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The Nikon 1 J1 can be a stylish compact system camera featuring a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor plus the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds as high as 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 now offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, together with Metered Manual. Also aboard can be a built-in pop-up flash with a guide amount of 5, a 3 inch rear display with an electronic shutter. Pricing $649.95 / 549.99 with a 10-30mm zoom lens, $699.95 / 599.99 which has a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 within a double-lens kit with the 10-30mm and 30-110mm zoom lenses, the Nikon 1 J1 is scheduled to be on sale later this month.

The Nikon 1 J1 is mainly created from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts which is therefore heavier than you would think dependant on its size alone, weighing in at 234g for that body only. It also feels better made compared to official product shots would have you believe. With an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 can be quite much a two-handed affair that will require you to hold 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 the best thing the way it pushes you to pay attention to holding the camera properly, which in turn goes quite a distance towards avoiding shake-induced blur within your photos.

The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is covered with the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. As opposed to as being a scaled-down version with the classic F mount, it’s actually a fresh design that gives 100% electronic communication between your attached lens along with the camera body, from several contacts. The same as about the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, you will find there’s white dot for simple lens alignment, eventhough it has moved on the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to # 1 with the mount. The lenses themselves come with a short silver ridge around the lens barrel, which has to be in alignment with said dot to ensure you to be capable of attach the lens towards the camera. Although this may need a certain amount of adjusting to, it actually makes changing lenses quicker and easier.

Without the need of lens attached, you can observe the sensor sitting directly behind the plane in the bayonet mount. Such as the mount itself, the sensor is fresh. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has double expanse of the most popular imagers used in compact and bridge cameras such as the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only most of the region of a standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip features a 1.36x longer diagonal as opposed to Nikon CX imager. Provided that Four Thirds has a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” computes to around 2.72, and thus a 10mm lens has approximately the same angle of view like 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 regarding its angle-of-view range.

All of those other Nikon J1’s faceplate is actually empty, featuring the lens release, a receiver for your optional ML-L3 infrared handy remote control, two narrow slits for that microphone each side on the lens, with an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is not any grip in any way about the front with the Nikon 1 J1.

There’s two options for powering about the Nikon J1. Either make use of the on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, for those who have a collapsible-barrel contact lens attached, just press the unlocking button around the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an action that produces you to switch on automatically. It is deemed an ingenious solution as you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes just over another - not write home about but nevertheless decent and entirely adequate.

You may frame your shots with all the rear screen - there isn’t any electronic viewfinder as on the V1 model, an essential difference between the 2 main. The LCD screen is often 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 either bright sunlit conditions or while using the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding your camera approximately eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and steer clear of camera shake.

The control layout is pretty peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 features a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks a lot of the shooting modes which can be usually seen on similar dials - especially P, A, S and M - community . has enough room to allow for them. These modes are offered on the J1 and you should dive into your rather long-winded rather than entirely logical menu to seek out them. The J1’s mode dial merely 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. Even though this isn’t a bad number of functions, the fact there is absolutely no ISO button will doubtlessly result in a wide range of photographers considering acquiring the Nikon J1 to be unhappy.

There exists a button around the rear labelled “F” but alas, this is not a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it means that you can quickly make a choice from the continuous shooting modes, when it’s in Video mode it allows you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There are two more vital controls around the back on the camera, including a scroll wheel round the four-way pad along with a rocker switch marked using a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is utilized to create the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (when you’ve found them within the menu, that is certainly), while the rocker switch controls the aperture. The key reason why it has a loupe icon near to it truly is this control is employed to focus on an image to check on for critical focus in Playback mode. Last but not least, you can find four small buttons around the navigation pad, flush contrary to the rear panel in the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

So what on earth are the type shooting modes for the mode dial exactly about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked that has a green camera icon, is the place you will need to be more often than not. With all the mode dial set to the present position, you can pick your required exposure mode in the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a brilliant automatic mode where the camera analyses the scene when in front of its lens and picks exactly what it thinks would be the right way of that one scene. Also you can pick one from the conventional PASM modes, which provide you with full menu access along with the ability to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift comes in P mode). ISO and white balance can be manually selected, only from the menu, as stated previously.

Obviously there’s AWB and auto ISO as well, with all the latter coming in three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) permitting you to specify how high you wish the camera to look if the light gets low. It’s also possible to choose between three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, where the camera takes charge of just what it focusses on (it’s not a terrific mode to have because your default as the camera obviously can’t read your brain and will focus on something more important than your actual subject); Single Point, the place you can select among 135 AF points by first hitting OK and after that moving the active AF point round the frame with all the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, the place you pick your subject, press OK and permit the digital camera in order to that subject mainly 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 combines contrast- and phase-difference detection in a similar fashion since the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This allows the Nikon 1 J1 to focus extremely quickly in good light, even on a moving subject. The company claims the Nikon 1 system cameras will be the fastest-focusing machines on the globe, which matches our experience - given that there’s enough light. When light levels drop, the digital camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster compared to most cameras, isn’t you wish the other method. It certainly is your camera that decides which AF technique to use - the person doesn’t have affect on this.

In most cases, the J1 will often only resort to 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 does not disappoint here. Manual focusing can be possible, even though Nikon 1 lenses don’t have focus rings. If you wish to focus manually, you firstly need to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and makes use of the 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 over the right side from the frame - but those are the only focusing aids you get. There’s no peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 comes with a electronic shutter (the V1 also offers an analog shutter). It’s totally silent (the target confirmation beep might be disabled from the menu) and allows using shutter speeds you’d like 1/16,000th of the second and, with the Electronic Hi setting selected, helps you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 fps. Note however that although that is a major achievement, it’s limited by a buffer that could only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the use of this mode precludes AF tracking - you should lower the frame rate to 10fps if you would like that -, along with the viewfinder goes blank whilst the pictures are now being taken. The linksys e2000 application we can think about where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really prove useful is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. As of this rate, some 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 inside wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 does not offer this sort of feature - in fact no offer autoexposure bracketing in any respect.

Trying out the video mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. Most notably, you can be set to shoot Full HD footage, and you also even reach pick from 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, according to whether you’d like to work together with progressive or interlaced video. If you don’t need Full HD, there is also 720p @ 60fps, and that is really smooth whilst still being counts as hi-d. Secondly, you receive full manual control of exposure in video mode. It becomes an option; you won’t have to shoot in M mode however, you can if that is what you require. 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 will discover separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and thanks to this - as well as the massive processing power of the Nikon J1 - you are able to take multiple full-resolution stills even while recording HD video. This works vice versa too - you are able to capture a show clip regardless of whether the mode dial is within the Still Image position, simply by pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve discovered that in cases like this you will usually record the recording at 720p/60fps.

And also being able to shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 can also shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is less and the aspect ratio is definitely an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, nevertheless the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and the like. These videos are replayed at 30fps, that’s greater than 13x slower compared to capture speed of 400fps, permitting you to get creative and show the world an array of interesting phenomena which happen too rapidly to see in real time. The Nikon J1 goes even more by giving a 1200fps video mode, however the resolution and overall quality is too poor for the to be genuinely useful.

The 3rd icon about the mode dial means Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows the digital camera to capture at the very least 20 photos at the single press with the shutter release, including some which are taken before fully depressing the button. You analyses the individual pictures in the series and discards 15 of which, keeping merely the five it thinks would be better when it comes to sharpness and composition. This feature is usually genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, there is a so-called Motion Snapshot mode the place that the camera records a short high-definition movie - whose buffering starts in a half-press from the shutter release, so again includes events that had happened prior to the button was fully depressed - and also takes a still photograph. The movie plus the still image are trapped in separate files however the camera can combine them right into a single slow-motion clip with vocals. It’s fun but we’re not able to really envision people applying this shooting mode regularly. (In the event you view the video with a computer, it’s going to play back at normal speed, without sound, this mode is absolutely only interesting if you see the clip in-camera or hook your camera around an HDTV by using an HDMI cable.)

The Nikon J1 stores pics and vids on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and sports ths fastest UHS-I speed class. The camera runs using a compact EN-EL20 battery to its V1 big brother, and is consequently capable of producing considerably less shots using one charge, managing around 230, eventhough it helps to generate your camera body smaller. The camera’s tripod socket consists of metal and is situated line while using lens’ optical axis. This ensures that changing batteries or cards is not possible as you move the J1 is mounted on a tripod, as being the hinges with the battery/card compartment door are so close to the tripod mount.

So, how did we love to using the Nikon 1 J1? Similarly, we liked it a whole lot. In good light, its auto-focus strategy is indeed faster than essentially anything we’ve used so far, to be able to track and lock target numerous truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding a lot of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates have never 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 that it is modest guide number might suggest, with all the clever design minimising red-eye.

However, the Nikon J1 have their share of frustrating idiosyncrasies applying anyone interface that pushes you to dive in to the menu to get into functions as common as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to some finished product, they may at the least make “F” button customisable using a firmware update. Also, while there is a dedicated button for exposure compensation - that is a good thing - I didnrrrt are able to activate a live histogram, although it would have made exposure compensation much more useful as well as simple 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 with all 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, rather than the more proactive sensor cleaning unit which the V1 offers, and the smaller battery shows that you’ll need to buy a supplementary you to definitely get through a day’s heavy shooting. The possible lack of an accessory port signifies that almost none of the Nikon 1 accessories are appropriate for the J1, such as the external flash and GPS unit.

Something else we did not like was that the camera would always show the photo just taken for a few seconds onscreen, and we did not be capable of turn this instant postview function completely off (even if you can at any rate cancel it via a half-press on the shutter release). Finally, as the camera is mostly fast and responsive, your camera takes way too long to awaken from sleep mode if it has been idle for quite a while, resulting in many missed shots.

With that said, the Nikon 1 J1 can be a small and compact, high-performance system camera that like its larger would use a number of tweaks to its graphical user interface to raised suit the requirements serious amateurs. The intended audience of casual users will enjoy it due to its sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight plus the fun features it gives you. Let’s now observe the Nikon 1 J1 fared inside the image quality department.