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The Nikon 1 J1 is often a stylish compact system camera with a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor as well as the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds all the way 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 even offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, together with Metered Manual. Also aboard is usually a built-in pop-up flash using a guide number of 5, a 3 inch rear display plus an electronic shutter. Costing $649.95 / 549.99 which has a 10-30mm standard zoom lens, $699.95 / 599.99 having a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 in the double-lens kit while using 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 generally created from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts which is therefore heavier than you would think based on its size alone, coming in at 234g with the body only. Furthermore, it feels better made than the official product shots maybe have you believe. Having an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 can be quite much a two-handed affair that will require that you retain the camera’s weight inside left-hand, clutching the lens, and utilize your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is a very important thing the way it pushes you to be aware of holding the camera properly, which experts claim goes a considerable ways towards avoiding shake-induced blur in your photos.

The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is dominated by the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. As an alternative to like a scaled-down version from the classic F mount, it’s really a completely new design that gives 100% electronic communication relating to the attached lens and also the camera body, from 12 contacts. Much like about the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, you will find there’s white dot for convenient lens alignment, though it has moved from your 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to # 1 from the mount. The lenses themselves feature a short silver ridge around the lens barrel, which should be in alignment with said dot to ensure that one to have the ability to attach the lens to your camera. Even if this may necessitate a certain amount of adjusting to, it really makes changing lenses quicker and simpler.

Without having lens attached, you will see the sensor sitting directly behind the plane from the bayonet mount. Like the mount itself, the sensor is new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has double floor of the biggest imagers employed in compact and bridge cameras such as Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, only about 50 % the location of an standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip has a 1.36x longer diagonal as opposed to Nikon CX imager. Considering the fact that Four Thirds has a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” ends up to about 2.72, which means a 10mm lens has approximately the same angle of view as being a 27.2mm lens with 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 when it comes to its angle-of-view range.

Other Nikon J1’s faceplate is almost empty, featuring the lens release, a receiver for the optional ML-L3 infrared handy remote control, two narrow slits for that microphone either side of the lens, with an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is absolutely no grip at all on the front in the Nikon 1 J1.

There are 2 means of powering for the Nikon 1 J1 and Nikon 1 V1. You may either utilize on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, if you have a collapsible-barrel zoom lens attached, just press the unlocking button for the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an act that creates the camera to change on automatically. It becomes an ingenious solution since you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes about a 2nd - nothing to write home about however decent and entirely adequate.

You’ll be able to frame your shots while using the rear screen - there is not any electronic viewfinder as on the V1 model, an important difference between the 2 main. 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 bright sunlit conditions or while using the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding your camera as much as eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and avoid trembling camera.

The control layout is pretty peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 has a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks most of the shooting modes which are usually available on similar dials - such as P, A, S and M - even though it has enough room to support them. These modes can be purchased around the J1 nevertheless, you have to dive into your rather long-winded and never entirely logical menu to seek out them. The J1’s mode dial just 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. Evidently this isn’t a bad collection of functions, the reality that there is absolutely no ISO button will doubtlessly cause a great deal of photographers serious about getting the Nikon J1 to become unhappy.

We have a button for the rear labelled “F” but alas, this is not a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it lets you quickly choose between the continuous shooting modes, when it is in Video mode it allows you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s 2 more important controls for the back in the camera, together with a scroll wheel throughout the four-way pad and also a rocker switch marked using a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is employed setting the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (after you have found them in the menu, that’s), whilst the rocker switch controls the aperture. Exactly why it’s got a loupe icon beside it can be that it control is used to zoom in with an image to evaluate for critical concentrate Playback mode. Last but not least, you will discover four small buttons throughout the navigation pad, flush against the rear panel on the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

Precisely what are the ones shooting modes within the mode dial all about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked using a green camera icon, is to try and will want to be most of the time. With the mode dial set to the present position, it is possible to pick your required exposure mode on the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a great automatic mode when the camera analyses the scene when in front of its lens and picks just what it thinks will be the right mode for that exact scene. You can also find out of the conventional PASM modes, which offer you full menu access along with the power to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift is available in P mode). ISO and white balance can also be manually selected, only through the menu, as stated earlier.

Needless to say there’s AWB and auto ISO too, with the latter to arrive three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) enabling you to specify how high you would like your camera to search once the light gets low. You may also choose from three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, the place that the camera takes control over just what it focusses on (this is not a fantastic mode to get because your default as the camera obviously can’t read your head and could concentrate on something else entirely than your actual subject); Single Point, in which you can select one of 135 AF points beginning with hitting OK and then moving the active AF point about the frame utilizing the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, the place you pick your subject, press OK and let the digital camera to monitor that subject since it moves around, as long as doesn’t necessarily 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 because Fujifilm F300EXR did. This gives the Nikon 1 J1 to focus extremely quickly in good light, even with a moving subject. The organization claims the Nikon 1 system cameras would be the fastest-focusing machines on the globe, this also matches our experience - so 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 nearly you’d like one other method. It’s always your camera that decides which AF strategy to use - the user doesn’t have a impact on this.

Generally speaking, the J1 will most likely only make use of 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 isn’t going to disappoint here. Manual focusing is also possible, even though the Nikon 1 lenses will not have focus rings. If you need to focus manually, first you should hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and then utilize scroll wheel to regulate focus. To help you with this particular, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central part of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale down the right side with the frame - but those include the only focusing helps you get. There’s no peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 comes with an electronic shutter (the V1 boasts an analog shutter). It’s absolutely silent (the attention confirmation beep may be disabled on the menu) and allows the usage of shutter speeds you wish 1/16,000th of a second and, together with the Electronic Hi setting selected, allows you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 fps. Note however that while this can be a major achievement, it’s restricted by a buffer that will only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the use of this mode precludes AF tracking - you must lower the frame rate to 10fps if you want that -, and the viewfinder goes blank while the pictures are being taken. Single thing that it application you can consider where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really prove useful is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. As of this rate, a few 5 bracketed shots may very well be consumed in below 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 will not offer such a feature - the truth is this doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing whatsoever.

Trying out the video mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. Above all, the camera may be set to shoot Full HD footage, therefore you even reach select 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, depending on whether you prefer to help progressive or interlaced video. If you don’t need Full HD, additionally, there are 720p @ 60fps, which is really smooth and still counts as hd. Secondly, you receive full manual control of exposure in video mode. It is an option; you don’t need 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 it works well, especially in good light. Movies are compressed using the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. There are separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and because of this - and also the massive processing power on the Nikon J1 - it is possible to take multiple full-resolution stills even while recording HD video. This works vice versa too - you are able to capture a motion picture clip even though the mode dial is within the Still Image position, just by pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve learned that in cases like this your camera will forever record it at 720p/60fps.

Not only is it efficient at shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 may shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is less as well as the aspect ratio is definitely an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, though the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and so forth. These videos are replayed at 30fps, and that is in excess of 13x slower than the capture speed of 400fps, helping you to get creative and display to the world numerous interesting phenomena which happen prematurely to see or watch in real time. The Nikon J1 goes even more by a 1200fps video mode, even so the resolution and overall quality is just too big poor for that to get genuinely useful.

The 3rd icon on the mode dial symbolizes Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows the digital camera to capture at least 20 photos at the single press from the shutter release, including some which were taken before fully depressing the button. Your camera analyses the person pictures from the series and discards 15 of them, keeping merely the five that it thinks should be with regard to sharpness and composition. This feature is usually genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, you will find there’s so-called Motion Snapshot mode in which the camera records a quick high-definition movie - whose buffering starts for a half-press in the shutter release, so again includes events which in fact had happened ahead of the button was fully depressed - and in addition takes a still photograph. The film and also the still image are stored in separate files nevertheless the camera can combine them to a single slow-motion clip with background music. It’s fun but we’re not able to really envision people by using this shooting mode often. (If you look at the video using a computer, it’s going to play back at normal speed, without sound, and this mode is basically only interesting if you view the clip in-camera or hook you approximately an HDTV via an HDMI cable.)

The Nikon J1 stores photos and videos on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and props up the fastest UHS-I speed class. The camera runs on a compact EN-EL20 battery to its V1 larger, and is also consequently capable of producing much less shots using one charge, managing around 230, though it helps to create the digital camera body scaled-down. The camera’s tripod socket is constructed of metal which is situated in line using the lens’ optical axis. And also this shows that changing batteries or cards isn’t likely whilst the J1 is attached to a tripod, as being the hinges with the battery/card compartment door are way too nearby the tripod mount.

So, how did we love to utilizing the Nikon 1 J1? On one side, we liked it a whole lot. In good light, its auto-focus technique is indeed faster than pretty much anything we’ve used up to now, to be able to track and lock focus on an array of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding a lot of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates haven’t 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 that its modest guide number might suggest, with the clever design minimising red-eye.

On the other hand, the Nikon J1 has its own share of frustrating idiosyncrasies beginning with the user interface that can make you dive in to the menu to access functions as easy as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to your finished product, they may at least make the “F” button customisable via a firmware update. Also, to find out a separate button for exposure compensation - that is a advantage - I didnrrrt find a way to activate a live histogram, even though it could have made exposure compensation a lot more useful and easy to make use of. Again, this can oftimes be fixed in firmware.

We also missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, especially in bright light or with the telephoto lens which doesn’t lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J1 merely has a glass dust shield because it is defense against unwanted debris, as opposed to the more proactive sensor cleaning unit that this V1 offers, plus the smaller battery signifies that you will have to buy an added you to definitely go through the day’s heavy shooting. Lacking an accessory port implies that almost not one of the Nikon 1 accessories are works with the J1, for example the external flash and GPS unit.

One more thing we would not like was that the camera would always show the image just taken a couple of seconds onscreen, and we didn’t find a way to turn this instant postview function completely off (while you can at any rate cancel it with a half-press with the shutter release). Finally, as the camera is normally fast and responsive, your camera takes overly long to wake from sleep mode gets hotter may be idle for quite a while, contributing to a number of missed shots.

In fact, the Nikon 1 J1 is really a small, and compact, high-performance system camera they like its big brother can use a number of tweaks to its interface to increase suit the needs of serious amateurs. The intended marketplace of casual users will cherish it due to its sheer speed, built-in flash, compact size as well as the fun features it includes. Let us now see how the Nikon 1 J1 fared inside image quality department.