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The Nikon 1 J1 is usually 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 as well as 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 agreeable is really 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 having a 10-30mm zoom lens, $699.95 / 599.99 that 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 go on sale later this month.

The Nikon 1 J1 is generally crafted from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts which is therefore heavier than you would think depending on its size alone, weighing in at 234g for the body only. What’s more, it feels better made compared to the official product shots would have you believe. With the essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is quite much a two-handed affair that will require you to contain the camera’s weight from the left hand, clutching the lens, and utilize your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is certainly a very important thing because it makes you take note of holding the digital camera properly, which inturn goes quite a distance towards avoiding shake-induced blur with your photos.

The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is covered with the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Rather then being a scaled-down version from the classic F mount, it is a brand-new design that can offer 100% electronic communication between attached lens as well as the camera body, due to 12 contacts. Much like for the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, we have a white dot for quick lens alignment, even though it has moved in the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the peak in the mount. The lenses themselves feature a short silver ridge within the lens barrel, which has to be in alignment with said dot in order for that you have the capacity to attach the lens towards the camera. Of course this may require a little bit of becoming familiar with, it genuinely makes changing lenses quicker and simpler.

With no lens attached, you can see the sensor sitting right behind the plane from 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 area of the largest imagers used in compact and bridge cameras like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, only about 50 % the vicinity of a standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip features a 1.36x longer diagonal compared to the Nikon CX imager. Provided that Four Thirds includes a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” calculates to about 2.72, which means that a 10mm lens has approximately precisely the same angle of view as being a 27.2mm lens on an FX or 35mm film camera. The Nikon 1 Nikkor 10-30mm standard zoom is thus similar to a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens in terms of its angle-of-view range.

The remainder of the Nikon J1’s faceplate is nearly empty, featuring exactly the lens release, a receiver to the optional ML-L3 infrared remote control, two narrow slits to the microphone spare on both on the lens, and an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There isn’t any grip whatsoever on the front from the Nikon 1 J1.

There are two methods for powering on the Nikon 1 J1. You may either use the on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, should you have a collapsible-barrel zoom lens attached, you can just press the unlocking button about the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an action that creates the digital camera to switch on automatically. It is deemed an ingenious solution as you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes about a second - nothing to write home about however decent and entirely adequate.

You may frame your shots utilizing the rear screen - there’s no electronic viewfinder as around the V1 model, a key difference between both the. The LCD screen can be a three-inch, 460,000-dot display that boasts 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 aided by the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding the camera up to eye-level helped to stabilise the lens avoiding trembling camera.

The control layout is very peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 features a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks almost all of the shooting modes that happen to be usually situated on similar dials - that include P, A, S and M - even though it has enough room to support them. These modes can be found about the J1 but you should dive in the 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 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. Of course this is not a bad number of functions, the belief that there is absolutely no ISO button will doubtlessly spark a lot of photographers enthusiastic about getting the Nikon J1 to become unhappy.

There exists a button around the rear labelled “F” but alas, it’s not a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it enables you to quickly choose from the continuous shooting modes, whilst in Video mode it permits 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 round the four-way pad as well as a rocker switch marked having a loupe icon. The scroll wheel can be used to set the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (when you have found them inside menu, that is), even though the rocker switch controls the aperture. The key reason why it provides a loupe icon near to it’s that this control is employed to focus while on an image to confirm for critical concentrate Playback mode. Finally, you’ll find four small buttons around the navigation pad, flush resistant to the rear panel from the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

What exactly are those shooting modes for the mode dial about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked using a green camera icon, is to try and will need to be more often than not. Together with the mode dial set to the present position, you’ll be able to pick your required exposure mode on the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a great auto mode the place that the camera analyses the scene when in front of its lens and picks what it thinks will be the right mode for that one scene. Also you can find out with the conventional PASM modes, which supply you with full menu access plus the capability to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift can be purchased in P mode). ISO and white balance can also be manually selected, only on the menu, as mentioned previously.

Needless to say there’s AWB and auto ISO also, while using latter coming in three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) helping you to specify how high you would like the camera to look if the light gets low. You may also pick from three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, in which the camera takes control over what it focusses on (this isn’t an incredible mode to obtain since your default because the camera obviously can’t read the mind and might consentrate on another thing than your actual subject); Single Point, the place you can select considered one of 135 AF points starting with hitting OK then moving the active AF point about the frame using the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, in which you pick your subject, press OK and permit you to trace that subject because it moves around, as long as this doesn’t happen leave the frame naturally.

The Nikon 1 J1 comes with an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that combines contrast- and phase-difference detection likewise since the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This permits the Nikon 1 J1 to target extremely quickly in good light, even on the moving subject. This company claims the Nikon 1 system cameras include the fastest-focusing machines on this planet, and also this matches our experience - provided that 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 fast as the opposite method. It is you that decides which AF strategy to use - the user does not have any relation to this.

Most of the time, the J1 usually only head for contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, there we were capable of taking sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J1 certainly isn’t going to disappoint here. Manual focusing can also be possible, although Nikon 1 lenses do not possess focus rings. If you wish to focus manually, you first of all have to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and after that make use of the scroll wheel to focus. To assist you on this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central section of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale down the right side on the frame - but those include the only focusing aids you get. There isn’t any peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 comes with a electronic shutter (the V1 boasts a mechanical shutter). It is absolutely silent (the attention confirmation beep may be disabled through the menu) and allows the application of shutter speeds as soon as 1/16,000th of a second and, with the Electronic Hi setting selected, enables you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 fps. Note however that although this is the major achievement, it’s restricted by a buffer that can 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 need that -, and also the viewfinder goes blank as you move the pictures are taken. Single thing that it application we can visualize where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really be convenient is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. Only at that rate, several 5 bracketed shots may be consumed in less than 0.1 second, rendering small movements which could otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown from the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 will not offer a real feature - in truth it doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing by any means.

Trying the recording mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. Most notably, you may be set to shoot Full HD footage, and you even get to choose from 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, depending on whether you prefer to work with progressive or interlaced video. If you do not need Full HD, there is also 720p @ 60fps, and that is really smooth nevertheless counts as high definition. Secondly, you receive full manual treatments for exposure in video mode. It becomes an option; it’s not necessary to shoot in M mode however, you can if that’s what exactly you need. Thirdly, you will get fast, continuous AF in video mode, and delay well, specifically in good light. Movies are compressed utilizing the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. You can find separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and due to this - as well as the massive processing power in the Nikon J1 - you are able to take multiple full-resolution stills even when recording HD video. This works vice versa too - you’ll be able to capture a motion picture clip even though the mode dial influences Still Image position, just by pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve found that in this case the camera will invariably record film 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 lower along with the aspect ratio is an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, however the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and the like. These videos are played back at 30fps, which can be more than 13x slower compared to capture speed of 400fps, letting you get creative and display to the world numerous interesting phenomena which happen too soon to look at 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 for being genuinely useful.

Another icon on the mode dial symbolizes Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows the digital camera to capture at the very least 20 photos for a single press from the shutter release, including some that had been taken before fully depressing the button. Your camera analyses the individual pictures in the series and discards 15 of them, keeping the five that it thinks should be 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 in which the camera records a quick high-definition movie - whose buffering starts at the half-press of the shutter release, so again includes events that have happened prior to a button was fully depressed - and also has a still photograph. The movie and the still image are residing in separate files however the camera can combine them in a single slow-motion clip with background music. It’s fun but we can not really envision people employing this shooting mode regularly. (In case you comprehend the video with a computer, it will play back at normal speed, without sound, so this mode is basically only interesting in the event you see the clip in-camera or hook your camera nearly 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. The camera runs on a smaller EN-EL20 battery to the V1 your government, and is consequently capable of producing considerably less shots about the same charge, managing around 230, though it does help to generate your camera body scaled-down. The camera’s tripod socket consists of metal and it is found in line while using lens’ optical axis. This also means that changing batteries or cards is not possible whilst the J1 is mounted on a tripod, since the hinges with the battery/card compartment door are way too nearby the tripod mount.

So, how did we like using the Nikon 1 J1? On one hand, we liked it a great deal. In good light, its auto-focus technique is indeed faster than virtually anything we’ve used to date, having the ability to track and lock consentrate on a range of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding plenty 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 what has modest guide number might suggest, with all the clever design minimising red-eye.

Alternatively, the Nikon J1 have their share of frustrating idiosyncrasies beginning with anyone interface that makes you dive into your menu to access functions as easy as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to a finished product, they can at the least make the “F” button customisable by way of a firmware update. Also, nevertheless there is a separate button for exposure compensation - the industry positive thing - I didnrrrt try to activate a live histogram, eventhough it might have made exposure compensation much more useful as well as simple to make use of. Again, this might apt to be fixed in firmware.

We missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, especially in bright light or with all the telephoto lens which does not 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, as opposed to the more proactive sensor cleaning unit how the V1 offers, along with the smaller battery implies that you will have to buy an added you to definitely get to the day’s heavy shooting. Lacking an accessory port means that almost not one of the Nikon 1 accessories are compatible with the J1, such as the external flash and GPS unit.

Something else we wouldn’t like could be that the camera would always show the image just taken for a few seconds onscreen, and that we wouldn’t find a way to turn this instant postview function completely off (while you can at any rate cancel it with a half-press on the shutter release). Finally, whilst the camera is generally fast and responsive, your camera takes much too long to awaken from sleep mode in the event it continues to be idle for quite a while, causing quite a few missed shots.

That being said, the Nikon 1 J1 is often a small , compact, high-performance system camera that they like its our government might use a couple of tweaks to the program to higher suit the needs of serious amateurs. The intended target audience of casual users will cherish it because of its sheer speed, built-in flash, compact size and the fun features it provides. We will now observe how the Nikon 1 J1 fared within the image quality department.