is thus equivalent to a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens in terms of its angle-of-view range.

All of those other Nikon J1’s faceplate is practically empty, featuring merely the lens release, a receiver to the optional ML-L3 infrared handheld remote control, two narrow slits to the microphone either sides on the lens, with an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There isn’t any grip in any respect within the front on the Nikon 1 J1.

There are two means of powering on the Nikon 1 J1 and Nikon 1 V1. Either makes use of the on/off button sitting next to the shutter release or, in case you have a collapsible-barrel zoom lens attached, just press the unlocking button about the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an action that produces the digital camera to interchange on automatically. It is deemed an ingenious solution as you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes approximately an extra - nothing to write home about but nonetheless decent and entirely adequate.

You’ll be able to frame your shots while using the rear screen - there is no electronic viewfinder as on the V1 model, an important difference between both the. 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 a choice of bright sunlit conditions or with the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding you up to eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and get away from trembling camera.

The control layout is reasonably peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 has a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks the majority of the shooting modes that are usually entirely on similar dials - such as P, A, S and M - even though it has enough room to match them. These modes are offered around the J1 however, you ought to dive in to the rather long-winded but not entirely logical menu to find them. The J1’s mode dial merely 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. Evidently this is not a bad number of functions, the truth that there is absolutely no ISO button will doubtlessly create a lot of photographers considering purchasing Nikon J1 being unhappy.

There is a button on the rear labelled “F” but alas, it’s not a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it means that you can quickly choose from the continuous shooting modes, during Video mode it allows you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s two more important controls about the back in the camera, together with a scroll wheel around the four-way pad and a rocker switch marked that has a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is utilized to line the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (once you’ve found them in the menu, that’s), while the rocker switch controls the aperture. Precisely why it’s got a loupe icon near to it really is that control is needed to zoom in while on an image to confirm for critical concentrate Playback mode. As a final point, you will find four small buttons throughout the navigation pad, flush contrary to the rear panel of the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

Precisely what are those shooting modes within the mode dial exactly about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked that has a green camera icon, is where you may wish to be most of the time. While using mode dial set to this position, you can pick your required exposure mode from your 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 exactly what it thinks could be the right way of that one scene. You can also make a choice from 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 can be purchased in P mode). ISO and white balance will also be manually selected, only on the menu, as mentioned previously.

Needless to say there’s AWB and auto ISO also, with all the latter to arrive three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) enabling you to specify how high you wish you to search when the light gets low. You can also choose between three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, in which the camera takes control of exactly what it focusses on (this is simply not a terrific mode to possess as your default since the camera obviously can’t read your mind and will concentrate on something else than your actual subject); Single Point, that you can decide one of 135 AF points by first hitting OK and after that moving the active AF point about the frame utilizing the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, the place you pick your subject, press OK and allow you to track that subject mainly because it moves around, provided that it doesn’t leave the frame of course.

The Nikon 1 J1 comes with a intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that mixes contrast- and phase-difference detection similarly as the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This will give the Nikon 1 J1 to target extremely quickly in good light, even with a moving subject. The company claims the Nikon 1 system cameras will be the fastest-focusing machines on the planet, and also this matches our experience - as long as there’s enough light. When light levels drop, your camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster than you are on most cameras, isn’t you’d like additional method. It is usually your camera that decides which AF solution to use - an individual does not have any impact on this.

Usually, the J1 in most cases 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 is usually possible, even though the Nikon 1 lenses would not have focus rings. If you need to focus manually, you initially have to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK then use the scroll wheel to alter focus. To help you with this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central section of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale over the right side with the frame - but those would be the only focusing helps you get. There isn’t any peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 posseses an electronic shutter (the V1 even offers a mechanical shutter). It’s absolutely silent (the main focus confirmation beep can be disabled through the menu) and allows the application of shutter speeds as soon as 1/16,000th of the second and, with all the Electronic Hi setting selected, lets you shoot full-resolution stills at 60 frames per second. Note however that while this is the 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 would like that -, as well as the viewfinder goes blank as the pictures are taken. The only application we could think about where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really be useful is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. When it reaches this rate, some 5 bracketed shots may be used below 0.1 second, rendering small movements that may otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown inside wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 won’t offer such a feature - the truth is no offer autoexposure bracketing in any respect.

Trying out the playback quality mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. First and foremost, you can 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 with progressive or interlaced video. If you do not need Full HD, there is also 720p @ 60fps, which is really smooth but still counts as hi-def. Secondly, you have full manual control of exposure in video mode. It is really an option; you don’t have to shoot in M mode nevertheless, you can if that is what you require. Thirdly, you receive fast, continuous AF in video mode, and delay pills work well, particularly in good light. Movies are compressed using the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. There are separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and due to this - plus the massive processing power with the Nikon J1 - you may take multiple full-resolution stills while recording HD video. This works the opposite too - you can capture a motion picture 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 such a case you will usually record film at 720p/60fps.

And also capable of shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 may also shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is leaner and the aspect ratio is surely 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 versus the capture speed of 400fps, helping you to get creative and prove to the world numerous interesting phenomena which happen prematurely to see or watch in real time. The Nikon J1 goes even more by a 1200fps video mode, though the resolution and overall quality is too poor for your to get genuinely useful.

Your third icon on the mode dial stands for Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows your camera to capture at the least 20 photos at the single press on the shutter release, including some which are taken before fully depressing the button. Your camera analyses the consumer pictures inside the series and discards 15 of those, keeping just the five so it thinks are best with regards to sharpness and composition. This feature can be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, there’s a so-called Motion Snapshot mode where the camera records a concise high-definition movie - whose buffering starts in a half-press with the shutter release, so again includes events that had happened prior to a button was fully depressed - as well as uses a still photograph. The film and also the still image are trapped in separate files even so the camera can combine them to a single slow-motion clip with vocals. It’s fun but we not able to really envision people by using this shooting mode on a regular basis. (When you comprehend the video using a computer, it’ll play back at normal speed, without sound, this mode is very only interesting if you comprehend the clip in-camera or hook your camera as much as an HDTV via an HDMI cable.)

The Nikon J1 stores photos and videos on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and supports the fastest UHS-I speed class. You runs on a lesser EN-EL20 battery to its V1 government, and is also consequently able to produce much less shots on a single charge, managing around 230, though it does help for making your camera body small. The camera’s tripod socket is manufactured out of metal and is also positioned in line while using lens’ optical axis. This means that changing batteries or cards isn’t feasible even though the J1 is attached with a tripod, as the hinges with the battery/card compartment door are extremely near to the tripod mount.

So, how did we like while using the Nikon 1 J1? On one side, we liked it lots. In good light, its auto-focus system is indeed faster than essentially anything we’ve used thus far, to be able to track and lock concentrate on a range of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding lots 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 the modest guide number might suggest, with the clever design minimising red-eye.

In contrast, the Nikon J1 has its own share of frustrating idiosyncrasies beginning with the user interface that can make you dive to the menu to get into functions as common as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons with a finished product, they can at the least make the “F” button customisable via a firmware update. Also, nevertheless there is a devoted button for exposure compensation - the industry good thing - I did not are able to activate a live histogram, community . could have made exposure compensation much more useful and straightforward to work with. Again, this will likely to end up fixed in firmware.

We also missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, particularly in bright light or when 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 because it is defense against unwanted debris, rather than more proactive sensor cleaning unit that this V1 offers, along with the smaller battery ensures that you will need to buy a supplementary someone to go through the day’s heavy shooting. Having less an accessory port means that almost none of the Nikon 1 accessories are works with the J1, such as the external flash and GPS unit.

Something else we wouldn’t like was that the camera would always show the picture just taken for a few seconds onscreen, and now we wouldn’t are able to turn this instant postview function completely off (even though you can at least cancel it with a half-press of the shutter release). Finally, as the camera is mostly fast and responsive, you takes much too long to wake from sleep mode if this is idle for a time, causing quite a few missed shots.

That being said, the Nikon 1 J1 can be a small, and compact, high-performance system camera they like its government are able to use a couple of tweaks to its user interface to better suit the requirements serious amateurs. The intended audience of casual users should it due to its sheer speed, built-in flash, compact size as well as the fun features it offers. We will now see how the Nikon 1 J1 fared inside the image quality department.