Article on Nikon 1 J1: New Nikon Mirroless Dslrs
The Nikon 1 J1 is usually a stylish compact system camera using a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor and the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds up to 60 fps 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, as well as Metered Manual. Also on board is a built-in pop-up flash that has a guide quantity of 5, a 3 inch rear display plus an electronic shutter. Costing $649.95 / 549.99 using a 10-30mm the len’s, $699.95 / 599.99 which has a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 in a double-lens kit with the 10-30mm and 30-110mm zoom lenses, the Nikon 1 J1 is scheduled to go on sale later this month.
The Nikon 1 J1 is certainly caused by constructed from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts which is therefore heavier than you would think depending on its size alone, weighing in at 234g with the body only. Furthermore, it feels better quality compared to the official product shots maybe have you believe. With an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is incredibly much a two-handed affair that requires you to support the camera’s weight in the left hand, clutching the lens, and use your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is certainly the best thing because it can make you pay attention to holding the camera properly, which experts claim goes a considerable ways towards avoiding shake-induced blur within your photos.
The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is dominated by the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. As opposed to being a scaled-down version of the good old F mount, it is a brand-new design that gives 100% electronic communication between your attached lens along with the camera body, thanks to a dozen contacts. Similar to around the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, there’s a white dot for simple lens alignment, while it has moved in the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the peak of the mount. The lenses themselves feature a short silver ridge for the lens barrel, which must be in alignment with said dot to enable one to have the ability to attach the lens for the camera. Although this may necessitate a little becoming familiar with, it actually makes changing lenses quicker and easier.
Without lens attached, you will see the sensor sitting right behind the plane on the bayonet mount. Such as mount itself, the sensor is completely new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has twice the area of the biggest imagers employed in compact and bridge cameras such as the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only most the area of a standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip incorporates a 1.36x longer diagonal compared to the Nikon CX imager. Considering the fact that Four Thirds has a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” calculates to around 2.72, and therefore a 10mm lens has approximately precisely the same 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 equal 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 almost empty, featuring exactly the lens release, a receiver for the optional ML-L3 infrared remote device, two narrow slits for your microphone spare on both in the lens, as well as an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is absolutely no grip at all within the front of the Nikon 1 J1.
There’s 2 methods for powering for the Nikon 1 J1. Either utilize the on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, should you have a collapsible-barrel standard zoom lens attached, you can just press the unlocking button for the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an action that triggers the camera to change on automatically. It is really an ingenious solution because you require to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes just over a 2nd - nothing to write home about but still decent and entirely adequate.
You may frame your shots while using the rear screen - there is absolutely no electronic viewfinder as on the V1 model, a key difference between both the. The LCD screen is usually 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 when using the J1 alongside the V1, either in bright sunlit conditions or with all the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding the digital camera nearly eye-level helped to stabilise the lens avoiding camera shake.
The control layout is rather peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 features a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks the majority of the shooting modes which might be usually found on similar dials - especially P, A, S and M - eventhough it has enough room to allow for them. These modes can be found for the J1 and you have to dive in to the rather long-winded instead of entirely logical menu to get them. The J1’s mode dial only 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. Although this is not a bad collection of functions, the truth that there isn’t any ISO button will doubtlessly spark a lots of photographers enthusiastic about acquiring the Nikon J1 to be unhappy.
You will find there’s button around the rear labelled “F” but alas, this isn’t a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it allows you to quickly choose from the continuous shooting modes, during Video mode it helps you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s 2 more valuable controls around the back of the camera, including a scroll wheel throughout the four-way pad plus a rocker switch marked that has a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is employed to line the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (when you’ve found them inside menu, that is), as the rocker switch controls the aperture. The reason it’s a loupe icon near to it is until this control is used to focus by using an image to confirm for critical concentrate Playback mode. Last but not least, you will discover four small buttons around the navigation pad, flush from the rear panel from the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.
So what on earth are shooting modes for the mode dial information about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked that has a green camera icon, is the place you would want to be most likely. With all the mode dial set to the position, you’ll be able to pick your desired exposure mode on the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a great auto mode where the camera analyses the scene facing its lens and picks what it really thinks will be the right mode for that exact scene. You may also choose one on the conventional PASM modes, which present you with full menu access along with the chance to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift comes in P mode). ISO and white balance may also be manually selected, only on the menu, as stated previously.
Certainly there’s AWB and auto ISO too, using the latter to arrive three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) letting you specify how high you want you to visit in the event the light gets low. You can also pick from three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, the location where the camera takes charge of just what it focusses on (it is not an excellent mode to possess because your default because camera obviously can’t read your thoughts and may target another thing than your actual subject); Single Point, in which you can make certainly one of 135 AF points starting with hitting OK and moving the active AF point around the frame with all the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, in which you pick your subject, press OK and invite your camera to track that subject since it moves around, so long as this doesn’t happen leave the frame needless to say.
The Nikon 1 J1 has an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that combines contrast- and phase-difference detection likewise since the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This will give the Nikon 1 J1 to target extremely quickly in good light, even on a moving subject. The corporation claims the Nikon 1 system cameras are the fastest-focusing machines on this planet, and this also matches our experience - providing 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 nearly you wish additional method. It is usually your camera that decides which AF strategy to use - anyone doesn’t have any affect this.
Most of the time, the J1 will usually only make use of contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, we had been able to take sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J1 certainly doesn’t disappoint here. Manual focusing is also possible, however the Nikon 1 lenses do not have focus rings. If you would like focus manually, you firstly ought to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and after that utilize the scroll wheel to alter focus. To help you with this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central the main image and displays a rudimentary focus scale across the right side on the frame - but those are the only focusing helps you get. There is no peaking function available as on some rival models.
The J1 comes with a electronic shutter (the V1 also offers a mechanical shutter). It is absolutely silent (the focus confirmation beep could be disabled in the menu) and allows using shutter speeds as soon as 1/16,000th of the second and, together with the Electronic Hi setting selected, allows you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 fps. Note however that while that is a major achievement, it’s on a a buffer that can only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the utilization of this mode precludes AF tracking - you have to lower the frame rate to 10fps if you wish that -, and also the viewfinder goes blank as you move the pictures are increasingly being taken. One application we can easily consider where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really prove useful is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. When it reaches this rate, a few 5 bracketed shots may very well be taken in lower than 0.1 second, rendering small movements that could otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown from the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 does not offer a real feature - the truth is it does not offer autoexposure bracketing at all.
Trying the video mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. To start with, your camera is usually set to shoot Full HD footage, and you also even are able to select 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, based on whether you would like to work with progressive or interlaced video. Should you not need Full HD, there is also 720p @ 60fps, that is really smooth yet still counts as high-definition. Secondly, you have full manual treatments for exposure in video mode. It is deemed an option; you don’t have to shoot in M mode however, you can if that is things you need. Thirdly, you have fast, continuous AF in video mode, and it works well, especially in good light. Movies are compressed while using the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. You can find separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and because of this - plus the massive processing power of the Nikon J1 - it is possible to take multiple full-resolution stills while recording HD video. This works the opposite too - you’ll be able to capture your favorite shows clip even if the mode dial is with the Still Image position, by just pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve found that in this instance the camera will forever record the video at 720p/60fps.
As well as being able to shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 may also shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is leaner and the aspect ratio is definitely an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, however the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and so forth. These videos are replayed at 30fps, that is over 13x slower than the capture speed of 400fps, enabling you to get creative and display to the world a range of interesting phenomena which happen prematurely to look at instantly. The Nikon J1 goes a little more forward by providing a 1200fps video mode, however the resolution and overall quality is just too poor for that to become genuinely useful.
The next icon within the mode dial represents Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows the digital camera to capture at least 20 photos at a single press on the shutter release, including some that have been taken before fully depressing the button. Your camera analyses the average person pictures inside series and discards 15 of them, keeping the five it thinks should be in terms of 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 in which the camera records a shorter high-definition movie - whose buffering starts in a half-press in the shutter release, so again includes events which have happened prior to the button was fully depressed - and in addition requires a still photograph. The film and the still image are held in separate files however the camera can combine them to a single slow-motion clip with vocals. It’s fun but we can not really envision people applying this shooting mode regularly. (In the event you observe the video on the computer, it’ll play back at normal speed, without sound, and this mode is basically only interesting in the event you comprehend the clip in-camera or hook your camera as much as an HDTV with an HDMI cable.)
The Nikon J1 stores pics and vids on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and props up fastest UHS-I speed class. Your camera runs using a smaller EN-EL20 battery to its V1 big brother, and is consequently capable of producing considerably less shots on one charge, managing around 230, eventhough it does help to generate the camera body smaller sized. The camera’s tripod socket consists of metal and is found in line together with the lens’ optical axis. This too implies that changing batteries or cards isn’t feasible whilst the J1 is mounted on a tripod, because the hinges in the battery/card compartment door are way too towards the tripod mount.
So, how did we like utilizing the Nikon 1 J1? On one side, we liked it a whole lot. In good light, its auto-focus strategy is indeed faster than essentially anything we’ve used to date, the ability to track and lock give attention to numerous truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding a great deal of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates have never been very good. 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 what has modest guide number might suggest, together with the clever design minimising red-eye.
However, the Nikon J1 has its share of frustrating idiosyncrasies you start with the user interface that pushes you to dive into the menu to reach functions as easy as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons with a finished product, they could at the very least make the “F” button customisable using a firmware update. Also, to find out an avid button for exposure compensation - the advantage - I did not are able to activate an active histogram, eventhough it could have made exposure compensation much more useful and to make use of. Again, this will probably be fixed in firmware.
We also missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, specifically in bright light or while 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 as it’s defense against unwanted debris, as opposed to the more proactive sensor cleaning unit that this V1 offers, and the smaller battery means that you’ll want to buy an additional one to get to the day’s heavy shooting. Having less an accessory port ensures that almost none of the Nikon 1 accessories are works with the J1, like the external flash and GPS unit.
Yet another thing we did not like was that the camera would always show the picture just taken for some seconds onscreen, and we didn’t try to turn this instant postview function completely off (while you can at least cancel it with a half-press from the shutter release). Finally, while the camera is generally fast and responsive, the camera takes far too long to wake from sleep mode in the event it continues to be idle for a short time, leading to several missed shots.
In fact, the Nikon 1 J1 is usually a small and compact, high-performance system camera that they like its our government are able to use some tweaks to its user interface to raised suit the requirements of serious amateurs. The intended marketplace of casual users will enjoy it because of its sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight and also the fun features it provides. Allow us to now observe how the Nikon 1 J1 fared from the image quality department.
Tags: j1, mirroless cameras, nikon, nikon 1, nikon 1 j1, nikon 1 v1, nikon cameras, nikon1, v1