Overview of Nikon 1 J1: New Nikon Mirroless Digital slr cameras
The Nikon 1 J1 can be a stylish compact system camera which has a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor as well as the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds up to 60 frames per second 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, in addition to Metered Manual. Also up to speed can be a built-in pop-up flash that has a guide number of 5, a 3 inch rear display plus an electronic shutter. Coming in at $649.95 / 549.99 having a 10-30mm standard zoom lens, $699.95 / 599.99 with 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 certainly caused by made out of aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is therefore heavier than you would think based on its size alone, weighing in at 234g for that body only. Furthermore, it feels better quality compared to the official product shots would have you believe. Having an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is extremely much a two-handed affair that will need someone to secure the camera’s weight inside the left-hand, clutching the lens, and use your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is actually a good thing because it pushes you to look closely at holding you properly, which in turn 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. Rather then like a scaled-down version in the traditional F mount, it’s really a new design that delivers 100% electronic communication between attached lens as well as the camera body, courtesy of several contacts. Similar to on the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, there is a white dot for convenient lens alignment, while it has moved from your 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) up in the mount. The lenses themselves include a short silver ridge within the lens barrel, which ought to be in alignment with said dot to ensure that you to have the ability to attach the lens for the camera. Of course this may require a certain amount of acclamating yourself with, it actually makes changing lenses quicker and simpler.
Without any lens attached, you will see the sensor sitting directly behind the plane of the bayonet mount. Just like the mount itself, the sensor is brand new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has double the surface of the most popular imagers utilised in compact and bridge cameras like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, only most of the location of a standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip has a 1.36x longer diagonal compared to the Nikon CX imager. Considering the fact that Four Thirds incorporates a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” breaks down to to around 2.72, and thus a 10mm lens has approximately exactly the same angle of view being a 27.2mm lens while on an FX or 35mm film camera. The Nikon 1 Nikkor 10-30mm standard zoom is thus comparable to a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens when it comes to its angle-of-view range.
All of those other Nikon J1’s faceplate is nearly empty, featuring merely the lens release, a receiver for the optional ML-L3 infrared remote control, two narrow slits with the microphone both sides on the lens, with an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There isn’t any grip in any respect within the front with the Nikon 1 J1.
The two main methods for powering about the Nikon 1 J1. Either utilize the on/off button sitting next to the shutter release or, when you have a collapsible-barrel contact lens attached, just press the unlocking button about the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an action that triggers your camera to modify on automatically. This is an ingenious solution as you have to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes about an extra - nothing to write home about but nonetheless decent and entirely adequate.
You are able to frame your shots using the rear screen - there is absolutely no electronic viewfinder as about the V1 model, an important distinction between the 2 main. The LCD screen is usually 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 with all the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding your camera around eye-level helped to stabilise the lens avoiding trembling camera.
The control layout is pretty peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 incorporates a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks the majority of the shooting modes which can be usually entirely on similar dials - that include P, A, S and M - community . has enough room to match them. These modes are offered about the J1 however you have to dive to the rather long-winded and not entirely logical menu to locate them. The J1’s mode dial only 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. Of course this is not a bad range of functions, the belief that there is no ISO button will doubtlessly spark a wide range of photographers considering purchasing Nikon J1 to be unhappy.
There is a button around the rear labelled “F” but alas, this isn’t a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it allows you to quickly choose from the continuous shooting modes, while in Video mode it enables you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There are 2 more valuable controls within the back from the camera, including a scroll wheel around the four-way pad along with a rocker switch marked which has a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is used to put the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (after you have found them from the menu, that is), even though the rocker switch controls the aperture. Precisely why it’s got a loupe icon next to it can be until this control is employed to zoom in upon an image to evaluate for critical focus in Playback mode. Last of all, you will find four small buttons about the navigation pad, flush up against the rear panel in the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.
So what are the ones shooting modes for the mode dial about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked which has a green camera icon, is the place you will want to be more often than not. Together with the mode dial set to the position, you’ll be able to pick your required exposure mode on 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 exactly what thinks will be the right way of that exact scene. You can even select one from the conventional PASM modes, which present you with full menu access along with 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 earlier.
Certainly there’s AWB and auto ISO likewise, while using latter to arrive three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) letting you specify how high you wish the digital camera to search when the light gets low. Also you can choose between three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, the location where the camera takes management of just what it focusses on (it is not a fantastic mode to obtain as your default since the camera obviously can’t read your thoughts and may even give attention to something different than your actual subject); Single Point, the place you can make certainly one of 135 AF points by first hitting OK and moving the active AF point round the frame using the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, where you pick your subject, press OK and allow you to trace that subject since it moves around, provided that it won’t leave the frame naturally.
The Nikon 1 J1 has an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that combines contrast- and phase-difference detection in a similar way since the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This will give the Nikon 1 J1 to target 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 earth, and 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 as quickly as one other method. It really is the digital camera that decides which AF method to use - the person doesn’t have affect this.
In most cases, the J1 in most cases only make use of contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, we had been capable of taking sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J1 certainly doesn’t disappoint here. Manual focusing is also possible, even though the Nikon 1 lenses do not possess focus rings. If you wish to focus manually, you first should hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and utilize scroll wheel to focus. To help you on this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central part of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale across the right side from the frame - but those include the only focusing helps you get. There is no peaking function available as on some rival models.
The J1 comes with an electronic shutter (the V1 has a mechanical shutter). It’s absolutely silent (the attention confirmation beep can be disabled from your menu) and allows the use of shutter speeds as quickly as 1/16,000th of the second and, with the Electronic Hi setting selected, lets you shoot full-resolution stills at 60 fps. Note however that although it is a major achievement, it’s limited by a buffer that could only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the utilization of this mode precludes AF tracking - you will need to lower the frame rate to 10fps if you wish that -, and the viewfinder goes blank whilst the pictures are taken. The linksys e2000 application we could 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 could be taken in lower than 0.1 second, rendering small movements which could otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown in the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 will not offer such a feature - in fact this doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing at all.
Moving on to the playback quality mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. First and foremost, you is usually set to shoot Full HD footage, so you even arrive at choose between 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, dependant upon whether you’d rather work together with progressive or interlaced video. If you can’t need Full HD, additionally, there are 720p @ 60fps, which can be really smooth whilst still being counts as hd. Secondly, you get full manual treating exposure in video mode. It is deemed an option; you don’t have to shoot in M mode however, you can in the event that’s the thing you need. Thirdly, you get fast, continuous AF in video mode, and delay well, particularly 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 thanks to this - in addition to the massive processing power of the Nikon J1 - you can take multiple full-resolution stills while recording HD video. This works vice versa too - you’ll be able to capture a show clip even if the mode dial is with the Still Image position, by just pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve discovered that in such cases you will record film at 720p/60fps.
As well as being efficient 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 and also the aspect ratio is an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, but the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo etc. These videos are replayed at 30fps, that is in excess of 13x slower compared to the capture speed of 400fps, helping you to get creative and prove to the world numerous interesting phenomena which happen too rapidly to see or watch in real time. The Nikon J1 goes further by a 1200fps video mode, nevertheless the resolution and overall quality is just too big poor for the for being genuinely useful.
The next icon within the mode dial symbolizes Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows you to capture at least 20 photos at the single press in the shutter release, including some that had been taken before fully depressing the button. You analyses the individual pictures within the series and discards 15 of them, keeping just the five that it thinks would be better with regards to 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 place that the camera records a quick high-definition movie - whose buffering starts for a half-press with the shutter release, so again includes events that had happened prior to a button was fully depressed - and as well requires a still photograph. The movie plus the still image are held in separate files nevertheless the camera can combine them right into a single slow-motion clip with music. It’s fun but we can not really envision people applying this shooting mode all the time. (If you look at the video on the computer, it will play back at normal speed, without sound, which means you mode is basically only interesting in case 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 sports ths fastest UHS-I speed class. Your camera operates on a lesser EN-EL20 battery to the V1 our government, and is particularly consequently capable of producing considerably less shots using one charge, managing around 230, though it does help for making the digital camera body smaller. The camera’s tripod socket consists of metal and it is situated line while using lens’ optical axis. And also this signifies that changing batteries or cards is not possible even though the J1 is attached with a tripod, as the hinges from the battery/card compartment door are so nearby the tripod mount.
So, how did we love to while using the Nikon 1 J1? Similarly, we liked it a whole lot. In good light, its auto-focus method is indeed faster than pretty much anything we’ve used until now, being able to track and lock consentrate on a variety of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding many 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 whenever we had used a slower camera. The built-in pop-up flash proved more useful what has modest guide number might suggest, together with the clever design minimising red-eye.
However, the Nikon J1 does have it’s share of frustrating idiosyncrasies beginning with the user interface that pushes you to dive in to the menu to 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 have the “F” button customisable by using a firmware update. Also, you will find a passionate button for exposure compensation - which is a great thing - I didnrrrt are able to activate an active histogram, though it could have made exposure compensation much more useful and to work with. Again, this could apt to be fixed in firmware.
We also missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, especially in bright light or aided by the telephoto lens which doesn’t lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J1 merely has a glass dust shield since it is defense against unwanted debris, as opposed to the more proactive sensor cleaning unit that this V1 offers, as well as the smaller battery means that you’ll want to buy another anyone to go through the day’s heavy shooting. The possible lack of an accessory port shows that almost not one of the Nikon 1 accessories are that will work with the J1, such as the external flash and GPS unit.
One more thing we didn’t like could be that the camera would always show the image just taken for a few seconds onscreen, therefore we wouldn’t try 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 usually fast and responsive, the camera takes overly long to awaken from sleep mode gets hotter may be idle for some time, contributing to several missed shots.
In fact, the Nikon 1 J1 is a small and compact, high-performance system camera they enjoy its larger would use a number of tweaks to its program to higher suit the needs of serious amateurs. The intended market you work in of casual users will cherish it because of its sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight along with the fun features it provides. Let’s now discover how the Nikon 1 J1 fared from the image quality department.
Tags: j1, mirroless cameras, nikon, nikon 1, nikon 1 j1, nikon 1 v1, nikon cameras, nikon1, v1