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The Nikon 1 J1 is really a stylish compact system camera featuring a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor as well as 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 plus a unique Motion Snapshot Mode, the portable Nikon J1 now offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, in addition to Metered Manual. Also up to speed is really a built-in pop-up flash having a guide volume of 5, a 3 inch rear display with an electronic shutter. Pricing $649.95 / 549.99 having a 10-30mm the len’s, $699.95 / 599.99 with a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 inside a 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 made from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is particularly therefore heavier than what you know already dependant on its size alone, coming in at 234g for your body only. In addition, it feels higher quality as opposed to official product shots maybe have you believe. By having an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is incredibly much a two-handed affair that will require that you 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 certainly a very important thing mainly because it can make you take note of holding the camera properly, which goes a considerable ways towards avoiding shake-induced blur inside your photos.

The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is covered with the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. As an alternative to to be a scaled-down version from the good old F mount, it’s really a brand-new design that gives 100% electronic communication between attached lens along with the camera body, courtesy of several contacts. Much like for the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, there is a white dot for easy lens alignment, while it has moved on the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) up from the mount. The lenses themselves include a short silver ridge for the lens barrel, which ought to be in alignment with said dot in order for you to have the capacity to attach the lens for the camera. Even though this may need a certain amount of getting used to, it genuinely makes changing lenses quicker and simpler.

Without the need of lens attached, you can see the sensor sitting right behind the plane from the bayonet mount. Such as the mount itself, the sensor is fresh. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has twice the floor of the most popular imagers found in compact and bridge cameras such as Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, only most of the vicinity of any 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” calculates to around 2.72, which means a 10mm lens has approximately a similar angle of view being a 27.2mm lens while 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 when it comes to its angle-of-view range.

The remainder of the Nikon J1’s faceplate is practically empty, featuring merely the lens release, a receiver for your optional ML-L3 infrared remote control, two narrow slits for the microphone either side from the lens, along with an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is not any grip whatsoever within the front in the Nikon 1 J1.

There’s two strategies to powering within the Nikon 1 J1. You may utilize on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, if you have a collapsible-barrel zoom lens attached, you can simply press the unlocking button about the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an act which causes the camera to change on automatically. It becomes an ingenious solution because you require to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes just over an additional - not write home about but still decent and entirely adequate.

It is possible to frame your shots while using rear screen - there is not any electronic viewfinder as for the V1 model, an essential difference between the 2. 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 while using the J1 alongside the V1, in either bright sunlit conditions or aided by the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding you approximately eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and get away from camera shake.

The control layout is very peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 incorporates a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks many of the shooting modes that happen to be usually situated on similar dials - especially P, A, S and M - although it has enough room to accommodate them. These modes are offered about the J1 however you ought to dive in the rather long-winded rather than entirely logical menu to find them. The J1’s mode dial has only 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. Even if this is not a bad selection of functions, the fact there is absolutely no ISO button will doubtlessly spark a large amount of photographers serious about purchasing Nikon J1 to get unhappy.

There’s a button within the rear labelled “F” but alas, it is not a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it lets you quickly pick from the continuous shooting modes, while in Video mode it lets you toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s two more valuable controls within the back of 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 is employed to set the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (once you’ve found them from the menu, that is), even though the rocker switch controls the aperture. Precisely why it’s a loupe icon close to it really is until this control is employed to zoom in with an image to evaluate for critical focus in Playback mode. As a final point, you will discover four small buttons about the navigation pad, flush resistant to the rear panel in the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

What exactly are the type shooting modes on the mode dial information about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked having a green camera icon, is the place you may wish to be most likely. 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 brilliant auto mode the place that the camera analyses the scene facing its lens and picks what it really thinks could be the right mode for any particular one scene. You can also select one from the conventional PASM modes, which give you full menu access and also the power to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift is available in P mode). ISO and white balance may also be manually selected, only on the menu, as mentioned previously.

Of course there’s AWB and auto ISO too, with all the latter arriving three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) helping you to specify how high you need your camera to look in the event the light gets low. It’s also possible to select three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, when the camera takes control over exactly what focusses on (it is not an incredible mode to possess since your default as being the camera obviously can’t read your mind and may focus on something more important than your actual subject); Single Point, in places you can select among 135 AF points beginning with hitting OK after which moving the active AF point about the frame while using four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, the place you pick your subject, press OK and let the camera to follow that subject because it moves around, given that it won’t leave the frame obviously.

The Nikon 1 J1 has an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that mixes contrast- and phase-difference detection similarly since the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This enables the Nikon 1 J1 to concentrate 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 this planet, and this also matches our experience - so long as there’s enough light. When light levels drop, the camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster than you are on most cameras, isn’t you’d like another method. It is the digital camera that decides which AF strategy to use - an individual does not have any influence on this.

Generally speaking, the J1 in most cases only turn to contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, we had arrived capable of taking sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J1 certainly doesn’t disappoint here. Manual focusing can also be possible, however the Nikon 1 lenses will not have focus rings. In order to focus manually, you first of all must hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and then makes use of the scroll wheel to focus. To assist you with this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central area of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale down the right side of the frame - but those will be the only focusing aids you get. There is absolutely no peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 posseses an electronic shutter (the V1 has a mechanical shutter). It’s completely silent (the main focus confirmation beep could be disabled in 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 frames per second. Note however that while this is the major achievement, it’s limited by a buffer that could only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the usage of this mode precludes AF tracking - you must lower the frame rate to 10fps if you would like that -, and also the viewfinder goes blank while the pictures are increasingly being taken. One application you can imagine where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really prove useful is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. When it reaches this rate, several 5 bracketed shots might be used under 0.1 second, rendering small movements that may otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown inside the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 will not offer this sort of feature - in truth this doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing in any respect.

Trying the video mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. First and foremost, the camera might be set to shoot Full HD footage, therefore you even reach choose from 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, determined by whether you want to work together with progressive or interlaced video. If you don’t need Full HD, in addition there are 720p @ 60fps, which can be really smooth and still counts as hd. Secondly, you will get full manual treatments for exposure in video mode. This is an option; you don’t need to shoot in M mode and you can in the event that’s what exactly you need. Thirdly, you receive fast, continuous AF in video mode, and it works well, especially in good light. Movies are compressed with all the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. You can find separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and thanks to this - as well as the massive processing power in the Nikon J1 - you are able to take multiple full-resolution stills at the same time recording HD video. This works the other way round too - you’ll be able to capture your favorite shows clip regardless of whether the mode dial influences Still Image position, just by pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve found that in such a case the digital camera will usually record film at 720p/60fps.

In addition to being able to shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 also can shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is leaner plus the aspect ratio is surely an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, though the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and stuff like that. These videos are replayed at 30fps, which is over 13x slower as opposed to capture speed of 400fps, permitting you to get creative and show the world a range of interesting phenomena which happen prematurely to see in real time. The Nikon J1 goes a step forward by providing a 1200fps video mode, though the resolution and overall quality is just too poor for your to become genuinely useful.

The 3rd icon about the mode dial is short for Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows your camera to capture a minimum of 20 photos with a single press on the shutter release, including some that had been taken before fully depressing the button. You analyses the individual pictures in the series and discards 15 of these, keeping only the five who’s thinks are best regarding sharpness and composition. This feature is usually genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, we have a so-called Motion Snapshot mode the place that the camera records a shorter high-definition movie - whose buffering starts in a half-press on the shutter release, so again includes events which in fact had happened ahead of the button was fully depressed - and as well needs a still photograph. The film plus the still image are residing in separate files but the camera can combine them in a single slow-motion clip with music. It’s fun but we’re not able to really envision people making use of this shooting mode often. (Should you see the video using a computer, it is going to play back at normal speed, without sound, this mode is very only interesting when you observe the clip in-camera or hook the camera 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. The digital camera is run on a reduced EN-EL20 battery to its V1 government, and is also consequently able to produce even less shots using one charge, managing around 230, although it helps to create the camera body smaller. The camera’s tripod socket consists of metal and is also in line while using lens’ optical axis. And also this shows that changing batteries or cards isn’t likely as you move the J1 is installed on a tripod, since the hinges of the battery/card compartment door are too nearby the tripod mount.

So, how did we love to with all the Nikon 1 J1? Similarly, we liked it a great deal. In good light, its auto-focus strategy is indeed faster than essentially anything we’ve used thus far, to be able to track and lock target a selection of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding plenty of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates have not been very good. Additionally, its high-speed continuous shooting modes have allowed us to capture interesting moments that we’d have surely missed after we had used a slower camera. The built-in pop-up flash proved more useful that the modest guide number might suggest, with all the clever design minimising red-eye.

However, the Nikon J1 does have it’s share of frustrating idiosyncrasies starting with the consumer interface that can make you dive into the menu gain access to functions as easy as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to some finished product, they are able to at the least make the “F” button customisable by using a firmware update. Also, as there is a devoted button for exposure compensation - the industry a valuable thing - Some be capable of activate a live histogram, eventhough it could have made exposure compensation additional useful as well as simple to make use of. Again, this will probably be fixed in firmware.

We also missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, particularly 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 since it is defense against unwanted debris, rather than the more proactive sensor cleaning unit the V1 offers, as well as the smaller battery signifies that you should buy an extra someone to go through the day’s heavy shooting. Deficiency of an accessory port implies that almost not one of the Nikon 1 accessories are appropriate for the J1, such as external flash and GPS unit.

Yet another thing we didn’t like could be that the camera would always show the picture just taken for a few seconds onscreen, therefore we did not find a way to turn this instant postview function completely off (even if you can at least cancel it by using a half-press of the shutter release). Finally, whilst the camera is mostly fast and responsive, the digital camera takes excessively long to wake up from sleep mode gets hotter has been idle for a while, producing quite a few missed shots.

That being said, the Nikon 1 J1 is really a smaller than average and compact, high-performance system camera they like its big brother can use a number of tweaks to the program to increase suit the requirements of serious amateurs. The intended target audience of casual users will enjoy it for its sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight plus the fun features there is. We will now find out how the Nikon 1 J1 fared inside image quality department.