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The Nikon 1 J1 is really a stylish compact system camera which has a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor plus the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds as much 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 agreeable is really a built-in pop-up flash using a guide amount of 5, a 3 inch rear display with an electronic shutter. Priced at $649.95 / 549.99 that has a 10-30mm the len’s, $699.95 / 599.99 that has 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 mainly constructed from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is particularly therefore heavier than what you know already determined by its size alone, coming in at 234g to the body only. Additionally, it feels better quality versus the official product shots maybe have you believe. With an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is very much a two-handed affair that will require that you contain the camera’s weight inside left hand, clutching the lens, and utilize your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is actually the good thing as it makes you pay attention to holding your camera properly, which inturn goes far towards avoiding shake-induced blur with your photos.

The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is dominated by the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Rather then to be a scaled-down version of the ancient F mount, it’s actually a brand spanking new design that delivers 100% electronic communication between your attached lens and also the camera body, courtesy of 12 contacts. Similar to for the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, we have a white dot for convenient lens alignment, though it has moved from the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the top level with the mount. The lenses themselves come with a short silver ridge on the lens barrel, which has to be in alignment with said dot to ensure that you to be capable of attach the lens on the camera. Even if this may require a little acclamating yourself with, this process makes changing lenses quicker and simpler.

Without any lens attached, you will notice the sensor sitting right behind the plane from the bayonet mount. Just like the mount itself, the sensor is new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has double the area of the largest imagers utilised in compact and bridge cameras just like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only about 50 % of the spot of a standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip includes a 1.36x longer diagonal versus the Nikon CX imager. Considering the fact that Four Thirds has a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” breaks down to to around 2.72, and therefore a 10mm lens has approximately precisely the same angle of view as being a 27.2mm lens upon 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 regarding its angle-of-view range.

The rest of the Nikon J1’s faceplate is almost empty, featuring only the lens release, a receiver for that optional ML-L3 infrared handy remote control, two narrow slits to the microphone each side in the lens, plus an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is not any grip by any means about the front on the Nikon 1 J1.

There’s two methods for powering about the Nikon 1 J1. You may either make use of the on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, when you have a collapsible-barrel standard zoom lens attached, you can just press the unlocking button about the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an act that creates you to change on automatically. It is an ingenious solution because you require to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes just over a 2nd - not write home about but still decent and entirely adequate.

It is possible to frame your shots with all the rear screen - there is no electronic viewfinder as about the V1 model, an essential difference between both. The LCD screen can be 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 the J1 alongside the V1, either in bright sunlit conditions or while using the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding you around eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and get away from trembling camera.

The control layout is quite peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 has a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks the majority of the shooting modes which are usually entirely on similar dials - especially P, A, S and M - though it has enough room to fit them. These modes can be obtained within the J1 but you ought to dive in the rather long-winded but not entirely logical menu to find them. The J1’s mode dial merely has four settings, Photo, Video, Motion Snapshot and Smart Photo Selector. The four-way controller boasts 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 reality that there isn’t any ISO button will doubtlessly result in a great deal of photographers serious about purchasing the Nikon J1 to get unhappy.

There exists a button for the rear labelled “F” but alas, this isn’t a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it means that you can quickly make a choice from the continuous shooting modes, whilst in Video mode it enables you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There are 2 more important controls on the back from the camera, including a scroll wheel round the four-way pad and a rocker switch marked which has a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is employed to put the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (after you have found them from the menu, that’s), even though the rocker switch controls the aperture. The reason why it has a loupe icon beside it’s that it control is utilized to focus with an image to test for critical focus in Playback mode. Lastly, you’ll find four small buttons throughout the navigation pad, flush up against the rear panel of the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

So what on earth are the ones shooting modes about the mode dial exactly about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked with a green camera icon, is to try and would want to be most likely. With the mode dial set to the present position, it is possible to pick your required exposure mode through the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a smart automatic mode the location where the camera analyses the scene when in front of its lens and picks just what it thinks will be the right way of that specific scene. Also you can pick one in the conventional PASM modes, which give you full menu access as well as the chance to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift can be found in P mode). ISO and white balance may also be manually selected, but only on the menu, as stated previously.

Certainly there’s AWB and auto ISO too, with the latter coming in three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) letting you specify how high you need the digital camera to go once the light gets low. You can even choose between three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, where the camera takes management of exactly what focusses on (this isn’t an incredible mode to get as your default as the camera obviously can’t read your brain and might concentrate on something else than your actual subject); Single Point, in places you can decide certainly one of 135 AF points frist by hitting OK and after that moving the active AF point throughout the frame utilizing the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, in which you pick your subject, press OK and allow your camera in order to that subject mainly because it moves around, given that doesn’t necessarily leave the frame certainly.

The Nikon 1 J1 has a intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that mixes contrast- and phase-difference detection in a similar fashion since the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This permits the Nikon 1 J1 to focus extremely quickly in good light, even on the moving subject. The company claims the Nikon 1 system cameras are the fastest-focusing machines in the world, this also matches our experience - as long as there’s enough light. When light levels drop, the camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster compared to most cameras, isn’t as soon as the opposite method. It is usually the digital camera that decides which AF strategy to use - the consumer doesn’t have a influence on this.

In most cases, the J1 will most likely only head for 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 does not disappoint here. Manual focusing is also possible, although the Nikon 1 lenses don’t have focus rings. If you need to focus manually, first you ought to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK then make use of the scroll wheel to alter focus. To be of assistance using this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central the main image and displays a rudimentary focus scale across the right side from 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 posseses an electronic shutter (the V1 has a mechanical shutter). It’s absolutely silent (the attention confirmation beep is usually disabled through the menu) and allows the application of shutter speeds you’d like 1/16,000th of any second and, using the Electronic Hi setting selected, allows you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 fps. Note however that although it is a major achievement, it’s restricted by a buffer that may 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 -, as well as the viewfinder goes blank as you move the pictures are taken. The only application we can easily visualize where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really prove useful is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. When it reaches this rate, a number of 5 bracketed shots could be consumed a lot less than 0.1 second, rendering small movements that could otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown within the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 won’t offer this kind of feature - in fact this doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing in any respect.

Trying the playback quality mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. To start with, the digital camera might be set to shoot Full HD footage, and you also even get to select from 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, dependant upon whether you want to work together with progressive or interlaced video. If you can’t need Full HD, in addition there are 720p @ 60fps, and that is really smooth but still counts as hi-d. Secondly, you obtain full manual control of exposure in video mode. It is deemed an option; it’s not necessary to shoot in M mode however, you can if that’s things you need. Thirdly, you obtain fast, continuous AF in video mode, and delay well, specially in good light. Movies are compressed using the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. You’ll find separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and thanks to this - plus the massive processing power on the Nikon J1 - you are able to take multiple full-resolution stills even while recording HD video. This works the opposite too - it is possible to capture your favorite shows clip regardless if the mode dial is incorporated in the Still Image position, by simply pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve discovered that in such cases your camera will usually record the recording at 720p/60fps.

And also efficient at shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 also can shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is lower as well as the aspect ratio is surely an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, though the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and so on. These videos are replayed at 30fps, which is a lot more than 13x slower compared to capture speed of 400fps, letting you get creative and prove to the world several interesting phenomena which happen too soon to see or watch instantly. The Nikon J1 goes a step forward by a 1200fps video mode, though the resolution and overall quality is way too poor to the being genuinely useful.

Another icon for the mode dial is short for Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows the digital camera to capture at the least 20 photos with a single press from the shutter release, including some that had been taken before fully depressing the button. The camera analyses the individual pictures inside series and discards 15 of these, keeping merely the five who’s thinks might be best with regards to sharpness and composition. This feature may be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, we have a so-called Motion Snapshot mode where the camera records a shorter high-definition movie - whose buffering starts at a half-press on the shutter release, so again includes events which had happened ahead of the button was fully depressed - and also needs a still photograph. The film and the still image are trapped in separate files though 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 employing this shooting mode often. (In case you comprehend the video with a computer, it’ll play back at normal speed, without sound, this mode is absolutely only interesting should you comprehend the clip in-camera or hook you up to an HDTV by using an HDMI cable.)

The Nikon J1 stores pics and vids on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and supports the fastest UHS-I speed class. You operates on a reduced EN-EL20 battery to its V1 big brother, and is also consequently capable of producing even less shots for a passing fancy charge, managing around 230, though it helps for making you body scaled-down. The camera’s tripod socket is constructed of metal which is situated in line while using lens’ optical axis. This also shows that changing batteries or cards isn’t feasible even though the J1 is installed on a tripod, as being the hinges of the battery/card compartment door are way too towards the tripod mount.

So, how did we like with all the Nikon 1 J1? Similarly, we liked it a good deal. In good light, its auto-focus strategy is indeed faster than essentially anything we’ve used thus far, the ability to track and lock target a range of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding many sharp images in situations where our keeper rates haven’t 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 the reason is modest guide number might suggest, with the clever design minimising red-eye.

Alternatively, the Nikon J1 have their own share of frustrating idiosyncrasies applying the user interface that forces you to dive in to the menu gain access to functions as common as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to a finished product, they can at least result in the “F” button customisable using a firmware update. Also, while there is a separate button for exposure compensation - the industry positive thing - I didnrrrt try to activate a live histogram, eventhough it would have made exposure compensation much more useful and straightforward to work with. Again, this might probably be fixed in firmware.

We also missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, specially in bright light or aided by the telephoto lens which does not lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J1 just has a glass dust shield since it is defense against unwanted debris, rather than the more proactive sensor cleaning unit that the V1 offers, plus the smaller battery signifies that you will need to buy a supplementary anyone to go through the day’s heavy shooting. Having less an accessory port means that almost none of the Nikon 1 accessories are suitable for the J1, for example the external flash and GPS unit.

Yet another thing we did not like was that the camera would always show the photo just taken for a couple seconds onscreen, so we wouldn’t try to turn this instant postview function completely off (although you can at any rate cancel it using a half-press with the shutter release). Finally, while the camera is mostly fast and responsive, you takes much too long to wake from sleep mode if this may be idle for quite a while, contributing to numerous missed shots.

With that said, the Nikon 1 J1 can be a small , compact, high-performance system camera that like its our government are able to use several tweaks to the graphical user interface to better suit the requirements of serious amateurs. The intended marketplace of casual users should it due to its sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight and the fun features it includes. We will now observe how the Nikon 1 J1 fared within the image quality department.