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The Nikon 1 J1 is really a stylish compact system camera with a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor and also 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 and a unique Motion Snapshot Mode, the portable Nikon J1 even offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, together with Metered Manual. Also on board is often a built-in pop-up flash which has a guide quantity of 5, a 3 inch rear display plus an electronic shutter. Charging $649.95 / 549.99 with a 10-30mm contact, $699.95 / 599.99 using a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 inside a double-lens kit together 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 usually created from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts which is therefore heavier than what you know already depending on its size alone, weighing in at 234g for your body only. What’s more, it feels better quality as opposed to official product shots would have you believe. Having an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is extremely much a two-handed affair that requires one to contain the camera’s weight in the left hand, clutching the lens, and use your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is actually the good thing because it can make you look closely at holding the digital camera properly, which in turn goes quite a distance towards avoiding shake-induced blur inside your photos.

The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is dominated by the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. As an alternative to as a scaled-down version with the classic F mount, it’s really a completely new design that delivers 100% electronic communication between attached lens plus the camera body, thanks to a dozen contacts. Just like for the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, we have a white dot for quick lens alignment, although it has moved on the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the top from the mount. The lenses themselves include a short silver ridge on the lens barrel, which must be in alignment with said dot in order for that you have the ability to attach the lens to the camera. Even though this might require a bit of becoming familiar with, it genuinely makes changing lenses quicker and simpler.

With no 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 quantity area of the biggest imagers employed in compact and bridge cameras such as Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only most of the region of an standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip incorporates a 1.36x longer diagonal compared to Nikon CX imager. Since Four Thirds incorporates a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” ends up to about 2.72, and thus a 10mm lens has approximately exactly the same 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 comparable to a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens when it comes to its angle-of-view range.

The rest of the Nikon J1’s faceplate is almost empty, featuring merely the lens release, a receiver for that optional ML-L3 infrared handheld remote control, two narrow slits with the microphone each side of the lens, plus an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There’s no grip by any means for the front from the Nikon 1 J1.

There are 2 strategies to powering on the Nikon 1 V1. You can either utilize on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, in case you have a collapsible-barrel standard zoom lens attached, you can simply press the unlocking button for the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an action that causes your camera to change on automatically. It is an ingenious solution as you have to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes just over an extra - nothing to write home about but nonetheless decent and entirely adequate.

You can frame your shots using the rear screen - there is absolutely no electronic viewfinder as on the V1 model, a vital difference between the 2 main. The LCD screen is a three-inch, 460,000-dot display that features 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 both bright sunlit conditions or with the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding the digital camera up to eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and steer clear of trembling camera.

The control layout is quite peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 has a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks a lot of the shooting modes that are usually seen on similar dials - most notably P, A, S and M - eventhough it has enough room to fit them. These modes can be found on the J1 but you should dive in to the rather long-winded and never entirely logical menu to seek out 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 though this isn’t a bad choice of functions, the reality that there isn’t any ISO button will doubtlessly spark a large amount of photographers considering getting the Nikon J1 to be unhappy.

There’s a button about 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, during Video mode it allows you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There are 2 more valuable controls about the back on the camera, together with a scroll wheel around the four-way pad plus a rocker switch marked that has a loupe icon. The scroll wheel can be used to create the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (after you have found them from the menu, which is), as the rocker switch controls the aperture. Precisely why it has a loupe icon close to it is that it control is needed to focus while on an image to test for critical focus in Playback mode. Last of all, you will discover four small buttons across the navigation pad, flush against the rear panel of the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

Just what exactly are the type shooting modes around the mode dial information about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked having a green camera icon, is to would want to be more often than not. While using mode dial set to the present position, it is possible to pick your desired exposure mode through the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a smart auto mode where the camera analyses the scene before its lens and picks just what it thinks may be the right way of that particular scene. It’s also possible to find out on 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 will also be manually selected, only on the menu, as stated earlier.

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) enabling you to specify how high you desire the digital camera to search if the light gets low. It’s also possible to choose from three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, the place that the camera takes management of exactly what it focusses on (this is simply not an incredible mode to possess since your default because the camera obviously can’t read your thoughts and may focus on something else entirely than your actual subject); Single Point, in places you can decide certainly one of 135 AF points by first hitting OK after which moving the active AF point across the frame with all the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, in which you pick your subject, press OK and invite the digital camera to follow that subject since it moves around, so long as it does not leave the frame obviously.

The Nikon 1 J1 comes with an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that combines contrast- and phase-difference detection similarly because Fujifilm F300EXR did. This permits the Nikon 1 J1 to target extremely quickly in good light, even using a moving subject. The company claims the Nikon 1 system cameras would be the fastest-focusing machines on the planet, and this also matches our experience - given 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 nearly you wish the opposite method. It’s always the camera that decides which AF technique to use - the user does not have any relation to this.

In most cases, the J1 will most likely only head for contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, we were able to take sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J1 certainly will not disappoint here. Manual focusing is additionally possible, although the Nikon 1 lenses would not have focus rings. If you want to focus manually, you first should hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and make use of the scroll wheel to focus. To help you on this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central section of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale over the right side from the frame - but those include the only focusing aids you get. There is absolutely no peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 comes with a electronic shutter (the V1 even offers an analog shutter). It is absolutely silent (the main focus confirmation beep might be disabled on the menu) and allows the usage of shutter speeds you’d like 1/16,000th of any second and, while using 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 tied to a buffer that may only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the utilization of this mode precludes AF tracking - you must lower the frame rate to 10fps if you would like that -, and the viewfinder goes blank while the pictures are taken. One application we can visualize where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really be useful is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. With this rate, a series of 5 bracketed shots may be consumed in lower than 0.1 second, rendering small movements that could otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown inside the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 isn’t going to offer this type of feature - actually it doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing in any respect.

Selling it to the recording mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. First and foremost, your camera is usually set to shoot Full HD footage, and also you even arrive at select 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, depending on whether you would like to work together with progressive or interlaced video. Unless you need Full HD, there’s also 720p @ 60fps, that’s really smooth whilst still being counts as high-definition. Secondly, you will get full manual control of exposure in video mode. It is an option; you don’t need to shoot in M mode nevertheless, you can if that is what exactly you need. Thirdly, you obtain fast, continuous AF in video mode, and it works well, especially 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 thanks to this - and also the massive processing power with the Nikon J1 - you may take multiple full-resolution stills whilst recording HD video. This works the opposite way round too - you’ll be able to capture a motion picture clip even when the mode dial is incorporated in the Still Image position, by simply pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve found out that in this instance the camera will record it at 720p/60fps.

In addition to being competent at shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 also can shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is gloomier and also the aspect ratio is definitely an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, however the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and stuff like that. These videos are replayed at 30fps, that’s in excess of 13x slower than the capture speed of 400fps, enabling you to get creative and show the world a range of interesting phenomena that happen too rapidly to watch instantly. The Nikon J1 goes a little more forward by a 1200fps video mode, even so the resolution and overall quality is just too big poor for the for being genuinely useful.

The next icon for the mode dial is short for Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows your camera to capture a minimum of 20 photos in a single press on the shutter release, including some that have been taken before fully depressing the button. The camera analyses the individual pictures inside the series and discards 15 of which, keeping exactly the five which it thinks would be better regarding sharpness and composition. This feature might be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, there is a so-called Motion Snapshot mode the location where the camera records a short high-definition movie - whose buffering starts with a half-press in the shutter release, so again includes events that had happened prior to button was fully depressed - and as well takes a still photograph. The movie plus the still image are residing in separate files but the camera can combine them into a single slow-motion clip with background music. It’s fun but we’re not able to really envision people making use of this shooting mode frequently. (If you see the video on the computer, it’ll play back at normal speed, without sound, and this mode is actually only interesting in case you view the clip in-camera or hook the camera nearly an HDTV by using an HDMI cable.)

The Nikon J1 stores pics and vids on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and props up fastest UHS-I speed class. The digital camera is run on a reduced EN-EL20 battery to the V1 big brother, which is consequently capable of producing even less shots for a passing fancy charge, managing around 230, even though it does help for making you body smaller sized. The camera’s tripod socket is manufactured out of metal and it is positioned in line with all the lens’ optical axis. This shows that changing batteries or cards isn’t likely as the J1 is placed on a tripod, as being the hinges in the battery/card compartment door are far too near to the tripod mount.

So, how did we like using the Nikon 1 J1? On one side, we liked it a whole lot. In good light, its auto-focus system is indeed faster than essentially anything we’ve used so far, the ability to track and lock target a selection of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding lots of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates never been very high. 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 it is modest guide number might suggest, together with the clever design minimising red-eye.

In contrast, the Nikon J1 has its own share of frustrating idiosyncrasies applying the person interface that pushes you to dive into the menu to access functions as common as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to a finished product, they could a minimum of have the “F” button customisable via a firmware update. Also, you will find a passionate button for exposure compensation - which is a a valuable thing - Some be capable of activate a live histogram, community . might have made exposure compensation much more useful and to utilize. Again, this might probably be fixed in firmware.

We also missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, specifically in bright light or when using the telephoto lens which does not lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J1 just has a glass dust shield because it’s defense against unwanted debris, rather than the more proactive sensor cleaning unit that this V1 offers, and also the smaller battery shows that you’ll need to buy an added someone to arrive at the day’s heavy shooting. Lacking an accessory port shows that almost not one of the Nikon 1 accessories are compatible with the J1, such as external flash and GPS unit.

Yet another thing we wouldn’t like could be that the camera would always show the picture just taken for a couple of seconds onscreen, and we would not be capable of turn this instant postview function completely off (even if you can at any rate cancel it by way of a half-press in the shutter release). Finally, while the camera is generally fast and responsive, your camera takes excessively long to wake from sleep mode when it has been idle for quite a while, leading to a number of missed shots.

All things considered, the Nikon 1 J1 is usually a small and compact, high-performance system camera they enjoy its your government might use several tweaks to its program to increase suit the requirements serious amateurs. The intended audience of casual users will cherish it for its sheer speed, built-in flash, compact size along with the fun features it gives you. Why don’t we now see how the Nikon 1 J1 fared inside image quality department.