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The Nikon 1 J1 is a stylish compact system camera using a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor plus 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 plus a unique Motion Snapshot Mode, the portable Nikon J1 now offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, together with Metered Manual. Also up to speed is usually a built-in pop-up flash with a guide number of 5, a 3 inch rear display with an electronic shutter. Pricing $649.95 / 549.99 which has a 10-30mm standard 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 take a sale later this month.

The Nikon 1 J1 is mainly constructed from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is therefore heavier than what you know already according to its size alone, coming in at 234g for that body only. In addition, it feels better quality than 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 need you to definitely support the camera’s weight from the left-hand, clutching the lens, and utilize your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is an excellent the way it pushes you to look closely at holding you properly, which experts claim goes a long way 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. Instead of to be a scaled-down version with the out of date F mount, it’s a brand spanking new design that gives 100% electronic communication between attached lens along with the camera body, due to endless weeks of frustration contacts. Much like on the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, there is a white dot for convenient lens alignment, even though it has moved in the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) up with the mount. The lenses themselves come with a short silver ridge around the lens barrel, which ought to be in alignment with said dot in order for one to be able to attach the lens to your camera. Of course this might need a certain amount of adjusting to, this task makes changing lenses quicker and easier.

Without the need of lens attached, you can observe the sensor sitting right behind the plane from the bayonet mount. Just like the mount itself, the sensor is fresh. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has double the amount floor of the biggest imagers found in compact and bridge cameras much like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only about 50 % the vicinity of the standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip features a 1.36x longer diagonal compared to Nikon CX imager. Given that Four Thirds has a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” computes to around 2.72, and therefore a 10mm lens has approximately exactly 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 equivalent to a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens regarding its angle-of-view range.

Other Nikon J1’s faceplate is virtually empty, featuring exactly the lens release, a receiver with the optional ML-L3 infrared handy remote control, two narrow slits for your microphone spare on both in the lens, plus an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There’s no grip in any way within the front on the Nikon 1 J1.

There’s two means of powering on the Nikon 1 V1. You may use the on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, when you have a collapsible-barrel standard zoom lens attached, you can easily press the unlocking button about the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an act that produces the digital camera to exchange on automatically. It becomes an ingenious solution since you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes approximately a 2nd - not even attempt to write home about yet still decent and entirely adequate.

You may frame your shots while using rear screen - there’s no electronic viewfinder as within the V1 model, an essential difference between the 2. The LCD screen is really a three-inch, 460,000-dot display that boasts wide viewing angles, great definition and accurate colours but only so-so visibility in strong daylight. We missed the EVF with all the J1 alongside the V1, in either bright sunlit conditions or with all the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding you up to eye-level helped to stabilise the lens avoiding camera shake.

The control layout is rather peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 incorporates a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks many of the shooting modes which might be usually seen on similar dials - that include P, A, S and M - although it has enough room to support them. These modes are offered on the J1 but you have to dive into the rather long-winded instead of entirely logical menu to get them. The J1’s mode dial has only 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. Even if this isn’t a bad choice of functions, the fact that there’s no ISO button will doubtlessly cause a large amount of photographers interested in purchasing the Nikon J1 being unhappy.

We have a 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, during Video mode it allows you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s 2 more essential controls around the back in the camera, including a scroll wheel about the four-way pad as well as a rocker switch marked using a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is employed to set the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (when you’ve found them inside the menu, that is), even though the rocker switch controls the aperture. Precisely why it offers a loupe icon beside it can be until this control is used to zoom in with an image to check for critical concentrate Playback mode. As a final point, you can find four small buttons round the navigation pad, flush resistant to the rear panel in the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

Just what exactly are shooting modes about the mode dial all about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked with a green camera icon, is the place you should be most of the time. Together with the mode dial set to this particular position, it is possible to pick your required exposure mode from your menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a brilliant auto mode the place that 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. You may also choose one in the conventional PASM modes, which give you full menu access along with the chance to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift can be found in P mode). ISO and white balance can be manually selected, but only on the menu, as mentioned previously.

Of course there’s AWB and auto ISO as well, using the latter being released three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) helping you to specify how high you wish you to search once the light gets low. It’s also possible to choose between three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, the location where the camera takes charge of what it really focusses on (it is not an incredible mode to get as your default as being the camera obviously can’t read the mind and might give attention to something else entirely than your actual subject); Single Point, in places you can select one among 135 AF points frist by hitting OK and then moving the active AF point throughout the frame using the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, the place you pick your subject, press OK and let your camera to monitor that subject because it moves around, provided that this doesn’t happen leave the frame certainly.

The Nikon 1 J1 has an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that mixes contrast- and phase-difference detection in a similar fashion because the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This permits the Nikon 1 J1 to target extremely quickly in good light, even on the 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 - provided that there’s enough light. When light levels drop, the camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster than on most cameras, isn’t as fast as additional method. It’s always the digital camera that decides which AF method to use - anyone doesn’t have any affect on this.

Normally, the J1 usually only make use of 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 doesn’t disappoint here. Manual focusing can be possible, even though the Nikon 1 lenses do not have focus rings. In order to focus manually, first you must hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK after which utilize scroll wheel to adjust focus. To be of assistance using this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central the main image and displays a rudimentary focus scale over the right side of the frame - but those are definitely the only focusing aids you get. There isn’t any peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 has an electronic shutter (the V1 boasts an analog shutter). It’s totally silent (the focus confirmation beep may be disabled on the menu) and allows the utilization of shutter speeds you wish 1/16,000th of the second and, while using Electronic Hi setting selected, helps you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 frames per second. Note however that although that is a major achievement, it’s on a a buffer that will only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the application of this mode precludes AF tracking - you need to lower the frame rate to 10fps if you’d like that -, and also the viewfinder goes blank as the pictures are now being taken. Single thing that it application we are able to think of where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really come in handy is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. With this rate, several 5 bracketed shots might be taken in a lot less than 0.1 second, rendering small movements that will otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown in the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 does not offer this kind of feature - actually this doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing in any respect.

Moving on to it mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. First and foremost, the camera might be set to shoot Full HD footage, so you even arrive at select 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, according to whether you’d rather use progressive or interlaced video. If you don’t need Full HD, in addition there are 720p @ 60fps, that’s really smooth but still counts as hi-d. Secondly, you will get full manual treating exposure in video mode. It is an option; you won’t have to shoot in M mode and you can in the event that’s what you need. Thirdly, you will get 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 discover separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and because of this - as well as the massive processing power on the Nikon J1 - it is possible to take multiple full-resolution stills at the same time recording HD video. This works vice versa too - you are able to capture a show clip regardless if the mode dial is with the Still Image position, just by pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve learned that in such a case the camera will forever record the recording at 720p/60fps.

In addition to 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 gloomier and the aspect ratio can be an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, however the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and the like. These videos are replayed at 30fps, that’s in excess of 13x slower than the capture speed of 400fps, permitting you to get creative and display to the world numerous interesting phenomena that happen too soon to look at instantly. The Nikon J1 goes a step forward by providing a 1200fps video mode, though the resolution and overall quality is just too poor for that for being genuinely useful.

The third icon around the mode dial symbolizes Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows the camera to capture at least 20 photos for a single press in the shutter release, including some which were taken before fully depressing the button. You analyses the individual pictures in the series and discards 15 ones, keeping just the five that it thinks might be best when it comes to sharpness and composition. This feature might be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, we have a so-called Motion Snapshot mode when the camera records a concise high-definition movie - whose buffering starts in a half-press in the shutter release, so again includes events which in fact had happened prior to a button was fully depressed - and in addition has a still photograph. The film as well as the still image are residing in separate files even so the camera can combine them into a single slow-motion clip with background music. It’s fun but we can’t really envision people applying this shooting mode all the time. (When you comprehend the video with a computer, it’ll play back at normal speed, without sound, which means you mode is really only interesting in case you comprehend the clip in-camera or hook the camera nearly an HDTV through 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 runs using a smaller EN-EL20 battery to its V1 big brother, and it is consequently able to produce considerably less shots using one charge, managing around 230, although it does help to create the digital camera body smaller. The camera’s tripod socket is made from metal and is in line with the lens’ optical axis. This also signifies that changing batteries or cards is not possible while the J1 is attached with a tripod, because the hinges in the battery/card compartment door are extremely nearby the tripod mount.

So, how did we like while using Nikon 1 J1? Similarly, we liked it a whole lot. In good light, its auto-focus product is indeed faster than just about anything we’ve used so far, to be able to track and lock concentrate on numerous truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding a lot of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates have never been 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.

In contrast, the Nikon J1 has its share of frustrating idiosyncrasies applying the consumer interface that pushes you to 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 your finished product, they can no less than make the “F” button customisable using a firmware update. Also, to find out a devoted button for exposure compensation - a a valuable thing - I didnrrrt find a way to activate an active histogram, though it could have made exposure compensation a lot more useful and to utilize. Again, this could apt to be fixed in firmware.

We missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, specifically in bright light or when using the telephoto lens which doesn’t lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J1 only has a glass dust shield as it’s defense against unwanted debris, as opposed to the more proactive sensor cleaning unit that this V1 offers, and the smaller battery signifies that you will need to buy an extra anyone to get through a day’s heavy shooting. Lacking an accessory port signifies that almost none of the Nikon 1 accessories are appropriate for the J1, for example the external flash and GPS unit.

Another thing we failed to like could be that the camera would always show the image just taken for a couple of seconds onscreen, and we wouldn’t are able to turn this instant postview function completely off (even if you can at least cancel it using a half-press of the shutter release). Finally, as you move the camera is generally fast and responsive, the digital camera takes overly long to arise from sleep mode if it continues to be idle for some time, resulting in numerous missed shots.

With that said, the Nikon 1 J1 is often a smaller than average and compact, high-performance system camera that like its your government could use several tweaks to the graphical user interface to better suit the needs of serious amateurs. The intended marketplace of casual users will cherish it for its sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight along with the fun features it offers. We will now discover how the Nikon 1 J1 fared in the image quality department.